The choices that can make one fulfilled do not always conform to religious and societal norms. This theme is explored in Donne’s “To His Mistress Going to Bed,” where the speaker attempts to persuade a lover to return his affection. The lover is...

This poem chiefly concerns the lack of constancy in women. The tone taken is one of gentle cynicism, and mocking. Donne asks the reader to do the impossible, which he compares with finding a constant woman, thus insinuating that such a woman does...

Donne: Holy Sonnet V

(essay follows poem reproduced below)

I am a little world made cunningly

Of elements and an angelic sprite,

But black sin hath betray'd to endless night

My world's both parts, and oh both parts must die.

You which beyond that heaven...

The renaissance that spread through Europe, while effectively marking the transformation from medieval traditionalism to modern pragmatism, brought a plethora of new and old ideas into conflict with each other. From the enlightenment born of the...

ÃÂÂLoveÃÂÂs DeityÃÂ? is an anti-lyric poem; rather than lament loveÃÂÂs inconstancy or celebrate loveÃÂÂs union, Donne questions the nature of love itself. Donne presents the poem as a theogony, an account of the origin of the god of love. For...

In his essay "A Defence of A Womans Inconstancy," John Donne wrote of the female race that "for all their fellowship will they never be tamed, nor Commanded by us." His affinity for the grace and beauty of women is evident in his many works. Yet...

There are several levels in literary criticism. The first - and most superficial - level examines the work in search of sounds and images that might contribute to the overall meaning of the piece. This type of analysis is an excellent starting...

Their love is like a virtuous man at death. Their love is like the planets in their orbits, not earthquakes. Their love is like a sheet of flattened gold. Their love is like a compass used in math class. These sentiments as they stand would do...

The speaker in John Donne's "The Funeral" appears to have reasoned through the problem of death. He writes that "Whoever comes to shroud" him after he passes should not disturb "That subtle wreath of hair" which adorns his arm; he attests that the...

Donne is sick and his poetry is sick.

- Stanley Fish

Fish's comment, though extreme in its reductive appraisal, is nevertheless understandable. He may find Donne's poetry objectionable on three accounts: style, explicitness, and morbidity. With...

In many of the metaphysical poems in John Donne's literary canon, the poet assumes a voice that, as John Carey describes "...communicates itself through the dictatorial attitudes [he] adopts, through the unrelenting argumentativeness of his...

In the poem "The Flea," John Donne uses a metaphysical conceit between a simple flea and the complexities of young romance to develop the narrator's argument for a young woman to forfeit her chastity.

By giving the flea a dual meaning, Donne...

In “The Canonization,” John Donne seems to set his love apart from politics, wealth, the court life, and earthly life in general in order to align it with sanctity. He also utilizes his wit to mock commonly accepted poetic conventions, only to...

Irresolution of Paradox in Donne’s “Batter My Heart”

John Donne’s “Holy Sonnet XIV” is filled with Biblical imagery and language suggestive of Psalmic platitude.

Batter my heart, three person’d God; for, you

As yet but knocke, breathe, shine, and...

MARK but this flea, and mark in this,

How little that which thou deniest me is;

It suck'd me first, and now sucks thee,

And in this flea our two bloods mingled be.

Thou know'st that this cannot be said

A sin, nor shame, nor loss of maidenhead;

Yet...

“A Valediction of Weeping” embodies John Donne’s ability to unite form and content in the beauty and intricacy of his metaphysical conceits. By closely interpreting these conceits, or complex extended metaphors, the reader is able to appreciate...

The speaker in John Donne’s poem “Love’s Diet” distances himself from his current relationship as his attitude towards love shifts from inconvenience to indifference with intermediary steps of defensive attacks. The speaker Donne presents does not...

John Donne’s Holy Sonnet 7 is a poem that intertwines elements of allusions and wit to arouse emotions and to depict the dramatic conflict between holiness and sin. By specifically analyzing the rhyme scheme, the allusions, the tone, and the...

In her book Maps and Memory in Early Modern England: A Sense of Place, Rhonda Lemke Stanford discusses the importance of maps in early modern English literature. She explores how mapping metaphors are not “merely another trope of description,” but...

In his poem “A Hymn to God the Father,” John Donne addresses God directly through a series of questions intended to reaffirm his faith. He prays for forgiveness for his transgressions in an inquisitive and almost intimate tone; it seems that he is...

John Donne and Emily Dickinson, in their poems “Death Be Not Proud” and “Because I Could Not Stop for Death,” personify death in order to explain the phenomenon of death and, more importantly, the wonder of eternal life. In his Holy Sonnet “Death...

Edmund Spenser’s revolting description of Duessa being stripped in <i>The Faerie Queen</i> (Book I, Canto VIII, Stanzas 45-49) emotionally contrasts with John Donne’s glorifying description of his lover’s body in the poem “Elegy XIX:...

Though his poetry was largely ignored and dismissed during his time, John Donne is known today for being one of the best poets of the late 16th and early 17th centuries. He gained this reputation by creating poetry that was different, that made...

John Donne addresses his poem “The Sun Rising” to the sun, but the theme of the poem is the joy of true love. The poet derives infinite joy by loving and by being loved. The poet’s wit and irony are here directed against the sun for trying to...