Essay on Love and Metaphysical Poetry

With the theme that love is pessimistic. We see how Donne uses a negative connotation of diction. With such words as “devours”, “Tyrant Pike”, “burn” and “starks” it creates a negative tone and view of love. With that view on love created with his chose of words, his use of phrase make love look even worse. For example, when he says, “But that it can ten in less space devour;” and “He is the tyrant pike, our hearts the fry”. It helped the speaker be able to convey his negative look on

The study of any poem often begins with its imagery. Being the centralized idea behind the power of poetry, imagery isn’t always there to just give a mental picture when reading the poem, but has other purposes. Imagery can speak to the five senses using figurative language as well as help create a specific emotion that the author is trying to infuse within the poem. It helps convey a complete human experience a very minimal amount of words. In this group of poems the author uses imagery to show that humanity is characterized as lost, sorrowful and regretful, but nature is untainted by being free of mistakes and flaws and by taking time to take in its attributes it can help humans have a sense of peace, purity, and joy, as well as a sense of

mind. It suggest the poet see it as love or nothing and that he was

Death is a theme that is used all too often in literature. Usually when people encounter death, they come to expect certain feelings. Whether someone they know has passed away, or they are just reading a play in which someone dies; death is often associated with feelings of anger, depression, and denial. In a play titled Wit, Margaret Edson depicts stages of dying through a woman who is diagnosed with ovarian cancer. In his holy sonnet “Death, Be Not Proud”, John Donne challenges death in a way that illustrates his belief that there is an afterlife.

The two poems “Magic of Love” by Helen Farries and “Love Poem” by John Frederick Nims are both poems with the central theme of love. The ways that these two authors express this theme differ significantly from each other and show two spectrums of love in literature. Through their use of syntax, diction, rhyme, and meter, these poets portray love in a unique and personal manner that illicit specific emotions from the reader for a variety of possible reasons, which will be analyzed in this essay.

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.

Moreover, the poem contains a change of perspective. The meaning and tone of the poem towards love shifts from viewing love as a redundant factor of life, to a demand for love at line 14 (the last line).

John Donne fulfills his reputation as one of the greatest English poets by utilizing figurative devices throughout all of his literary masterpieces. With the talent of capturing images and communicating his messages through figurative language, one poetic piece in particular is proof of his talent. In his acclaimed Holy Sonnet 10, he focuses on his opinion of Death by using figurative language, imagery, and symbolism. Donne immediately commences Holy Sonnet 10 by personifying Death as well as using metaphors to show Death how insignificant it is. In specific, Donne tells Death to “be not proud, though some have called thee / Mighty and dreadful, for thou are not so” (1-2).

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

In Death Be Not Proud, John donne describes his optimistic perspective on death. His first sentence is, "Death, be not proud, though some have called thee mighty and dreadful, for thou are not so." Right off the bat he is showing his point that death has no reason to be feared like it is. He talks to death as if it were a person saying, Death, you can't kill me. His ending is explaining, all it is, is that we simply are awake, sleep for a short amount of time, and awake eternally, with everlasting life. his poem "Hymn to God, My God, In My Sickness", is also an uplifting view on death, and illness. In the first stanza he symbolises his religious beliefs. He compares himself to music saying he is God's music, or that he is to be used for God.

Both, the poem “Reluctance” by Robert Frost and “Time Does Not Bring Relief” by Edna St. Vincent Millay, revolved around the theme of lost love. Each poet used a similar array of poetic devices to express this theme. Visual imagery was one of the illustrative poetic devices used in the compositions. Another poetic device incorporated by both poets in order to convey the mood of the poems was personification. And by the same token, metaphors were also used to help express the gist of both poems. Ergo, similar poetic devices were used in both poems to communicate the theme of grieving the loss of a loved one.

Is death a slave to fate or is it a dreaded reality? People differ on the opinion of death, some people view death as a new beginning which should not be feared, while many people perceive death as an atrocious monster. Death be not proud, by John Donne is a poem that challenges death and the idea of its ferocity. Donne’s work is greatly influenced by the death of his countless family members, friends and spouse. Donne was not only a poet, but he was also a priest in the Church of England, so his interest in religion and his belief in eternal life after death, also contributed greatly to his work. The poem Death be not proud, is a metaphysical poem about death, in which John Donne undermines, ridicules, and determines the meaning of death, according to his perspective.

Poetry is a varied art form. Poetry is expression with words, using aesthetics and definition. Word choice in poetry is the single most important thing. Devices such as assonance, alliteration and rhythm work in a poem to convey a certain image or to facilitate understanding. Similes and metaphors can take two unlike objects, such as a potato and cinderblock, and if done the correct way use them to describe how Abraham Lincoln dealt with scoundrels. Poetry is beautiful. One of the best genres in poetry, let alone a great literary movement is Romanticism or the post-enlightenment Romantics.

By using metaphysical conceits in "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning," Donne attempts to convince his love (presumably his wife) that parting is a positive experience which should not be looked upon with sadness. In the first stanza, Donne compares

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