An Critical analysis of the poetic elements within the little-studied 'The Sun Rising' by John Donne.

John Donne’s poems are similar in their content. They usually point out at same topics like love, lust, sex and religion; only they are dissimilar in the feelings they express. These subjects reflect the different stages of his life: the lust of his youth, the love of his married middle age, and the piety of the latter part of his life. His poem,’ The Flea’ represents the restless feeling of lust during his youthful days but it comes together with a true respect for women through the metaphysical conceit of the flea as a church in the rhythm of the sexual act.

He uses the flea as an excuse for marriage and that they are now permitted to have sex. Out of desperation Donne shifts to a more religiously point of view by saying, “And sacrilege, three sinnes in killing three.” (Line 18) This means that if the woman kills the flea, she is killing the flea, him, herself, and God. However, the women squashes the flea along with his argument and Donne is left with one final go at convincing the woman. The final stanza of the poem expresses his sheer desperation to have sex with the woman as he deviates to using a lenient approach. He blames her not for killing the flea, but says that her act did not damage her honour in any way, and that she should still “yeeld’st to mee” (Line 26), or should still sleep with him. The content of The Flea demonstrates the exact sexist attitude that John Donne possessed when he wrote his early love poems. Likewise, the same desire for physical pleasure can be seen in the poem The Sunne Rising. This poem encompasses Donne’s ignorance of his surroundings and his obsession for sexual pleasure. Throughout the poem he attacks and challenges the sun with contempt, and does so by personifying it. He is obviously disturbed and troubled by the “unruly Sunne” (Line 1) and tells

The first ten lines of the poem describe a setting sun and establish the framework in which we are expected to view the monarchy’s fall. Detailing the “glorious” (1) sun’s “double brightness” (4) while he dips below the horizon, Philips portrays the sunset as something both beautiful and terrifying. As the sun “[p]uts on his highest looks in ‘s lowest state” (6), he compels observers to hate him while “ador[ing] his Fall” (8). This section not only characterizes the sun’s shining sunset as a response to his fated end, but evokes the idea of war with words such as “magazine” (as in a magazine of bullets) to refer to the sun’s light (1).

Donne’s poem warns that the woman that the man seeks is not necessarily worth catching. That idea is seen in lines

Both the “Valediction Forbidding Mourning” by John Donne and “Because I Could Not Stop for Death” by Emily Dickinson contain age-old themes. These themes focus on inevitable feelings and events of life; love and death. Although both “Valediction Forbidding Mourning” and “Because I Could Not Stop for Death” contain the two themes, they differ greatly in how they are presented and what they represent. In “Valediction Forbidding Mourning,” a husband traveling away from his wife is consoling her.

“That Evening Sun” by William Faulkner is a good example of a great emotional turmoil transferred directly to the readers through the words of a narrator who does not seem to grasp the severity of the turmoil. It is a story of an African American laundress who lives in the fear of her common-law husband Jesus who suspects her of carrying a white man's child in her womb and seems hell bent on killing her.

In order to describe the form which Donne gives to true love he chooses to create a scene of separation. He insists that when in love, absence is not a cause for despair. Stanza two describes the usual reaction lovers have to separation but explains that such reactions of tears and sighs do not prove one’s love but rather the

The theme of a story can often directly relate to the title of the text, but sometimes the true meaning of the story hides in between the lines of the poem. Donne utilized this technique in “The Ecstasy” to justify the meaning of his poem, while the text presents a slightly different idea. According to the an online encyclopedia, the “title of the poem refers not to the modern meaning of the word ecstasy—rapture or delight, especially of a sexual nature—but rather to a Renaissance-era meaning that describes the movement of the soul outside of the body” (Overview: The Ecstasy). This explains the denotation that the text presents and the importance that the title has towards Donne’s theme of spiritual love. The term “ecstasy,” in modern language, relates to the idea of physical excitement or satisfaction. However, the way Donne uses it in his work is through the consideration of two souls and the journey to true love.

