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Donne is a metaphysical poet who uses metaphoric conceit in his poems by comparing two incredibly unlike things such as love and demeanors. Death is used as a metaphor in the departure of his wife. First, he compares his separation from his wife to the separation of a man's soul from his body when he dies (first stanza). The body represents physical love; the soul represents spiritual or intellectual love. While Donne and his wife are apart, they cannot express physical love; thus, they are like the body of a dead being.. However, Donne says, they remain united spiritually because their souls are one. So, Donne continues, he and his wife should let their physical bond "melt" when they part (line 5). He follows that metaphor with others, saying they should not cry sentimental "tear-floods" or indulge in "sigh-tempests" (line 6) when they say farewell. Such base sentimentality would cheapen their relationship. He also compares himself and his wife to celestial spheres, for their love is so profound that it exists in a higher plane than the love of husbands and wives whose relationship centers solely on physical pleasures where they require to remain together, physically...Finally, Donne compares his relationship with his wife to that of the two legs of a drawing compass. Although the legs are separate components of the compass, they are both part of the same object. If the outer leg traces a circle, the inner leg–though its point is fixed at…
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What is love? Often enough, as a hormone-struck teenager, I am lectured on what love is not. According to my mother, father, grandmother, aunts, uncles, and every adult figure that has ever made a guest-star appearance in the long-winded romance novel that is my life, love is NOT the warm cuddly feeling I get when I see a cute boy at school. Love is NOT holding hands on the playground; is not caring an abnormal amount for a favorite pair of shoes. I feel as though a vast amount of time is spent describing the negative space of a person’s heart, and not long enough spent defining its shape. Although Pastor Ostrum follows suit with his anti-definition of what love is not, he definitely strikes a chord in my heart when he says that “love is not something we wait to have happen to us, but something we do.” Many might disagree, might argue that love is a two-way street; that in order to give we must first receive. However, in the novel “Until They Bring the Streetcars Back,” by Stanley Gordon West, Cal Gant demonstrates this principle of giving time and time again.…
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Consider the ways in which Donne and Jennings use form, structure and language to present their thoughts and ideas. You should make relevant references to your wider reading in the poetry of love.…
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The Broken Heart, by John Donne, is a poem that illustrates imagery of how love destroys the heart.…
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Compare and contrast how love is presented within the two poems “Ballad: ‘The spring returns, the pewit screams’ by John Clare and ‘A Broken Appointment’ by Thomas Hardy.…
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Love is defined in the dictionary in many ways; just as in life, love does not hold one indefinite meaning, but an exclusive meaning to each individual. Poets throughout history have written countless poems on the topic of love. In some aspects these poems are very similar to one another but at the same time unique in their own manner. Sharon Old’s “Last Night” describes the love she encounters only for a brief moment after having sex for the first time. Whereas Mark Doty’s “The Embrace” pronounces the love he feels for his lover, when seeing him in a dream. These love poems seem to take a different path from the orthodox love poems one is used to seeing, and instead they express a side of love that is not often talked about. Both of these works represent a strong sense of symbolism that only expands the meaning that each poet is voicing.…
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Introduction: Love is often regarded as an emotion that invokes extreme joy, hope and excitement. For example, Romeo and Juliet were a young couple who were so excited and hopeful about their love that they were willing to do anything to be together. However, there is another side to the feeling we call love that isn't so joyous. The other, darker side of love is expressed by three Langston Hughes poem which show us the heart-break, the abandonment and the desperation associated with falling in love.…
