Holy Sonnet 14 Analysis

“And I their Mapp, who lie Flat on this bed”. He describes his body as a map, a metaphor for his life being a journey, which his doctors attempt to read in order to discover his illness and his suffering and ultimately where his journey ends. In reference to Cartography, Donne refers to bearings, using the imagery of a map to point out that what we see on the western edge of a flat map is also to be found on the eastern edge, showing that he believes life and death are connected to each other. In the final stanza, Donne feels joy at the though of death as he feels he will recover his identity by reuniting with the lord. In the final stanza, he returns to the idea of the first stanza, summing up the poem’s central message with the use of a paradox. “Therefore that he may raise the Lord throws down.” This paradox shows that to rise up to heaven, one must be thrown “down” by death, so therefore one must suffer to be accepted and united in a place where one’s identity is established. His extreme suffering has purged and prepared him for paradise.

Donne conveys how religion is a central idea through the use of many religious references throughout the holy sonnets. In ‘Death Be Not Proud’, Donne makes a religious reference to Jesus, ‘Die not, poore death, nor yet canst thou kill mee’, expressing how religion was an underlying theme when handling many issues. When the two texts are studied in alliance, it allows the responder to draw a better understanding of the themes presented in ‘W;t’. This theme, science VS religion, has been emphasised due to the contrasts between Vivian and Donne and their context.

Elizabeth Bishop’s poem, ‘Sonnet’ bears little resemblance to its namesake at first glance. Bishop plays with our expectations, molding the well-known sonnet form into something new. She transforms the meter and rhyme scheme of the sonnet to the point of metamorphosis, but she retains the skeletal structure of the form; fourteen lines broken down into the customary octave and sestet. Her invocation and subsequent subversion of the anticipated poetic form provide her with a baseline to branch off from and without that context, the structure would not have the same effect on the poem’s meaning.

Early in the poem, Jarman points out the “sermon’s trenchant commentary on the world’s ills” (2-3), illustrating a mutilation of the connectedness of the congregation focusing instead on the very real but nonetheless generic ills of the world. Furthermore, the phrase “hand-wringing” (4) seems to describe the shaking of hands as the congregation members greet each other with the peace of Christ, again listing the routine of the congregation. Although, it appears to be more inclined towards a description of a helpless, passive anxiety that corresponds well with a sermon designed to impose guilt without inspiring action. Jarman goes on to compare the persistent nature of sin even in moments of peace with “motes of dust ride, clinging” (8). In this line, Jarman suggests that the congregation is sinful even after all the doctrinal procedure done to become clean from sin. Even the structure of the octave suggests a conventional and never changing sonnet form with 14 lines, a perfect Italian rhyming scheme, and a fascinating iambic pentameter alone, that inspires nothing more than an

“Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” (“Sonnet 18”) is one of Shakespeare’s most famous poems. It is the model English, or Shakespearean sonnet: it contains three quatrains and a finishing couplet.. The poem follows the traditional English sonnet form by having the octet introduce an idea or set up the poem, and the sestet beginning with a volta, or turn in perspective. In the octet of Sonnet 18, Shakespeare poses the question “Shall I compare the to a summer’s day” and basically begins to describe all the bad qualities of summer. He says it’s too windy, too short, too hot, and too cloudy. Eventually fall is going to come and take away all the beauty because of the changes nature brings. In the sestet, however, his tone changes as he begins to talk about his beloved’s “eternal summer” (Shakespeare line 9). This is where the turn takes place in the poem. Unlike the summer, their beauty will never fade. Not even death can stop their beauty for, according to Shakespeare, as long as people can read this poem, his lover’s beauty will continue to live. Shakespeare believes that his art is more powerful than any season and that in it beauty can be permanent.

