Donne as a Love Poet

Introduction: The variety and scope of Donne’s love poetry is really remarkable. He hinges between physical and holy love, between cynicism and faith in love and above all the sanctity of married life. He was born at the time when writing love-poems was both a fashionable and literary exercise. Donne showed his talent in this genre. His poems are entirely different from the Elizabethan love-lyrics. They are singular for their fascination and charm and depth of feeling.

When by thy scorn, o murderess,

I am dead

And that thou think’st thee free

From all solicitations from me,

Then shall my ghost come to thy bed

Donne does not lay stress on beauty or rather the aesthetic element in passion. His poems are sensuous and fantastic. He goes through the whole gamut of passion. Dryden writes: Donne affects the metaphysics not only in his satires but in his amorous verses where nature only should reign. He perplexes the minds of the fair sex with nice speculations of philosophy, when he should engage their hearts and entertain them with the softness of love”

Tenderness and sentiment are not the qualities to be found in Donne’s poetry. Donne in Lover’s Infinitenesse, pleads with his beloved that she should give him a part of her heart. After she has given him the part, he demands the whole heart. This is the goal and consummation of love. He then startles and outrages the expectations of his readers.

I long to talk with some old lover’s ghost;

Who died before that God of love was born,

Twice or thrive had I loved thee,

Before I knew they face or name.

Donne’s love poems can be divided under three heads.

Poems of moods of lovers, seduction and free love or fanciful relationship

Poems addressed to his wife Anne More (his wife) before and after his marriage.

Poems addressed to other noble ladies.

Three Strands of his poetry. Firstly, there is the cynical which anti-woman and hostile to the fair-sex. The theme is the frailty of man – a matter of advantage for lovers who liked casual and extra-marital relations with ladies. Secondly, there is the strand of happy married life, the joy of conjugal love in poems like A Valediction: forbidding mourning. Thirdly, there is the Platonic strand, as in The Canonization where love is regarded as a holy emotion like the worship of a devotee to God. Donne’s treatment of love-poems is realistic and not idealistic because he knows the weakness of the flesh, pleasures of sex, the joy of secret meetings. However, he tries to establish the relationship between body and soul. True love doesn’t pertain to the body; it is the relationship of body and soul to the other soul. Physical union may not be necessary as in A Valediction: a forbidding mourning. However, in the Relic, the poet regarded physical union as the necessary complement. Despite the realistic touches, Donne nowhere seems to draw the physical beauty or contours of the female body. Rather, he describes its reaction on the lover’s heart. It is highly surprising that a poet so fond of sex, be restrained from describing the physical patterns of the female body.

True Sex is holy: That sex is holy whether inside or outside marriage is declared by Donne in his love-poems. If love is mutual, physical union even outside marriage cannot be condemned. As a Christian, he may not justify extra-marital relationships, but as a lover and poet, he does accept and enjoy this reality. Donne feels that love-bond is necessary for sexual union otherwise mere sex without any spiritual love for the partner is degrading and mean. However, true love can exist outside marriage, though moralists may sneer at this idea of Donne. He doesn’t feel that woman is a sex-doll or a goddess. She is essentially a bundle of contradictions. He believes in ‘Frailty, thy name is woman’. His contempt for woman is compensated by his respect for conjugal love. At times, he regards woman as the angel who can give him ultimate bliss. This two-fold attitude is Donne’s typical quality as the poet. The poems referring to his wife, Anne More reflect true serenity and consummation of love.

Donne’s uniqueness: While the Elizabethan lyrics are, by large limitations of Petrarchan traditions, Donne’s poems stand in a class by themselves. He broke away from the traditional concept of poetry as was Petrarchan in nature. The concept of woman in Petrarchan and in that of Donne is totally different. Another quality is his passion and though, he doesn’t allow his passion to run away with him. Grierson writes: Donne’s poetry is a very complex phenomenon, but the two dominant strains in it are just these: the strains of dialectic, subtle play of argument and wit and fantastic; and the strain of vivid realism and a record of passion. Donne shows the supremacy of love.

Love, all like, no season knows nor clime,

Nor hours, days, months, which are the rags of time, in fact true love is the merger of two souls. Donne has certainly been an innovator of a new kind of love-poetry. What surprises the reader is the variety of different moods and situations of the theme of love – sensual, violent, and full of vivacity of life. There is scorn, cynicism, bitterness and sarcasm but the force of love is genuine and unquestionable. Donne is one of the greatest English love-poets. In fact, among all the English love-poets, he is the complete amongst them.

