Key Poetry Anthologies Flashcards
Sonnet 116 - William Shakespeare
Elizabethan era; uncommon peace led to introspection and reflections upon truth.
Documenting also transition to civil war (James I).
Pessimistic determiners = clearing the weeds/dirt.
Personifying “Love” as not “Time’s fool” = personal substance, whereas properties of lust is Time’s fool.
“O no!” exclamatory emphasis + rhyming couplet = weight of argument (Invention of the Human).
“true minds” > physicality.
“never shaken” = expressed from within, give > take.
The Flea - John Donne
Elizabethan era; uncommon peace led to introspection.
Unlike Shakespeare, Donne resulted into a ‘metaphysical’ poet.
Renaissance (rebirth by challenging tradition) belief that sex mingles blood – rebirth of love is still bound taking and physicality!
Metaphor ‘Flea’ for adultery, sexual union, and free roaming. Like Jazz age, intention for all-love, but operates at a physical means.
indented lines as summary points in an argument, but mingling blood logically is not “more than married”.
‘Metaphysical’ contradicting Christian standards.
The Ruined Maid - Thomas Hardy
Victorian period. Divisions b/w rich and poor, men and women. Victorian sexual hypocrisy = sell sexuality, distant from society but be ‘rich’ or be ‘pure’ but ‘poor’?
Colloquial vs formality. But cannot hold her mask at last line, can never be higher class.
Juxtaposition of poverty and privilege.
Superficial freedom. External vs internal “ruined”.
Non Sum Qualis - Ernest Dowson
Victorian era but Decadent movement (indulgence, rebellion, often write about and experience tragic love).
Died at 32, romantic yet unhappy “sick” life, passed last years tormenting over a girl half his age.
–> Sensation of lips/sex is same food but on different plates. Must have underlying connection beyond the physical.
Opening sensuous and sad tone + “ah” and commas to slow rhythm; self-indulgent, yet seems to be trying to escape.
ABACBC = bored of expected rhyme; regular but unusual.
Repetitive remorse, but also alliterative “f” indicating humour.
“Lilies” = beauty, purity, but also funerals (hence coping mechanism).
“Madder music” = strong and bold alliteration, but “feast is finished” = muted and quiet. Desire unsatisfactory and cynical cycle.
Constant metaphors and symbolisms.
Absent From Thee - John Wilmot
1660s restoration period. Freedom & liveliness.
Nihilistic atheist, work censored in Victorian era.
Burnet notes that Wilmot was “continually drunk and not a master of himself”.
Once famously remarked that he’d rather be a monkey or a dog than a human. Lower nature desires, no rational.
Satirical. Power of lust > love. All about pleasure.
Extended metaphor that Heaven is boring/inferior.
A “song” form + ABAB to satire traditional ideals about romance.
