POETRY-1 (ENG403)

LECTURE – 26

RECAP OF LECTURE 25

• Love Songso Go and Catch a Falling Staro Love’s Alchemyo The Sun Risingo A Valediction: Of Weeping

• Holy Sonnets

SONNET

• Derived from Italian “Sonetto”• Meaning “little song”

• A poem that is written in a specific format• Consists of 14 Lines• Rhyme Scheme• Iambic Pentameter• 4 Quatrains

TYPES OF SONNETS

• Italian (Petrarchan) Sonneto a-b-b-a, a-b-b-a, c-d-c-d, e-e

• Shakespearean Sonnet (English)o a-b-a-b, c-d-c-d, e-f-e-f, g-g

• Spenserian Sonnet o a-b-a-b, b-c-b-c, c-d-c-d, e-e

PARTS OF A SONNET

• Octave (Lines 1-8)o Problem, conflict, question

• Sestet (Lines 9-14)– Resolution, conclusion

DONNE’S POETRY

• Love poetry• Holy Sonnets

JOHN DONNE

• Religious Poetry- Divine Poems• Holy Sonnets- 19

• Love Poetry- 1590• Religious Poetry- 1609-1611• Published(1633)

o Love Songs and Sonnets

HOLY SONNETS

• Dramatic• Argumentative Tone• May or may not be biographical• Contemplation on religious conviction• Themes

o Divine Judgmento Divine Loveomodest penance

COMPARISON OF LOVE SONGS & HOLY SONNETS

• Love Songso Fervoro EmotionsoWito Compassion

• Holy Sonnets• Personal• Passionate• Forceful• Assertive• Fearful/apprehensive

SETTING & CHARACTER IN HOLY SONNET

• Settingo Not a specific placeo A moment o Significant to the

speaker

• Charactero Godo Angelso Christo Death o His own soul

THEMES OF HOLY SONNETS

• Religious in Natureo Sino Graceo Salvation

REVIEW OF LECTURE 25

• Thou Hast Made Me• I am a Little World Made Cunningly

• If poisonous minerals, and if that tree• Death, Be Not Proud

HOLY SONNET 9

• “If poisonous minerals, and if that tree”

• Tree- The Tree of Knowledge in Heaven

If poisonous minerals, and if that tree Whose fruit threw death on else immortal us, If lecherous goats, if serpents envious Cannot be damned, alas, why should I be? Why should intent or reason, born in me, Make sins, else equal, in me more heinous? And mercy being easy and glorious To God, in his stern wrath why threatens he? But who am I, that dare dispute with thee, O God? Oh! of thine only worthy blood, And my tears, make a heavenly Lethean flood, And drown in it my sins' black memory. That thou remember them, some claim as debt; I think it mercy if thou wilt forget.

If poisonous minerals, and if that tree

• 14 Lines• Mixture: Petrarchan & Shakespearean Sonnet• 3 Quatrains & a Couplet• Rhyme Scheme: abba abba acca dd

• Addresses God• Tree- forbidden tree in Heaven

If poisonous minerals, and if that tree Whose fruit threw death on else immortal us,

If lecherous goats, if serpents envious Cannot be damned, alas, why should I be?

• Tree- tree of knowledge in Heaven• Lecherous- lust

Why should intent or reason, born in me, Make sins, else equal, in me more heinous?

And mercy being easy and glorious To God, in his stern wrath why threatens he?

• Heinous- terrible• Stern- uncompromising• Wrath- anger

But who am I, that dare dispute with thee, O God? Oh! of thine only worthy blood,

And my tears, make a heavenly Lethean flood, And drown in it my sins' black memory.

• Black- bad• Lethean flood- request for forgiveness, in mythology, the river Lethe caused total

forgetfulness. • sin's black memory- the speaker's sins have left a bad

mark on God's memory.

That thou remember them, some claim as debt; I think it mercy if thou wilt forget.

• Debt- liability

HOLY SONNET 10

• "Death be not proud, though some have called thee”

• Addresses death

Death be not proud, though some have called thee Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so, For those whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow, Die not, poor death, nor yet canst thou kill me. From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be, Much pleasure, then from thee, much more must flow, And soonest our best men with thee do go, Rest of their bones, and soul's delivery. Thou art slave to Fate, Chance, kings, and desperate men, And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell, And poppy, or charms can make us sleep as well, And better than thy stroke; why swell'st thou then? One short sleep past, we wake eternally, And death shall be no more; death, thou shalt die

DEATH BE NOT PROUD, THOUGH SOME HAVE CALLED THEE

• 14 Lines• Mixture: Petrarchan & Shakespearean Sonnet• 3 Quatrains & a Couplet• Rhyme Scheme: abba abba cddc ee

Death be not proud, though some have called thee Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so,

For those whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow, Die not, poor death, nor yet canst thou kill me.

• Personification of Death

From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be, Much pleasure, then from thee, much more must flow,

And soonest our best men with thee do go, Rest of their bones, and soul's delivery.

• Comparison of death to sleep

Thou art slave to Fate, Chance, kings, and desperate men, And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell,

And poppy, or charms can make us sleep as well, And better than thy stroke; why swell'st thou then?

• Its dependence on others• Comparison with tranquilizer & magic

One short sleep past, we wake eternally, And death shall be no more; death, thou shalt die

• Death as mortal being

REVIEW OF LECTURE 26

• If poisonous minerals, and if that tree• Death, Be Not Proud