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IEB Prescribed Poetry - Notes on All 16 Poems
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All 16 prescribed poems for 2024. IEB English Home Language Paper 1.
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16 Seen PoemsNotes
IEB
English
Home Language
2024
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,Contents
Contents....................................................................................................................................... 2
1. The Sun Rising.........................................................................................................................3
2. Sonnet 104: To me, fair friend, you never can be old.........................................................13
3. The Discardment....................................................................................................................14
4. Namaqualand after rain.........................................................................................................18
5. Touch...................................................................................................................................... 23
6. For Oom Piet.......................................................................................................................... 28
7. The Tenant..............................................................................................................................30
8. Cockroaches.......................................................................................................................... 34
9. Strangers forever...................................................................................................................39
10. Ozymandias of Egypt.......................................................................................................... 41
11. Moving through the silent crowd....................................................................................... 47
12. Mirror.................................................................................................................................... 52
13. Song: “Go, Lovely Rose”....................................................................................................61
14. Will it be so again?.............................................................................................................. 63
15. Remember............................................................................................................................ 67
16. nobody loses all the time....................................................................................................72
General Poetry Notes................................................................................................................ 78
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, 1. The Sun Rising
Introduction
John Donne
- Womaniser, hedonistic
- Jaquobean period - metaphysical movements - poet disturb/challenges reader
- *Conceit: complex metaphor/simile - need unpacking
- Explore nature of/question reality
- King James love magic/witches/history
- Reining monarch influence artistic poems
- Poet, soldier, lawyer, diplomat, member of parlaiment, cleric (church priest)
Themes
The Authority of Love
● In "The Sun Rising" by John Donne, the theme of "The authority of love" is vividly portrayed as the speaker
challenges the conventional power of the sun, asserting the supremacy of love over all worldly and cosmic
orders.
● The speaker ridicules the sun, calling it a "busy old fool" and undermining its authority by stating that it
should be ruled by a higher power, which he implies is love. He boldly claims the power to control the sun,
suggesting that he could easily block its light simply by closing his eyes, demonstrating that the sun's
influence is insignificant compared to the power of love.
● The speaker extends this authority by ordering the sun to warm him and his lover in bed, indicating that
their love justifies redefining the sun's purpose.
● He questions why lovers should adhere to the sun's schedule, emphasizing that love operates beyond the
"rags of time"—hours, days, and months—and has its own eternal timeline.
● By the poem's conclusion, the speaker has metaphorically reduced the entire world to his bedroom,
proclaiming it the center of all activities and demanding that the sun prioritize its warmth for them,
effectively sidelining the rest of the world’s needs.
● This inversion of power not only places love above the sun but also suggests that love commandeers the
day, altering the rhythm of life itself to suit the lovers' desires.
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, Love as a microcosm of the universe
● In John Donne's "The Sun Rising," the theme of "Love as a microcosm of the universe" is illustrated by
portraying the lovers' bed as the entire world.
● Donne employs the concept of a "microcosm," a popular Renaissance belief where the human body (or in
this case, the lovers' relationship) is seen as a small-scale model of the universe.
● Through extended metaphor, the speaker equates warming his bed with the sun warming the world,
suggesting that his intimate space with his lover encompasses and surpasses the whole universe's
importance.
● He asserts that the wealth and power of global empires, symbolized by the "Indias" of spice and mine, are
now concentrated within his bedroom, essentially relocating the vast empires to his bed.
● This idea is further emphasized as he claims that all kings and their realms are consolidated into the
presence of his lover, declaring them the embodiment of all states and himself as all princes, thereby
dismissing the relevance of the external world.
● The speaker's bed, therefore, becomes a realm more potent and significant than any earthly kingdom,
granting him sovereign authority over even the sun, which he assigns duties as one would to a servant.
● This hyperbolic centralization of the universe within their love highlights the overwhelming power and
expansive reach of their relationship, rendering all else insignificant.
Love & Divinity
● In "The Sun Rising" by John Donne, the theme of "Love and divinity" is explored through the speaker's
playful yet bold assertion of his divine-like power when waking up with his lover.
● While never explicitly mentioning religious themes, the poem's focus on sovereignty subtly suggests the
concept of the divine right of kings, with the speaker symbolically approaching godlike authority.
● By questioning the sun's worthiness of worship and positioning himself above it, the speaker metaphorically
becomes more revered than the sun.
● The title itself, with its double entendre of "sun rising" and "son rising," further reinforces this association
with Christ's resurrection, aligning the speaker's awakening with a divine event.
● This near-heretical claim to divine power is rooted in the speaker's relationship with his lover, whom he
equates with the entirety of the world's empires, granting him a Christlike sovereignty over kings, time,
and nature.
● Donne intertwines love, sex, and religion, portraying them not only as powerful forces akin to religious
devotion but also as conduits for an intimate connection with the divine.
● Thus, lying in bed with a lover is not a rejection of God but rather a rising akin to that of God's son,
imbuing the speaker with a divine authority.
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