I read nearly all of John Carey's donne: life mind and art for this, as well as drawing critical opinions from Camille Paglia and other critics (I know you don't need critics for poetry but it makes you look cooler). Took me nearly an entire year to make- but very in depth, quotes and analysis prov...
John Donne Poems Analysis - elegies and religious poems (A**)
John Donne Poems Analysis - 22 secular poems and songs (A**)
John Donne Context and Criticism - FULL REVISION NOTES
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PEARSON (PEARSON)
English Literature 2015
Unit 3 - Poetry
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Donne poems (unfinished)
Study online at https://quizlet.com/_ejan3a
1. The Good Mor- This poem was written by John Donne when he was
row context married to Anne Moore. During this period his professions
of love for her were a recurrent theme.
All published in 1633, a love poem where two lovers are
waking up in the morning. Speaker wants to examine the
state of their relationship so asks questions and reflects
on their time before their love - a 'new world' created by
mutual love.
Four Humours - liquids from the body associated with
illness and emotions;
Yellow bile =
liver, choleric temperament,
Black bile from kidney =
melancholic temperament
Red Blood from the heart =
sanguine temperament
White pilgrim from lungs =
phlegmatic temperament.
John Dryden - Donne focuses too much on the nature of
people's ideas of philosophy to describe love, when he
should focus on the feeling of love and how its gentile
2. The Good Mor- Infantile dependency on this first wondrous love - "sucked
row infantile on country pleasures"
reading Seven Sleepers den= cave= image of an undifferentiated
womb continued on through a mother's protection and
care of her infant identifies- through their shared nurtured
past- man with wife-> Donne leans as well on the identi-
fication of wife with mother- or mother with wife.
3. The Seven Sleepers' den is a cave that sheltered some
Christians hiding from Romans, who wake up to be in
, Donne poems (unfinished)
Study online at https://quizlet.com/_ejan3a
The Good Mor- Christian Europe-> wake from persecution into an age
row- Seven of righteousness and betterness. This identifies Donne's
sleepers lover with a quasi-divine saviour.
Seven Sleepers den= cave= image of an undifferentiated
womb continued on through a mother's protection and
care of her infant identifies- through their shared nurtured
past- man with wife-> Donne leans as well on the identi-
fication of wife with mother- or mother with wife.
4. Vulnerability in "Were we not weaned till then? But sucked on coun-
the Good Morrow try pleasures, childishly?" -> childlike semantic field->
Donne's vulnerability
5. Effect of con- Puts the addressee in a position of power through their
tinued rhetori- heightened knowledge
cal questions in
Good Morrow?
6. Effect of triadic "Let sea-discoverers to new world have gone... Let...
anaphoras in the Let..."
Good Morrow Creates image of strength through triumphant tone that
the triad of repetition brings. "pomp and strength"-> this
contrasts the vulnerability.
7. Further philoso- Schopenhauer's hedgehog dilemma- potential for pain is
phy: vulnerabili- an inevitable part of human relationships
ty in love
8. Donne trying Donne dreams through abstract language that there is an
to make things equality in the love between them- "What ever dies was
equal- Good Mor- not mixed equally"
row
9. Song: Go and A misogynistic poem- women can't be beautiful and faith-
Catch a Falling ful- Bill Phillips claims Donne is a "misogynistic menace"
Star context
10. Key quotes from "If thou findstone, let me know/ such a pilgrimage were
song: go and sweet"- word pilgrimage fills the line with relief- and al-
though used neutrally in the late sixteenth century, was
, Donne poems (unfinished)
Study online at https://quizlet.com/_ejan3a
catch a falling also fraught with Catholic potential. Maybe the emotional
star charge of the word (heightened by the fact it's sandwiched
between sibilance, ominous sounds) may come from
Donne's sweet regression to his childhood of Catholicism-
and this relation back to Catholicism just heightens the
theme of betrayal in the poem. The betrayal he has felt
from the woman is not purely sexual, but spiritual.
It seems there is hope in it all. But it seems that, much like
Ricks' conclusion- the conclusion that the poem seems
to be ramping up to- a forgiving of the woman, or an
exception to the rule- is never stated, disappointing the
reader that the poem's ending seems false to itself.
11. Who is Song: "thou"- it's somewhat accusatory, as if he's addressing the
Go and Catch a woman himself- it is unclear whether his friends would
Falling Star ad- have been intending to read this from the position of a
dressed to? woman or a man. Poems such as the Flea are also meant
to be read in the female voice.
12. John Carey "Song: catch a falling star" is more about self-improve-
ment than women. It commands with the imperative "go"
at the start of the poem and tells the reader/listener to go
and make discoveries.
13. Woman's Con- "one whole day"- "o", assonance, stress upon both o=
stancy opening spondee-> gives off ironic tone-> position of superiority
makes him sound like he's looking down on you
14. Contract law in "wilt thou then antedate some new-made vow?"-> excep-
Woman's con- tion clause
stancy
15. turn around "For by tomorrow, I may think so too"- um? So you
Woman's Con- basically never really loved her then? This kind of ties
stancy into Christopher Ricks' criticism of the poem- the poem's
whole buildup doesn't make sense when looking at its
final conclusion.
16. The girl is a "wh*re"- SANDERS is WRONG
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