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What is Critical Essay ???

The essay in its purest form uses words to establish ideas addressed directly by the essayist to the reader. On this basis we can see that its essential quality is persuasion. The essay is a form of literature. It may be surprising because we have read numerous essays that we would not consider literary at all. In fact, many essays are not literary in any respect.

Many are completely practical pieces of writing, designed to report something, or explain something, or make a case for something. Essayists like Virginia Woolf seek to create an experience that is valuable for its own sake, and they do so by using language imaginatively, as in other forms of literature. Pleasure is the last thing we expect of an essay, but it was certainly the first thing on her mind. And the kind of pleasure she had in mind was what we commonly expect of literature – that it temporarily remove us from the world of everyday affairs by immersing us in the world of the imagination.

      The essay is a very flexible form and has been so ever since it originated with the sixteenth-century French writer Montaigne. He used it as a means of exploring himself and his ideas about human experience, and his essays were, in a sense, a means of thinking on paper, of trying things out in writing. And he deliberately emphasized their tentative and informal quality by calling them essais, a term he derived for the French verb essayer – to try. The tern “essay” has since come to be used as a catch-all for non-fictional prose work of limited length, but that description of the form turns out to be misleading. Some essays are fiction, and some essays are very long. Essays may be long or short, factual or fictional, practical or playful. They may serve any purpose and take any form that an essayist wants to try out.
      The essay is a pure form which uses words to establish ideas that are addressed directly by the essayist to the reader. Thus, its essential quality is persuasion. But there is the proximity of the four forms –essays, fiction, poetry, and drama – to one another. Each of the forms is capable of using the elements, techniques, or even strategies of the other forms. The essay, then, is not confined to the form of straightforward persuasion, it may also be narrative, or dramatic, or poetic in form. Or an essay may involve a combination of the forms; and the longer it is; the more likely it will be to combine the various possibilities of form in rich and complex ways.
      In its pure form the essay explicitly attempts to persuade us of something by means of an appeal and argument that the author addresses directly to us, much as any public speaker would address an audience. In a narrative essay the author becomes a narrator, a storyteller, who reports directly to us on persons and events. A narrative essay sees its subject in time and presents it in the form of history. A dramatic essay takes the form of a dialogue between two or more characters, and the author is present, if at all, only to perform the duties of a director to set the scene and identify the characters whose words and actions are to be witnessed by the reader. An essay is poetic to the extent that its author or speaker appears to be talking to himself rather than to others. A poetic essay takes the form of a mediation “overheard” by the reader.
      In approaching an essay we should first read it through for our own pleasure. Following this first reading, we should review it quickly and assign it tentatively to one of four types.
      If the essay is directly persuasive-argumentative, we should read it a second time, more analytically than the first time. Then we should examine its arrangement to see how the author has structured his persuasion. We should examine its arguments, particularly any analogies used or assertions made, for (a) their accuracy in themselves, and (b) the extent of their relevance to the point being made. We should consider any assumptions required by these assertions or analogies. Then we should consider the personality of the essayist and the kind of role it invites you to play. Finally, formulate your response to the view presented and evaluate the presentation.
      If the essay in narrative, we should pay attention to its narrative elements in our second reading. We should try to divide the story into its meaningful parts and consider the way of description, dialogue, and commentary works in each part-how they contribute to the events being narrated. After we have focused on these elements, we should look for passages of special thematic import in which the author steps back from the story to comment on its significance, to offer an interpretation of the story. We should consider the persuasive force of the story in supporting the ideas the author is proposing. Then we should consider the implied personality of the essayist both during the narrative sections and the interpretive parts, and how that affects our response to the essay. Finally, we might ask ourselves if we find the essay convincing-both as narrative and persuasive.
      If the essay is meditative, our re-readings should be especially close and careful in their attention to the associative play of mind with words, images, and ideas. We should consider how one detail generates, or suggests, another, and explain, if we can, the process that leads the author from one detail or idea to the next. The sort of examination that we think of as appropriate for poetry is appropriate for the meditative essay as well. We should pay special attention, then, to tone and imagery. Only after we have made an investigation of this kind should we begin to ask questions about the persuasive dimension of the essay.
      If the essay is in dialogue form, our second reading should concentrate on its dramatic elements – character, setting, and plot. We should consider whether any one character seems to speak with the author’s authority behind him, and if we feel this to be the case, we should investigate the details that have led us to that view, in order to determine whether the evidence is really sufficient for this to be an appropriate response. We should be alert for any words of scene-setting as this may be a way of inserting some narrative commentary into a dialogue. The scene-setter may speak with the author’s voice. Finally, we should look for some dramatic movement toward a climax, in order to determine the relation between the dramatic form and the persuasive purpose of the essay.
      Any essay my in fact be a combination of the basic forms, and the longer it is, the more likely to combine the various possibilities in rich and complex ways. We should try to be tactful and vary our approach to suit the variations in the work we are reading. We should remember that reading an essay or any other work of literature, like carrying on a human relationship, requires attentiveness, flexibility, and responsiveness.

