The Theme Of Love In John Donne's Holy Sonnet XIV

Donne uses imagery in an attempt to draw attention to the importance of his lover, but ends up insinuating ownership over her instead. He says, "She is all states, and all princes, I," whilst pairing him and his lover together in this metaphor establishes an idea of unity, the impression that he controls her is given from this choice of comparison and suggests to me that he thinks that she does not hold enough importance on her own, only when he has that ownership over her she is

A sonnet is a poem of fourteen lines that rhyme in a particular pattern. William Shakespeare’s sonnets were the only non-dramatic poetry that he wrote. Shakespeare used sonnets within some of his plays, but his sonnets are best known as a series of one hundred and fifty-four poems. The series of one hundred and fifty-four poems tell a story about a young aristocrat and a mysterious mistress. Many people have analyzed and contemplated about the significance of these “lovers”. After analysis of the content of both the “young man” sonnets and the “dark lady sonnets”, it is clear that the poet, Shakespeare, has a great love for the young man and only lusts after his mistress.

John Donne wrote “The Good Morrow” was written in 1633, and it was part of John Donne’s famous “Songs and Sonnets which was consider the corner stone of his career. Donne was a very passionate writer when it came to his love poems. He was born in London in 1572 and educated in many subjects and it showed in his poems with his very strong imagery, puns, and paradoxes. He was considered one of the best metaphysical writers ever. He liked to show his vast array of knowledge in many of his works. His love poems were a little different from his later works when he became a preacher. His earlier love poems were very passionate and dramatic it seemed to express how extreme his youthful years were. Donne was said to be part of many sexual rumors during his youth, and the audience he wrote could see that in his poem. Donne’s early life he was branded as an outsider and it did not really change throughout his life; his place in society seemed to jump around all his life from passionate bachelor to a preacher. His current status in life seemed to influence his work tremendously. Looking at his life it tells us that youth is the part of life that the idea of love is mainly concentrated during this time. Later in his life he seems to settle down with his ideas on love, and his ideas of love become more subtle.

In “Holy Sonnet 14”, John Donne talks to God because he feels that as long as he has free

After reading this piece of writing from John Donne, it becomes very clear that the writer is having an internal conflict with himself. He is going back and forth in his own mind about how he truly feels about religion. John uses many different tones, word choices, and metaphors to get this point across to the reader. Overall, after getting a closer look at this writing one can see that this is clearly about John and his relationship with religion. More specifically, this passage shows how John is frustrated with his internal conflict over if he is religious or not. In the end however, it becomes apparent that he truly knows how he should feel.

The beauty of John Donne’s holy sonnet 14 is in its language. John Donne is an interesting character who uses metaphors anyhow he pleases and finds a way to make it work. The beginning of the poem depicts a man hopeless without God’s help, a man trying to change his ways but finds no success and asks God to change in a way I find quite terrifying. The use of violent and erotic language (i.e Batter, Force, Labor, Captive; and erotic words: i.e ravish, love, knot etc) set the tone of the sonnet, and it remains constant all through. Before diving into the content of the poem, we look at the form of the poem. This poem has a Petrarchan form, and an Elizabethan structure. I know this because it has 14 lines, the rhymes, and the ending couplet. The poem rhymes like: ABBAABBA – CDCDEE. Also we look at the iambic pentameter. The beginning of the poem looked like it would be in iambic pentameter: Batter my heart, We can see here the poem starts with “Batter” which has a stressed syllable, followed by “My” which is unstressed, and “Heart” which is stressed, but then, that’s followed by “three-personed God” which breaks the iambic pentameter. The same can be seen on Line two. I think the essence of starting a poem this way was to start with an aggressive tone in order to prepare the reader for the story ahead.

The implications of the first few lines of the poem emit the notion that the poems text and word choice show the dilemma Donne felt on Good Friday,1613. He is stuck traveling, when in fact he should be praying and honoring the death and sacrifice of Christ. By implementing that feeling into the subject of the poem, Donne is able to exaggerate the struggle the subject is having about his deviation from God, which cripples him. Furthermore, at the time Donne wrote this poem, it is clear he was engulfed in the thought of his own sin and struggled to face God. Therefore, the subject in the poem acts as a martyr for which Donne can confess and repent by submerging the subject in a state of sin.

“How little that which thou deniest me is”, the speaker is angry as the lady is denying sex due to something as little as marriage. This mood then quickly changes, “It suck’d me first, and now sucks thee”, to excited as the thought of the fluids mixing arouses the speaker. The speaker then becomes restless and impatient, “Through parents grudge, and you”, as the lady continues to fight against him. Donne then begins to mock her using the words cruel and sudden as he was unable to seduce the lady (skoool.ie :: exam centre, 2014). Throughout the poem Donne, uses the change of moods to imitate an argument and continues on the theme of

Donne uses many forms of figurative language when building his argument in Holy Sonnet 10. The use of metaphors throughout the poem greatly enhances his argument with Death. Donne’s first use of a metaphor comes early on, when he says, “From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be,/Much pleasure from thee, much more must flow,” (5-6). He compares rest and sleep to death in this line, saying that they are both pictures of it. The comparison of them to being “pictures” of death allows Donne to draw to the conclusion that if we derive some pleasure from rest and sleep, death must be greatly pleasureful. Donne’s use of this metaphor to illustrate death as something pleasurable furthers his argument that Death is no longer a daunting and powerful figure to humanity. The next important metaphor yet again highlights how little power that Donne

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

So the strategy of the poem appears to be that of approaching a dangerous, blasphemous anthropomorphism in the heat of devotion, but deflecting that danger, just in time, by the equation of sensual passion to spiritual virtue; for the concluding couplet declares that true freedom comes when one is imprisoned by God, and that purity of heart comes with God 's ravishment (sexual assault, with the double meaning of "ravish" as "to win the heart of" someone). By the poem 's conclusion, the conceit of the rape which ensures chastity no longer skirts blasphemy. In fact, in Donne 's hands, it even becomes orthodox, an ideal of devotion worthy of emulation.

The very slightest charge we could level at Donne is that he seems tempted to sacrifice logic for rhetorical finesse- “three sins for killing three” is of course, not true- to kill three and commit sacrilege would make four sins. This is not simple pedantry, but rather I think it alerts us to a prioritisation of tried-and-tested stylistics over the logical progression that Donne’s tricky arguments, grounded in points of intellectual studies of his age, asks us to focus on. The Flea

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

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.

Shakespeare, who wrote the sonnets in 1609, expresses his own feelings through his greatest work of literature. The theme of love in the poems reflect thoughts from the Renaissance period. Love is one of many components of Shakespeare’s life shown in the sonnets. Love can be defined in many ways other than a strong affection for a lover. In Shakespeare’s sonnets, the concept of love can be seen through many uncommon means such as the love of life before death in “Sonnet 73,” love in marriage in “Sonnet 116,” love through sexual desire in “Sonnet 129,” and love through nature in “Sonnet 130,” proving that love can be expressed through many different feelings and emotions.