The Anniversary Flashcards
Biographical context
Donne and his wife Anne, marriage, their religious differences, societal attitudes, they married without Anne’s father’s permission
Metaphysical context
Hyperbole - “everlasting”
Dialogue
Argument - “graves”
Shifting scale - “sun”
Religion- secular love - “souls”
Doubt
What type of poem is The Anniversary, and what imagery does it utilise?
Secular poem using religious imagery
“All Kings, and all their favourites”, “All glory of honours”
Motif of nobility from start of poem
What structure is present throughout the poem?
Rhyming couplets throughout poem
“When thou and I”
Dialogue, typically Metaphysical
Shifting scale of two lovers and “sun”
“Only our love hath no decay”
Destruction, contrasts to “everlasting” lovers and kings
What does the first stanza being one sentence suggest?
More complex structure suggests more complex ideas
“Two graves must hide thine and my corse”
Metaphorically intertwined - secular love and religion
“Two graves” - human frailty, acceptance
“thine” - dialogue
“death were no dicorce”
Death would not separate the lovers
Context: death was prevalent in Donne’s life
“eyes and ears”
Physicality of their love
“Souls were nothing dwells but love”
Religious imagery to describe their love for each other
“love increasèd there above”
Theology: love and Christianity, go to heaven and love will increase
“kings”, “Princes”
Nobility, masculine only, links to patriarchy
Punctuation in third stanza? What does it suggest?
Punctuation is staccato, implies less confidence
“Who is so safe as we?” - caesura, interrogative, adds doubt
“Treason to us, except one of us two”
Offence against king, doubt/uncertain about connection
“love nobly”
Further adds to motif of nobility throughout
“Years and years unto years”
Repetition, highlights commitment that they have to each other in their love
“threescore”
Sixty year marriage, in 1600s this length of marriage would have been extraordinary
“Second of our reign”
Motif of nobility throughout - raising up profile of their position/relationship
1. Prior
2. Earthly - second of reign
3. Heavenly
Soul - eternal, exists before and after birth, theological - religious context
Renaissance - Shakespeare, Donne etc.
