John Donne Essays

The most important theme in this poem is Marriage. The speaker is trying to seduce a woman into marrying him. Donne simply uses a Flea as to show the reader with a sense of descriptions “The Flea” is a symbol for a merger. A part of the speaker’s strategy of seduction is to make the […]

By looking closely at Donne’s “The Sunne Rising”, and at one other appropriately selected poem by either Donne or another poet, examine the methods the poet or poets use in exploring different kinds of love.N.B. Equal marks are available for your discussion of each poem. ‘The Sunne Rising’ by John Donne is a celebration of […]

‘The Sun Rising’ poem analysis by John Donne The poet addresses the sun as a person and rebukes the sun because it has wakened him and his lover from their sleep. He demands to know why lovers should obey time. He also shows his dominance over the sun, calling it a ‘saucy pedantic wretch’ and […]

The Flea and A Fever are two different poems written by John Donne. However, both discuss the same theme of love. The two poems are different in the kind of love, the picture of women in both, and in the structure. First of all, the two poems deal with the same topic which is love […]

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 […]

When looked at very closely, poetry of the 16th and 17th century was very similar in ways of expressing feelings and thoughts. However this has not prevented the two from having amazingly huge differences between them, whether it is in the theme or structure.I6th century poetry, otherwise known as Elizabethan poetry was mainly based around […]

Both William Shakespeare and John Donne wrote sonnets at around the same time as each other. However, both of them wrote very differently yet still deciding to write about philosophical topics. They are different because Shakespeare decides to calm the reader; Donne uses powerful words which make the reader very aware of what they are […]

To His Coy Mistress, written by Andrew Marvell in 1681 and The Flea, written by John Donne in 1633 are examples of metaphysical poetry. Both of the poems try to convince their partner to have sex with the poet. The poems are also examples of dramatic lyric poetry because the poet addresses another person and […]

Both of these poems are Metaphysical in many ways. The term ‘Metaphysical’ refers to matters that are literally ‘beyond the physical’ – this is things such as God, heaven and hell, the soul and the meaning of life. They looked past visible life to discover the concealed beauty beneath. Much of their work contained an […]

Donne’s love poem, “A Lecture upon the Shadow” intellectualises the idea of love and through his careful selection of words and images creating symbolism, addresses humankind and calls them to heed, “stand still” (line 1) and listen to “a lecture”, presented as a special interpretation of love, “love’s philosophy” (line 2). Donne contrasts love with […]

Pre-1914, three love poems or sonnets were composed by writers who were vastly dissimilar. The poems in this collection each employ distinct styles in their representation of love. John Donny’s approach in “The Flea” employs clever language to entice sexual activity, while William Shakespeare places emphasis on the emotion of love itself. James Leigh Hunt, […]

John Donne’s “The Sunne Rising” is a deeply thoughtful love poem, rejoicing the satisfying union between two lovers, whom appear to ignore the claims of the outside world. Donne uses various themes and stylistic content within the poem to show his strong feelings towards his lover. The two lovers in the poem appear to be […]

Similar to ‘The Good Morrow,’ this poem expresses the depth of love between the poet and his beloved. However, Donne also uses the same concept as before, where the lovers’ world represents the entire globe. This piece has a more humorous tone, with the Sun personified as a tiresome person who tries unsuccessfully to break […]

John Donne wrote about love and sex in many of his poems. John Donne is a love poet who focuses mainly on his wife in his writing, although some of his sexual references may seem selfish or cold. By studying two of his poems, I believe that he reveals a less self-centered character. “The Song” […]

However, the two poems differ in their tone and attitude, one being cheerful and confident, the other is gloomy and despondent and at the end the reader realises that the points of the two poets are very different.In ‘The Sun Rising’, Donne teasingly criticises the rising sun for disturbing him and his lover lying in […]

Two poems, “A Valediction Forbidden Mourning” by John Donne and “Love Poem” by Elizabeth Jennings, discuss the topic of love, but each offers a unique perspective. While both writers draw upon personal experience, their distinct approaches and styles make their works markedly different. Donne employs a regular ab, ab rhyme scheme that connotes clarity of […]

The very opening word of John Donne’s “Death be not proud” is “Death”, he is directly challenging death, whereas Herbert’s first word is “Love”. This creates a binary opposition as the two words are complete opposites. There is also a clear difference in the rhyming schemes. John Donne uses Petrarchan sonnet as it is the […]

One of the hardest things to do is to leave someone that is dear to us, and convince them its ok. John Donne does so brilliantly in his poem Valediction: Forbidding Morning. The poem’s message is that the relationship between two lovers is greater than anything else to them, and that true love cannot be […]

The two poets, John Donne and W. H. Auden each explore the theme of love in their poems “The Good-Morrow” and “Stop all the Clocks” from “Funeral Blues”. On the first glance, the poems seem to be extremely dissimilar: there is a great contrast between the – rather dramatic – openings “Stop all the clocks” […]

Identity and distinctiveness has habitually been subjected to in most of John Donne’s poems, in this case the “Holy Sonnet IV”, as has been questioned in Carol Ann Duffy’s “Originally”. In these poems, which have been written centuries apart, both poets display well the loss of identity suffered by them and the great impact of […]

John Donne’s poem Death Be Not Proud is typical of the religious/metaphysical genre employed by the poet. All human beings have a lurking fear of death. As we get older, this fear increases and ultimately dominates our thoughts. But contrary to the negative connotations attached to the event of death, Donne presents to the readers […]

John Donne was a 16th and 17th century English priest, poet, dean, and lawyer. “Batter My Heart” is the fourteenth and one of the most well-known of the Holy Sonnets. The sonnets were written during a hard time in his life in which he was struggling financially and was in the midst of converting from […]