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Belinda : Alexander Pope - Summary and Critical Analysis

This extract (Belinda) is a section of "Rape of the Lock" in which the main character Belinda is doing her make up before going to a place where all the high-class people chat, gossip and drink tea and coffee. First of all, Belinda dressed in white robe and bareheaded, worships with concentration the deities who preside over the art of makeup. Thus, she looks at her own reflection in the mirror. The reflection reveals to her heavenly beauty. Therefore, she looks to the details of her make-up and embellishments.

She stoops down to examine the lower portion of her body right, and then she looks again at the reflection in the mirror. The inferior priestess stands by the side of the sacred table. She is there to assist Belinda in her make-up and dressing, and trembling with fear for the best she begins the ritual of dressing up her proud mistress. Numerous caskets are opened, each of which contains precious presents from different parts of the world. From each casket, Betty, the inferior priestess, takes out skillfully and with exact care some bright and precious things to adorn the Goddess (Belinda).

     From one casket she picks out the most brilliant pearls and diamonds of India, and from another she takes out the best perfume of Arabia. Next, she takes up the spotted combs make of tortoise shells, and the milky white combs made of ivory. Then she uses the rows of shining pins, hairpins, puffs, powders, patches, bibles and love-letters.
     The awfully beautiful Belinda now puts on her different ornaments and cosmetics to add still further to her beauty. Her entrancing beauty appears to greater advantage with every adoring piece of jewels. Her smiles become more attractive and her graces more important by the use of cosmetics and jewels. All the wonders of her face area roused when her cheeks are artfully roughed. Her eyelashes and eyelids are delicately colored so as to give to her eyes the brightness of lighting.
     When we critically analyze this piece of extract from the classical mock-epic (or mock-heroic) poem The Rape of the Lock, a description of make-up being done by the heroine of the poem, Belinda, as she prepares to go for a daily idle gathering in the afternoon. This is a parody of an epic hero preparing for the battle. The piece, in its original context, can also be interpreted as a bitter social satire of the time (18th century).
     In its literal paraphrase, the poem simply describes the dressing table of Belinda and how she does her make-up. Belinda, wearing white dress, first appreciates her cosmetic materials. Then, she looks at the mirror with pride and self-praise. Her belongings are seen to be many and disorganized. As the make-up proceeds, Belinda looks more and more beautiful.
     However, at each point, we can see that the poet has ironically compared her with an epic hero putting on armor before going for battle. First Belinda worships her "Cosmetic Powers" and that is the parody of the hero worshipping his ancestors, gods and goddesses for giving him strength and courage. After that, she worships herself, and may be this is more than the epic hero's ritual! Like the hero, she then begins other rites, though her rites are not the tribal or religious rites but "scared rites of pride", that is make up and false pride in artificial beauty. Next, the poet parodies the description of the epic hero's weapons by describing her dressing table with a lot of satire on the girl and her society. He uses words from real epics like "spoil", "arms", "files", etc. And finally, our mock-hero is prepared with lighting in her eyes and 'repaired' smile n her lips. Her weapons also include "Puffs, Powers, Patches, Bibles, Billet-doux", she doesn't know herself what is what! Combs, pins, perfumes, gems, artificial blush and the artificial fairness may also parodies deadly weapons!
     More important than parody is satire in the extract as well as in the whole poem. Belinda prays to cosmetic objects. That shows how the women of the time gave 'divine' value to petty things. Her narcissistic self-worship is another deadly satire on vain women's foolishness. But that was asocial behavior of the time and therefore it is a social satire! Pope uses many words of religion to suggest that the girl was giving herself, too, a religious importance. The deification is completed with the metaphor "Goddess" (line 10).
