Essays on John Donne.

In Defense of Literature: Art, Life, and Edson’s Wit

Margaret Edson’s monumental play Wit is a short but impactful piece that deals with a number of different themes throughout the course of the single act. Looking at Edson’s one-act play in the context of Florence Dee Boodakian’s statement, “Literature goes beyond life. It is art; it is an imaginative creation that can tell truths gracefully, subtly through narrative, poetry, and the movement of characters on a stage. Any imaginative act suggests possibility, and this is another reason to continue studying literature” encourages the reader or viewer to use the contrasting themes of life and death as well as ...

The metaphysical poets John Donne and Andrew Marvell were two of the most known and most influential people with regards to metaphysical poetry. Although for the case of Marvell, it was only until after he died when his poems were published. Thus, it is only right that this discussion on metaphysical poetry be an analysis and literary assessment of their works. I have acquired two poems to discuss in this paper of comparison which are John Donne’s “The Flea” and Marvell’s “To His Coy Mistress” and see what defines these works as metaphysical and what ...

Synopsis of wit

Wit begins with Vivian speaking to the audience. She is a patient at a major research hospital and has been diagnosed with ovarian cancer (Edson 3). She treats her sickness with the same impartiality as she would research. Before she was hospitalized, she was professor Bearing. She played the role of scholar and teacher specializing in the Holy Sonnets of John Donne. In her play, Margaret takes the audience through the many achievements of professor Bearing by illuminating on the past and the present achievements. Vivian takes the audience through what happens to her when she is treated with chemotherapy for a ...

John Donne’s poetry reflects a deep image of religious elements and most of his sonnets are the combination of both Catholic and Protestant. In “The Flea” and “Show Me Dear Christ” John Donne also uses religious imagery. He expresses in implicit way this tactic. HHHHis early poem “The Flea” implies the concept of sexual love; furthermore, it exemplifies unconventional metaphor by which the flea bites two lovers, who are compared on the basis of sex. Moreover, we see a woman trying to resist sexual advances. The speaker with the help of the flea was trying to convince her that the ...

“Valediction: Forbidding Mourning” and “To His Coy Mistress” are metaphysical poems, and no doubt, both are love poems too. However, there is a major difference between these two poems. They are as follows: in “ Valediction: Forbidding Mourning,” Donne compared the separation of lovers as departing from each other and stay away, whereas in “To His Coy Mistress,” Andrew Marvell compares the separation of lovers to death. In John Donne’s “A Valediction Forbidding Mourning,” a man is bidding farewell to his ladylove as he prepares to leave. The man’s profound love for his ladylove is apparent in the poem that ...

Critical analysis

“A Valediction: forbidding mourning” is a poem written by John Donne between 1611 and 1612. “A Valediction” is 36 line poem which was first published in the collection “Songs and sonnets” in 1633 and written for his beloved wife Anne. The main theme of the poem is the love, described by the author as a pure, whole-hearted and all-conquering feeling, unbound by any earthly misfortunes. In the first two stanzas, the author compares the parting of beloved to the death which in the poem is described as a division of body and soul. That departure is so silent and subtle that ...

I Came to buy a smile — today — by Emily Dickson Emily Dickson has a mastery of poetic form and rhetoric that places each reader can directly connect with. In the poem “I came to buy a smile-today,” is one of the most critical rhetoric poems of all the time. In The poem, Dickson desires to buy a smile an indication of happiness from a vendor. She claims to have gold, diamond, and rubies, the precious metals that all humans wish to have, but for sure, no one can buy happiness. She wonders how much she can bargain to get the smile for ...

(Student’s Name) (Instructor’s Name) The Rhetorical Function of Carpe Diem in John Donne’s “Elegy XIX: To His Mistress Going to Bed” and “The Flea” Carpe diem is a Latin term which is usually interpreted as meaning "seize the day". However, as indicated by the website, <http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/carpe-diem.html>, the phrase actually means "'enjoy the day, pluck the day when it is ripe'" (para. 2). Additionally, the author of the website notes the following: "The extended version of the phrase 'carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero' translates as 'pluck the day, trusting as little as possible ...

Introduction

For many centuries and across many continents and societies, poetry is one of the literary arts that have been embraced and used by poets and other lingual professionals to address various aspects that affect the day to day organization of the society. Taking a rhythmic route and characterized by various languages such as symbolism and phonaesthetics, poems have been introduced and adopted into the society and later passed on from one generation to the next, in order to educate, entertain, rebuke, teach, correct and direct, among many other roles that they play in our society. Various poets have in ...