All love is fair if you trust the Love God with your all. Throughout this poetic piece, John Donne is speaking from the heart. The language presented is a sensation whom is loving, caring, adoring, and faithful. A past lover may have done him wrong and seems to ne reflected upon it. He speaks from the deepest of his soul, from a love so powerful that couldn't be. “Donne’s love poetry was written nearly four hundred years ago; yet one reason for its appeal is that it speaks to us as directly and urgently as if we overhear a present confidence.” (Poetry Foundation) The author mentions he has deep affections for a woman that does not reciprocate the same feelings. John Donne can not seem to conclude why the woman does not feel the same way about him if the woman has experienced love before. As hes speaking on his personal experiences it even gives off a sense of empathy towards the end of the

Donne transformed the love poetry he wrote in his early days, beginning in 1617 with the death of his wife Anne More, to religious poetry with a strong sense of awareness of death and its import. This poetic development from classical poetry to more personal poetry reflects the events that marked his own life, and can be traced throughout his poetry. This kind of personal and thereby

     The end of the world is how sonnet 7 starts out. This is a reminder of the fire reference in sonnet 5, to which sonnet 7 has a strong connection. In this sonnet, the speaker wants to repent so that he will not die like the other mortals who sin. "All whom the flood did, and fire shall, o'erthrow,'; is an allusion to the Bible once again: the great flood, which Noah built his ark for, and the fire which is to cause the end of the world. And in the first two lines, Donne makes a specific allusion to the book of

Near the end of the poem, Donne makes an unlikely comparison between the couple and a draftsman's compass. This is one of his most famous metaphysical conceits because the two elements which are being compared appear completely different, and yet, amazingly, Donne is able to connect them. He explains that his wife is his "fixed foot" that leans towards him as he roams and straightens again as he returns, but remains his center. Her firmness is what makes his circle complete, "[a]nd makes [him] end where [he] begun"(line 36). The imagery of the circle and the spheres in this poem solidify the eternity of their love and the knowledge that the speaker will always return to the place where he began. Donne's comparisons create an image of celebration rather than mourning.

These words help the reader to understand Donne’s meaning; that new things have disrupted the old.

In this essay I will mainly focus on two poems written by John Donne, The Rising Sun and Death be not proud. These poems were written during the Elizabethan era, which was an era mainly characterized by love and colonialism, on separate terms of course. These principles often influenced poets who lived during this period. Their poetry acts as testimonies of their underlying thoughts and desires. Furthermore, metaphysical poets deliver a more divine and profound perspective to their poetry. Within their conceits, they manage to engage and delight themselves in deeper movements. This essay will further discuss how John Donne used death and the sun to his disposal. I will also critically analyse the two poems as well grasp on external aspects

First and foremost, the tone of “The Sun Rising” marks the poem as an aggressive confrontation, the explicit target of which is the sun. In the very first line of the poem, the speaker addresses the sun using extremely combative language: “Busy old fool, unruly sun” (Donne l. 1). A few lines later, he continues this verbal assault: “Saucy pedantic wretch” (5). Each of these words has its own negative definitions and connotations, and together they create a sense of great hostility from the speaker to the sun. Two of these words particularly stand out: “busy” and “wretch”. The word “wretch” is particularly harsh. One definition in the Oxford English Dictionary’s entry for “wretch” reads: “A vile, sorry, or despicable person; one of opprobrious or reprehensible character; a mean or contemptible creature” (OED). To call someone or something a wretch is to condemn it in the harshest terms; the use of the term “wretch” indicates the depth of the hostility that the speaker feels towards the sun. Part of the Oxford English Dictionary’s entry for the word “busy” reads: In negative sense: active in what does not concern one; prying, inquisitive, gossiping; meddlesome, officious, interfering” (OED). If “wretch” demonstrates the scope, then “busy” serves to determine the cause of the speaker’s disdain: that the sun intrudes where it is not wanted, and that the act of indicating time’s passage is hindering to the speaker. In this way, it becomes