     The satire on the particular girl Belinda is not only meant to criticize female vanity but the vanities and absurdities of that society. Besides, there are more complex political satires, too. The "spoil" (weapons or wealth seized from victims of battles) from all the world are offerings of the British empire, specially to its lazy ladies at home! The British Empire had seized the gems of India, perfumes of Arabia, and killed animals like elephants and tortoise everywhere to make cosmetic offering to these good-for-nothing hypocritical women around the queen. In general Belinda's narcissism, pride and vanity, over-estimation of petty things, confusion of values, false beauty and every other weakness represent a culture of the time. Pope is giving an example of a society and culture so full of corrupted lazy, hypocritical and vain behaviors, especially in women in his time. The line "Puffs, powders ..." is the example of how the people of the time put everything together because they didn';t know their difference in value or appropriateness. On the same table, there are puffs (symbols or aristocratic standard, and hypocrisy), powders (feminine beauty, and artificiality), patches (political batches, and dogma), Bible (religious life, and apparent faith), and billet-doux (love letter, affectedly in jilting romance). Like Belinda, the society was confused between and among the spiritual and the worldly, the religious and the profane, the great and the mean, the genuine and the pretentious, the political, the romantic, and so on. The general social satire is symbolically represented by the table and Belinda's behavior and attitude towards things and herself. In the larger context of the poem, it is more a social satire then personal or that of the gender only. In short it satirized the false culture of artificial "personality" of the time.
     The extract is from a classical poem, and it also exhibits many classical features. The metaphors, the use of poetic diction, the structure of sentence, the use of words in unusual sense, and the rhythm and rhyme of the classical heroic couplet are the features of classical poetry. The words like Nymph, Priestess, altar and Goddess are religious metaphors ironically used to suggest the "sacred rites of pride", which is another satiric metaphor. The war and epic metaphors like breathe, files, spoil, arms, and lightning are also ironic satires: there is nothing heroic and artificial preparation of the awful beauty by a flirt who has no real powers or skills. The words like robed, uncovered, unnumbered, unlocks, ope, yonder, billet-doux, etc, belong to the special poetic diction (vocabulary). Finally, the use of the pair of rhyming lines with iambic pentameter in both, called heroic couplet, is another feature of classical poetry.
     The combination of three images- the first of the vain goddess becoming goddess by putting on make-up appearance, the second image of an epic hero putting armors, and the third image of the chaotic scene of a woman's toilet' - make the poem really funny, striking and deeply satirical. Pope is perhaps the best of satiric poets, with a special gift for technical mastery, too. It's a rare word-game, though the music is conventional, and the expression is rather difficult to understand without someone supplying us with the general context.

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Shakespearean Soliloquy.

Shakespeare is known for his deep understanding of human nature with diverse feelings, emotions, and passions both positive and negative involved in it. Soliloquy is a device according to which a character brings out the inner complex feelings by speaking to himself / herself. The audience is supposed to hear it but not the other characters. Shakespeare gives soliloquies to complex character in order to bring out the secret feelings and plans which the character cannot share with other characters.
    Characters are individuals with their own complex thoughts and emotions. Not all these thoughts and emotions can be shared with others. Though drama is something public by its nature, soliloquies help to bring to light the private side of a character’s personality. It is the most appropriate formula for revealing the complex thoughts in the mind of characters. Shakespeare gives soliloquies either to villains or to protagonists with complex personality. In Othello, he gives more soliloquies to the antagonist Iago. Since Iago is a scheming villain his deceptions, treachery, conspiracies and pretensions can best be revealed through soliloquies. It helps to show that side of the character’s personality which is hidden from the other characters who are the victims of Iago’s villainy. In Hamlet, it is the character Hamlet who soliloquizes often thereby revealing his doubts, dilemmas, fears, anger and musings on questions of morality. Hamlet is not the acting type so the reflective or contemplative side of his personality is best brought out through his soliloquies. His ‘to be or not to be is the question’ is one of the most remarkable soliloquies that serves to highlight the state of indecision in which he finds himself.

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