John Donne utilized a strategic code of language to present the idea of a man trying to convince a woman into a sexual relationship. Donne compares the inner relationship that subsists between the parasite and the host to the relationship between the persona and the woman. He observes that eventually there is a feeling that an extension of the same is likely to cause no harm to either of them. Donne begins his trail by a metaphor where he compares the woman to the flea. The persona uses this strategy to articulate the prime concept of his script work. He depicts the relationship is ...

Critical Analysis

Poem Critical Analysis Introduction This article is about the poems Sonnet 116 written by William Shakespeare, Holly Sonnet 14 written by John Donne, and Ballad of Chocolate Mabbie by Gwendolyn Brooks. In this article, we will share the backgrounds of each poem so we can somehow get the idea behind these poems. These renowned writers of our history can consider these a work of art. These poems also show how the writers wrote their piece in a different manner using different terms. Also, in this article, we’ll have the idea on how these authors expressed their thoughts about a ...

The play, Wit, by Margaret Edson, tells the story of Professor Vivian Bearing. The play opens with a monologue by Vivian in which she shares with the audience that she has been diagnosed with stage four ovarian cancer, and that she will be dead by the end of the play. The following scenes explore Vivian’s past as well as her present. She offers commentary throughout the play, as she becomes the narrator of her own life, and ultimately, her own death. Through this commentary, we as an audience are allowed to witness Vivian’s personality. We learn what she ...

One of the things, among others, that the poets John Donne (1572–1631) and John Milton (1608–1674) have in common is their poetic style. John Donne and John Milton developed a poetic style in which they reasonably and often paradoxically approached philosophical and spiritual subjects. Although John Donne and John Milton have written fairly distinct poems, but their constructions of devotion and godly poetics tend to be quite similar. Although most of their poetic works are centered on their personal relationship with spirituality, but the sexual realism in their poetries cannot be ignored or overlooked. They use rhythms in ...

Margaret Edson’s play, Wit is an incredibly moving and yet funny play. In the opening scene, we are introduced to Dr. Vivian Bearing. She is an English professor specializing in the works of John Donne, and she is diagnosed with stage four ovarian cancer. Vivian tells the audience, “There is no stage five” (Edson 12). Vivian knows from the first moments of the play that she is going to die. In fact, she tells the audience as much within the first few pages: “It is not my intention to give away the plot; but I think I die ...

1. What community is the topic of this work by Donne?

There is no statement in Donne’s work that we could use as a reference to say that his work about mediation is intended for a particularly community. It would then be safe to assume that his work was for everyone who lived during the Renaissance period or for every Christians who lived during that period and are still living at this point in time.

2. Do you agree with his Definition of this Community’s Purpose?

Yes I agree with him. He defined the entire community as something that ...

It has many acceptances, people perceive it in different ways, there are various stories around it, but one thing is certain: nobody can escape it. This is death, the final event in people’s lives, one that cannot be avoided. The current paper treats different perspectives about death, as expressed in the works of Dylan Thomas (Do not Go Gentle into that Good Night), Wislawa Szymblorska (“On Death without Exaggeration”), Mary Oliver (“When Death Comes”), and John Donne (“Death Be Not Proud”). One’s existence on earth includes several stages from the moment when he is born until ...

This poem by John Donne is centered on a spiritual love that transcends the physical. As a metaphysical poem, this work uses several exaggerated comparisons in literature, a type of analogy that takes something physical and compares it to something spiritual or beyond physical. (Wikipedia contributors)

Starting from the title which means, when we part we must not mourn. This poem is for his beloved wife to comfort her while he was going on a business trip. He asks her not to mourn his departure and not to cry, by saying, “So let us melt, and make no noise, No tear-floods, nor sigh-tempests ...

“A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning” was written by John Donne, who was born in 1572 in a Roman Catholic family, in London. He studied both law and theology and was known as the founder of Metaphysical Poetry, which includes details and comparisons beyond the physical realm. Abstract comparisons are made to a physical or tangible object. Donne’s imagery therefore is eclectic and startling, and we see marks of the metaphysical conceit throughout the poem when the two souls (of his beloved’s and his) are compared to the two feet of a compass, united in the center. The poem was written roughly ...