William Shakespeare’s 55th Sonnet and John Donne’s “The Canonization” are both poems that possess the same themes, anxieties, and cultural practices, thus illuminating the two poets’ experiences in early modern Britain. According to Sasha Roberts,...

The poem 'Canonization' by John Donne, with its witty analogies and inventive use of conceits, exemplifies metaphysical poetry. The poem begins abruptly in typical Donne fashion. The speaker is addressing someone who seems to disapprove of his...

In Donne’s metaphysical love poem, ‘A Valediction: Of Weeping’, the central notion is that of spheres and cycles. This corroborates with Parfitt’s assertion that ‘in Donne’s lyric world stasis is rare’[1], which is expressed in ‘A Valediction’...

Stating that poetry should ‘teach, delight, and move men to take that goodness in hand’[1], it becomes clear why both Philip Sidney in ‘Sonnet 90’ and John Donne’s 'Triple Fool’ suggest that writing in regards to love is foolish. The poems contain...

For some, a leap of faith is easy. Believing in a God comes naturally for some, but for others, it is something that logically seems improbable. What separates the two groups is that one group is willing to use faith as a tool to justify beliefs,...

In the majority of John Donne’s poetry, it is easy to characterize Donne as a domineering speaker, one who frequently overbears the female voice. Yet in “The Flea,” Donne complicates the prototypical gender roles seen in most early modern love...

Separation of Two Worlds Within John Donne’s “The Sun Rising”

Published in 1633, John Donne’s poem “The Sun Rising” represents an era of metaphysical literary strategies. In order to capture the engrossing love of the poem’s two characters,...

In order to truly grasp how John Donne (1572 - 1631) regards and treats the concept of love in his poems, one must be well aware of the fact that his love poems never refer to one single unchanging view of love. Instead, in Donne’s love poems, not...

In his perhaps most famous poem, “No Man Is An Island,” John Donne explores the theme of interconnectedness to show the invisible ties between people and their effect on us. In this short poem, the writer adopts a range of literary devices to...

Donne's Holy Sonnets have long been considered classic examples of Renaissance poetry. They were not printed until after his death in 1631, with the first printing being in 1633, and three additional sonnets being added some time later when...

In his nineteen holy sonnets, John Donne contemplates his mortality, and explores themes of divine love and judgment along with his deep personal troubles. In the first loosely Petrarchan holy sonnet “Thou hast made me”, Donne presents a hopeless...

The critic Joe Nutt writes that ‘it takes a bold man to taunt death’[1]. This observation was made in reference to John Donne’s Holy Sonnet X, ‘Death be not proud’, and accurately portrays both the tone and subject of the poem. Throughout the...

John Donne's 'A Valediction Forbidding Mourning' opens with an acknowledgement of 'virtuous men' passing away. The concept of death, as grounded in the first line, is an extremely striking way to begin a poem. This striking opening is a typical...

'Annihilating all that's made/To a green thought in green shade.' -Marvell

'I am re-begot/of absence, darknesse, death; things which are not.' -Donne

'Nothing,' as a concept has plasticity; it can be used in a number of different ways and refer...

Existential quandaries remain ingrained within the human condition, where superficial evasions by intellectualizing such concerns are eventually addressed by universal values of humility and compassion within contextual constructs. When confronted...

The metaphysical poets of the Renaissance sought to explore universal concepts of religion and and love against the backdrop of great social and religious change. The movement’s foremost contributor was arguably John Donne, whose poetry was...

Although very different in rhyme, tone and structure, both Woman’s Constancy and Song focus on the same theme: Women; in fact, though it may appear that these two poems have many differences, they are actually more similar than they at first...

Throughout Batter My Heart, the speaker is expressing his desire to be made new again and live a life without sin. The sense of unworthiness conveyed in this poem is mirrored in Love, as Herbert creates a speaker who believes himself unworthy of...

Metaphysical poets were concerned with grappling with original and unusual intellectual concepts, and none more so than John Donne, who amalgamates sacred and profane imagery in his verse in order to shock a deeply religious Jacobean audience. In...

Metaphysical poets have been renowned for their exploration of the extremes of human experience- love and death- and such a fascination can be identified in Donne’s verse: the love poetry of the writer- ‘The Sun Rising’ and ‘The Flea’ concentrates...

Donne’s primary target audience was a select cluster of male friends as opposed to a universal one, meaning that some poems such as ‘The Flea’ and ‘To His Mistress Going to Bed’ are compelling as allow us insight into a particular male-centric...

Many prayers consist of asking God for peace, protection, or forgiveness. John Donne, however, in his Holy Sonnet XIV, has created a strikingly different kind of prayer. In the very first line, the speaker says to God, “Batter my heart.” The poem...

John Donne effectively explores the relationship between passion and reason in his love poetry. Donne’s many works, such as ‘to his mistress going to bed’ and ‘the ecstasy’ exhibit the discourse of love and equate the strength and power of both...

Utilizing multidisciplinary knowledge gained from analysis of critical readings grants the individual the ability to better understand and judge the ways in which John Donne writes through a metaphysical lens that establishes thought provoking...