The Collar Essay

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.

Donne's view of death is that it is an insignificant thing that has no power over people. By saying "One short sleep past, we wake eternally" (13), he illustrates that he believes that there is some sort of afterlife. In fact, he says that the time that death has power

Donne uses a serious tone when addressing Death. In lines 1 and 2, he begins with: “Death, be not proud, though some have called thee Mighty and dreadful, for thou are not so.” He directly tells Death that it is not mighty nor

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.

John Donne’s diction, detail, point of view, metaphysical format, and tone used in “Holy Sonnet 10” convey both a feeling of cynical and domination, and also a sense of mockery of death. The effects on the reader include assurance and confidence in facing death.

As poet, Herbert depends entirely on God to provide the source for his poetic inspiration, but the creative dynamic between Maker and poet is more complicated. Arnold Stein writes, “...in such a complaint the expression of personal feeling is subordinated to the effort to express God’s nature and the relations of God and man. A similar distinction applies to “Deniall”; for though his own voice and feelings are the instrument, what he principally registers are the disordering and scattering effects of God’s silence” (93). The effects Stein alludes to are the inability to create poetry. In the second stanza, Herbert writes, “My bent thoughts, like a brittle bow, / Did fly asunder: / Each took his way; some would to pleasure go, / Some to the wars and thunder / of alarm” (6-10). Here Herbert describes being unable to put words to his thoughts, the ultimate dilemma for the poet: “Then was my heart broken, as was my verse” (3). When God is distanced, the poet is unable to act as an aesthetic mediator between the Earthly and Heavenly realms.

“Wag the Dog” is a humorous movie. The fact that the movie is based on a fake war in Albania encouraged me to watch it. This movie is based on a Hollywood film producer who constructs a fake war with Albania to distract the electorates from a sex scandal days before the presidential election. The president of the United States is discovered making sexual advances, less than two weeks before Election Day, on an underage girl in the oval office.

Similarly, John Donne, also harnesses point of view to strengthen the theme of his poem,”At the Earth’s Imagined Corners. The poem itself is an apocalypse in itself, a combination of both disorder and discernment; highlighted through the use of second person point of view. The poem itself begin with a dark warning, “, arise From the death, you numberless infinities Of souls, and to your scattered bodies go.”(Arp 789) The use of second point of view immediately beckons wildy for the reader’s attention, by warning of the fate suffered by sinners. Donne’s writings are extremely vivid and clearly depict images of a foul hell on Earth for those that fail to repent of their sins. The poem itself is intended to be a call to action, warning all of the inevitable end that is to come. The

In the poem, “Hymn to God My God in My Sickness,” John Donne employs the use of biblical allusions and metaphors to express that suffering in life is trivial to the splendors that will be awarded in heaven. To begin, the speaker lets on that he knows that he is dying; in a situation where others might struggle with the realization, the speaker positively employs, “I shall be made thy music; as I come/I tune the instrument here at the door.” As the speaker compares his amending to refining an instrument, visibly any worries possibly holding the speaker back from eternal peace are being taken care of before his death, leaving him appeased and ready to move on. Furthermore, just as west and east are inevitably connected in flat maps, which the

An example of this is Herbert’s looking towards the Bible for stylistic inspiration rather than to alien imagery and ideas of Donne. Another very important and distinctive characteristic of the poetry is Herbert’s introduction of two quiet final lines, resolving the previously mentioned argument within the poem, without answering any specific points mentioned. The doubts in faith and religion are expressed in intellectual terms by Donne, and the argument is answered in this intellectual style too. Herbert, although occasionally exploring the doubts in an intellectual manner, answers his doubts with emotion. In this specific way, Herbert conveys an explicit insight that one is unable to argue or reason with God; one is aware of God’s presence or one lacks this awareness and guidance.

Donne uses personification to give death human characteristics and to challenge its power. This is conveyed to the reader in the following statement, “Death, be not proud, though some have called thee /Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so;” (Donne 1-2). The tone and the way in which Donne is talking about death, seems like he is talking to a person, he tells death that it is neither powerful nor dreadful, and it has nothing to be proud of. Also he refers to death using the word “thou,” which means you, which shows that he is personifying death. His argument would not have been as strong without personification, because the personification makes it look like he is actually talking to someone.

In this text, Donne character is a man who wants the Christian God to transform him. Donne narrator wants God to beat him till he’s worthy in the eyes of God figure, “You’re force to break blow burn and make me new.”(Donne line 4). Donne wants to be made pure by god by having god force himself on Donne character, “Nore ever chaste, except you, ravish me” (Donne line 14). Done wants to transcend to the level to be worth of gods stare so he wants to be cleansed.

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.

This poem is written in the form of a sonnet. A sonnet is composed of 14 lines written in iambic pentameter while also following a rhyme scheme. Iambic pentameter consists of 10 syllable lines, but Donne does not follow these standards to a T. For the most part this poem seems to be a Shakespearean sonnet, which starts with three quatrains and ends with a couplet. The rhyme scheme used here follows the pattern of ABBA ABBA CDDC AA (or EE), which is not the typical rhyme scheme that Shakespeare used when writing his sonnets. The couplet at the end is kind of a stretch, as the words “eternally” and “die” do not actually rhyme, unless the former is pronounced as “eternal-lie” or the latter is pronounced with a long “e.”

The central theme, introduced quite early within the poem, is the helplessness of death. Throughout the poem the speaker belittles death and approaches it with such bravery and poise. Donne confronts death by saying it is not in any regard “mighty and dreadful” (2), but rather brings “much pleasure” (7). Death is personified in the poem, and in this regard, possess no greater power over man. The speaker of the poem is Donne himself. He uses his literary tools of rhetoric and poetic devices to belittle death. Throughout the poem, the speaker comes across as being slightly arrogant, but he refuses to show weakness. His arrogance shows that he is not afraid of death as he demands death not to be proud. Donne takes the association of death and sleep, and reinvents this comparison to a greater effect. He describes sleep as being “pictures” (5) of death and death is no more different or more frightening. He extends this metaphor throughout the poem. In the second last line of the poem he