john donne poetry Flashcards
1
Q
The Good Morrow
A
- Possibly about Anne More
- D wonders how he survived w/o her
- They’re now intertwined
- Their relationship can’t die if they’re equally invested
2
Q
Song: go and catch a falling star
A
- Misogynistic undertones
- All the women he knows are scheming
3
Q
The Sun Rising
A
- Celebratory
- Possible about A.M.
- A.M. is Donne’s world
4
Q
The Canonization
A
- J.D. + A.M. are saints in love
- They stand against adversity
- Their relationship will transcend time
- They’ll be remembered through art+history
5
Q
Song: sweetest love do not go
A
- J.D is about to go on a journey + is assuring A.M. this he will be back
- By her being upset, it makes him upset
- He feels like he is dying
6
Q
Air and Angels
A
- J.D. feels like he hasn’t met his soulmate yet but soon will
- Platonic ideas
7
Q
The Anniversary
A
- Poss. anniversary of J.D. + A.M
- When they die, their love will only get stronger + will transcend death
8
Q
Twickenam Garden
A
- Self pity
- The garden is dead like how he feels
- Unrequited love
9
Q
Love’s Exchange
A
- He gave his life to his love + got nth back
- Cupid manipulated him - cupid is selfish
10
Q
A Valediction of Weeping
A
- J.D is leaving A.M. to travel
- They’re both crying + drowning in their tears
- Their tears are spherical like the world
11
Q
Love’s Alchemy
A
- Compares the search for love with the search for life’s elixir
- Both are impossible
12
Q
A Nocturnal upon St Lucy’s Day, Being the Shortest Day
A
- In response to someones death
13
Q
The Apparition
A
- Imagines that after he dies, he will come back to haunt the woman
- She will call to her new lover for help but he will pretend to be asleep
14
Q
A Valediction Forbidding Mourning
A
- A.M. is worried that smth bad will happen when J.D. travels
- J.D. says their love is so strong that they’ll be okay
- She is the fixed foot on a compass to which he will return
15
Q
The Ecstasy
A
- A couple stare into each others eyes
- Their souls meet outside their body + create harmony
- They stay like that all day
- Then their souls return back
- Physical connection allows a spiritual connection
16
Q
Love’s Deity
A
- Courtly (unrequited) love
- Cupids fault - cupid is brutal by putting ppl tog who don’t belong tog
17
Q
The Blossom
A
- Smth beautiful breaks
- A woman in’t interested in the heart alone
- Courtly (unrequited) love
- He will be healthiest away from her + give his heart to sm1 who will love it
18
Q
The Relic
A
- Worried that J.D. + his love won’t be reunited after death
- Hopes they’ll be reunited on judgement day
- Miracle that J.D. + A.M. met when everything was against them
19
Q
The Dissolution
A
- After Anne More’s death
- The pain of living w/o her will kill him
- He will live a long life w fire in his soul - anger?
20
Q
Farewell to Love
A
- Cynical view on love
- He respected cupid
- He’s no longer got faith in love
- Petrarchan (unrequited) love
21
Q
Elegy: Change
A
- Women’s beauty attracts eyes of anyone
- But many men pursue one woman + so she may have multiple partners
- He doesn’t want to look desperate
22
Q
Elegy: His Picture
A
- J.D going too fight in Cadith + gave picture to A.M.
- He may come back dishevelled + she’ll get other suitors but rebuke them
- Just bc he’ll look diff, doesn’t mean he won’t love her any less
23
Q
Elegy: The Comparison
A
- Compares his love to sm1 else’s
- she isn’t as appealing - lacks facial harmony
- Him + his bl worship each other like turtle doves
24
Q
Elegy: The Autumnal
A
- Secular relationship
- Beauty soon decays but his love for her won’t
- Would rather spend a day w an older person than a younger person
- Cynical tone change towards end
25
Elegy: To His Mistress Going to Bed
- Trying to convince a woman to sleep w him
- Agressive + impatient
- Tone change in middle - respect
- Tone change to lust again
26
Holy Sonnet III
- Wants to go back + change his emotional state
- Enduring his previous emotional state was sinful
27
Holy Sonnet V
- Views himself as a creation of God
- His sins betrayed his body + soul
- Asks God to purge him
28
Holy Sonnet VI
- His death will be like the final scene in a play
- Death will sep. his soul + body
- Wants to be parted from sin + evil + leave the physical world
29
Holy Sonnet XI
- Depicts God as being unfair
- Asking why hes damned when other evil things escape
- Calling God to forget his sins
30
Holy Sonnet X
- Diminishing death
- Death isn't the end
- Death isn't the decider so why is it so arrogant
31
Holy Sonnet XI
- Thinks he deserves to be crucified
- Committed so many sins that even death won't make up for it
- Christ did no wrong + was killed but Donne's committed so many sins + hasn't been punished
32
Holy Sonnet XIII
- Picture in his heart of Christ being crucified
- Christ was too kind to judge
- If its judgement day, he wants God to know he's devoted
- Misdevotion to secular woman rather than devoted women
33
Holy Sonnet XIV
- Asking to be punished for his sins
- Asks God to remake him
- Taken over by sin
34
Holy Sonnet XVII
- Written shortly after Anne's death
- Untimely death
- Worried that his love will turn away from God to saints + angels
35
Holy Sonnet XIX
- Feels like hes fluctuating between dev to God + being immoral
- Some days he cares about God, others he doesn't
- Yesterday he committed sins
36
Goodfriday, 1613 Riding Westward
- Speaker turns his back on the east, to the rising sun, to the crucified Christ, God
- Turned towards spiritual side of life
- Devotion to God should revolve around Mans soul but in reality business + pleasure revolved
- He deserves punishment
37
Hymn to God my God, in my Sickness
- Reflecting on life's choices
- Compares body to map - doctors reading his fate?
- Confidence in belief in the afterlife
- We have eternal life as a result of Christ's devotion
38
A Hymn to God the Father
- Asking for sins to be forgiven
- He's committed so many that they might not all be forgiven
- Still wants the sun to shine after his death