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Donne’s poems are interesting in the way they often present an ongoing thought process, rather than a story with a distinct beginning and end. Donne being from the literary culture; many of his poems reflect this mid-way change of heart, as he is comfortable dealing in ongoing reflection and experience, rather than static facts. One of Donne’s love poems, ‘The Sunne Rising’ centres around Donne, in bed with his lover, annoyed at the sun for disturbing their slumber. “Busie old foole, unruly Sunne” he writes. Donne, in personifying the sun, and describing such a thing in paradox (“unruly sun”), supports the idea that literary culture places more emphasis on emotion and description than logical fact. The structure of ideas throughout the poem thereafter is fluid. Donne is initially annoyed at the sun for its punctuality, saying that a love like his knows no time, and the sun would be better off chastising late schoolboys. As the poem progresses, Donne goes from annoyance, to mocking the sun's supposed power (“Thy beames, so reverend… I could eclipse then with a winke”), to then feeling content, and almost bad for the sun. Donne writes “Thou sunne are halfe as happy’as wee, in that the world’s contracted thus”, in which he is stating that the poor, old sun must have an easier job shining down on him and his lover, as their entire world is confined to each other. It is this notion of fluidity of ideas that further reflects the literary culture of Donne’s poems. He uses his writings, not to record tangible fact and feeling, but to support the idea that both his thoughts, and the subjects of his writing, can easily be written flexibly, as they are both…
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In “The Broken Heart” by John Donne, we see his angry attitude towards the nature of love. Donne uses the imagery of broken glass, he wrote it in first person point of view, and used verbal irony to show us his angry attitude toward the nature of love.…
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The attitude in this poem is more towards heartbreak then love. But there is a sense of love in the tone. These two things loved each other, but it just wasn't meant to be. It makes the reader see hopelessness in their love life.…
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Love is perhaps the most expressed topic in media, since forever. The word ‘love’ is extremely ambiguous, able to be expressed in multiple ways. Love is often described as a double edged sword. It can mean all there is to one, an experience to be desired and pursued. To others, love is a poison, a drug, which slowly eats away your life and leaves you as nothing but an empty shell. Depending on who you are, love could mean either of these things. Or it could mean both. Poets too, have their own opinions on the subject of love, and often convey their feelings through their works of literacy. Examples of conflicting views on love can be seen expressed by the poets Browning, Keats, Shakespeare, Rossetti and Donne. How do these poets explore ideas of loyalty, love and relationships in their most well known poems?…
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While Donne appears to hold a holistic, unified view of love, undivided by the physical and made whole by the spiritual, the body of the woman is ironically the real obstruction of the abstract. Donne discards human bodies for celestial figures: “..free spheres move faster far than can/Birds whom the air resists…” (Lines 87-88). Air is yet another element that taints and obstructs the ‘free sphere’, yet it is vital to note the similar inhumanity of the poet in being described as a bird. Instead, both lovers described as celestial ‘spheres’ denotes transcendence from earthly ties, advancing instead along an “empty and ethereal way” (Line 89). Love, in its emptiest form, also appears at its purest. However, transformation of the poet, framed as the epic hero, prevents Donne from having a firmer grasp on pure…
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The poem then takes a turn that one would not expect. The man speaks of a woman, a dear woman who he was madly in love with. The unfortunate part is that she has been taken from him, leaving his heart weak and shattered. The man speaks of sorrow, fear, and nostalgia of his time with his lover.…
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Romantic love has been the subject of endless contemplation for poets of all periods. Intangible and complex, love is the highest manifestation of humanity. No topic in poetry has received more attention than romantic love. Conversely, the ultimate expression of love is through poetry. In each poetic period, the representation of romantic love has been informed by the social and cultural values of the time. Thus, across time, attitudes towards romantic love have shifted with changing values and beliefs. ‘Sonnet 130’ by William Shakespeare from the Elizabethan period, ‘Valediction: Forbidding Mourning’ by John Donne from the metaphysical period, and ‘Lullaby’ by W.H. Auden from the modern period are three poems that clearly reflect the changing representations of romantic love across time.…
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In the second stanza of Donne's poem, it reveals the characteristics of love. Its a predatory creature that "swallows us whole and never chaws". "He is a tyrant pike, our hearts the fry." THese two quote reveal the predatory nature of love. lines 9-12 reveals the vulnerabilty of the heart and once it has been hurt by love, theres no other past grief…
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