A text is essentially a product of its context, as its prevailing values are inherently derived by the author from society. However, the emergence of post-modern theories allows for audience interpretation, thus it must be recognised that meaning in texts can be shaped and reshaped. Significantly, this may occur as connections between texts are explored. These notions are reflected in the compostion of Edson’s W;t and Donne’s poetry as their relationship is established through intertextual references, corresponding values and ideas and the use of language features. Edson particularly portrays key values surrounding the notions of the importance of loved based relationships, and death and resurrection: central themes of Donne’s Holy Sonnets

In modern times, youth and beauty is an image seen everywhere. For example, a Versace billboard, magazine ad, TV commercial, all of which displays images of beautiful people. But what happens when this beauty fades? Shakespeare in his 12th sonnet talks about his experience and fading beauty. The purpose of this poem is to encourage a young man to not lose his beauty to the ravages of time. In order to do this, one must reproduce so beauty will live.

For this response I will focus on Sonnets 1, 18, and 130. In Sonnet 1, I noticed how the themes of beauty and human life and introduced. Sonnet 1 starts off by saying that no one lives forever, and in order to keep the beauty, people need to have children. It then continues to say that some people are obsessed with their beauty and keep it for themselves. These people are encouraged to change their ways or less their beauty will start to fade and eventually disappear. I believe that Sonnet 1 is urging people to help the world by having children.

One of William Shakespeare's tools from his choices of words was figurative diction since most words used to describe the narrator’s mistress were based in comparing her to other objects. For example, the poem starts with the narrator using the words “eyes”, “like”, “nothing”, and “sun”. The narrator introduces an example of a simile from the figurative choice of words since the word “like” is been used to compare her to something else. In this case he's comparing the sun’s brightness to the dull light of his mistress's eyes and the eyes are important because they are the door to the soul. Then in line 2 from Sonnet 130, the narrator says that the color of the coral outcast more “her lip’s red”. This is an example of a metaphor since the narrator

John Donne's 'Holy Sonnet 2' is primarily written in the traditional Petrarchan sonnet form. One way in which Donne applies this traditional form is through the use of an octave, in which the narrator establishes a problem that causes anxiety and personal turmoil. The octave is then followed by a sestet, where the narrator attempts to organise and present a solution to the issue given in the octave, or there is a change of tone in the narrator's voice. "Wisheth that still he might be imprisoned; / Yet grace…" [1] Although there is a change in tone with the narrative voice, Donne's use of punctuation and enjambement between lines eight and nine suggests that Donne does not rigorously adhere to the traditional Petrarchan form, as the poem becomes detached from this tradition and increases the narrator's conflict and feeling of entrapment and suppression. This, in turn, might indicate that the narrator has no solution for his "black soul" [2] and reflects the narrator's anxiety and fear about not being able to repent, or, at least, not being able to repent in the way which would correspond to the narrator's personal religious beliefs. Anne Coles Kimberly argues that the "Calvinist doctrine held that man is resistant to God (due to sin), but that God will draw his elect to him. Donne, however, is not always convinced that the offer of salvation through grace will act irresistibly upon him." [3] The conflicting feelings about grace and what possible salvation it can offer are

In “Holy Sonnet 14” by John Donne, dramatizes the conflict between contradictions and a relationship with God.

has the gentle heart of a woman but is not inconsistent as is the way

Donne even goes so far as to command God to destroy the person he has

By making many references to the Bible, John Donne's Holy Sonnets reveal his want to be accepted and forgiven by God. A fear of death without God's forgiveness of sins is conveyed in these sonnets. Donne expresses extreme anxiety and fright that Satan has taken over his soul and God won't forgive him for it or his sins. A central theme of healing and forgiveness imply that John Donne, however much he wrote about God and being holy, wasn't such a holy man all of the time and tried to make up for it in his writing.

Sonnet 6 is notable for the ingenious multiplying of conceits and especially for the concluding pun on a legal will in the final couplet: "Be not self-willed, for thou art much too fair / To be death's conquest and make worms thine heir." Here, as earlier in the sonnet, the poet juxtaposes the themes of narcissism and death, as well as procreation. "Self-willed" echoes line 4's "self-killed," and the worms that destroy the young man's dead body will be his only heirs should he die without begetting a child which shows the theme of death. The whole sonnet is about trying to persuade the man to have a baby hence the theme if procreation. And lastly, the man is being selfish in wanting to die without passing on his beauty.