John Donne - what his poetry was like at different stages of his life

Question 1

What are the three categories of Donne’s work and examples of his work in these categories?

Answer 1

1) The young ‘Jack Donne’ - misogynistic, lusty, cynical persona reflected in his early poetry (The Flea, The Bait, Song - Go and Catch a Falling Star)
2) The courting/married lover - ideas of infinite, neoplatonic love but also a love grounded in the physical (his sex poems). - (‘Valediction’, ‘Ecstasy’)
3) Dr. John Donne - Dean of St Paul’s Cathedral in 1621. Religious poetry (‘The Holy Sonnets’) and prose (‘Meditation 17’) that sometimes praises and sometimes struggles with God’s transcendent perfection

Question 2

What was neoplatonism?

Answer 2

the belief that human perfection and happiness is attainable in this world, without awaiting the afterlife

Question 3

What was Donne’s early poetry like? (Category 1)

Answer 3

• unconventional metaphors to portray sex
• erotic poetry (especially the elegies)
• Early poems criticised issues of English society

Question 4

What was Donne’s poetry like when he was a courting/married lover? (Category 2)

Answer 4

• idea that physical love (animal lust) was common and low-born whilst a spiritual love was worthy, unique and divine
• idea that love through procreation (having kids) was the closet to immortality (because it would mean your legacy can continue basically)

Eg. ‘A Valediction: Forbidden Mourning’ and ‘Ecstasy’

Question 5

Stages of platonic love?

Answer 5

initiated in sense
founded in reason
attains a spiritual quality

Question 6

What is the example of the Neoplatonic Syllogism in the PowerPoint?

Answer 6

1) god is everlasting and divine love
2) true, spiritual (not physical) love is also everlasting and perfect
3) therefore two lovers united by a spiritual love are closer to divinity

why does this like lowkey make sense….

Question 7

What was Donne’s later poetry like?

Answer 7

• more sombre and pious tone because of his illnesses, financial strain and deaths of his friends
• focused literary career on religious literature - quickly noted for sermons and religious poems

Question 8

Name two pieces of literature that have been influenced, an took lines from, Donne’s sermons.

Answer 8

Ernest Hemingway‘s ‘For Whom the Bell Tolls’ and Thomas Merton’s ‘No Man is an Island’, both took their titles in lines from Donne’s ‘Meditation XVII’ ​

Question 9

What was Donne’s even LATER poetry about?

Answer 9

• wrote works that challenged death and how it inspires fear in many men
• Donne believed that those who die are sent to heaven to live eternally

Question 10

6 features of metaphysical poetry?

CSCPPO

Answer 10

• conceits
• sensuality blended with philosophy
• complex rhythms
• passion with intellect
• paradox
• often posed as an argument (either with the beloved, self or god) argumentative form

Question 11

What is a paradox?

Answer 11

A seemingly untrue statement that proves true upon reflection/closer thought