John_Donne_Poetry

* Sonnet asking god for a violent overmastering of his soul. * ‘the poet begins by asking God to increase the strength of divine force to win over the poet’s soul. * Batter my heart three-personed God’ Donne is asking God to knock on his heart much harder than he is now. There is a reference to the Holy Trinity. * Right now God ‘knock[s], breathe[s], shine[s]’ on Donne, but he feels too weak to accept God himself and so wants God to violently overtake his heart. * The poem blends in the elements of both Petrarchan and Shakespearean sonnets, perhaps to highlight the uncertainty and confusion of Donne. As he is torn apart between the two types of sonnets, he is also reflected between Catholicism and Protestantism. * Dramatic opening adds to the immediate tone and emphasizes the direct address, making the poem more intimate. * Donne uses simple words in his poem to explain more complex ideas. Perhaps this is to convey the simplicity and pureness of his remorse, as he doesn’t use excessive descriptions to describe how he is feeling. * ‘break, blow, burn and make me new’ through the use of alliteration with explosive qualities, Donne asks God to paradoxically break him so that he can be whole again. What God is doing is not enough to win over the poet’s soul. Vocabulary reminds the reader of a torture chamber, implying Donne wants to be punished by God. * Donne uses a metaphysical conceit to compare himself to an ‘usurped town’ implying he feels like a town which is taken over by the enemy. It can be argued that he feels that the devil or sin is this enemy. On the other hand, since Donne converted to Protestantism, the enemy could be seen as the religion itself, as Donne abandoned Catholicism. * Donne feels he is ‘weak or untrue’ as he is not powerful enough to free himself from sin and Satan. * ‘Labour to admit you’ Donne tries to let God in, but is too weak and vulnerable to do it himself. * Despite readily loving God, Donne is too weak to fight with sin. Donne declares ‘I love you’ to God, but explains he is ‘betrothed unto Your enemy’ which literally means he is engaged to God’s enemy. It may imply that Donne has sinned so much that Satan became a part of him and he cannot free himself from the devil without God’s help. * Donne commands God to ‘divorce me, untie or break that knot again’ implying that Donne wants God to posses him, capture him and divorce him from evil. Donne explains that in order to be bent into a new, purer shape he must suffer. * This imagery is further emphasized by the use of monosyllabic words which are like a forceful and emphatic hammer. * Donne orders God: ‘imprison me’ implying Donne wants a violent punishment and aggressive possession. * Donne claims that he will never be ‘free’ unless ‘You enthral me’ and he will never be ‘chaste’ unless ‘You ravish me’. The use of such aggressive, sexual language to express paradoxes could be seen as not only powerful, but somewhat disrespectful to God. The central imagery is based around lustful orders and an urge to suffer. * The tone is argumentative, desperate and pleading to emphasize that Donne feels unworthy of and thirsty for God’s love. * In this sonnet, Donne does not distinguish between spiritual and physical pleasure. * ‘Death be not proud’ immediate opening. It is an apostrophe addressing death. * The choice of to write it in a form of a sonnet could be explained by the fact that a sonnet is highly controlled, implying Donne is in control of death. * Donne is contemptuous towards death, he claims ‘some have called thee mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so’ implying that death is not as fearful and powerful as people think. * Donne claims that death is not powerful and the central argument of the poem is that death should not be feared. * Donne uses words such as ‘thee’ to bring death down to a human level, making it less powerful. Death is personified and mocked. * ‘from rest and sleep. Which but thy pictures be’ sleep is a reflection of death, but whereas sleep provides rest for the body, death provides rest for the soul. * Since resting brings ‘much pleasure’ then ‘much more must flow’ from death. * Donne calls death a ‘slave to fate’ as death cannot work independently. It must rely on ‘fate, chance, kings and desperate men’ to take action. Donne diminished the power of death by claiming it only comes with the help of other things, but it is powerless on its own. * ‘poppy or charms can make us sleep as well’ Donne claims death is a different type of sleep, but since other things can also make us sleep, death is not actually fearful. * ‘why swell’st thou then'’ since the effects of death are nothing new, because sleep brings similar results, there is no reason for death to be proud. * Since in heaven ‘we wake eternally’, the effects of death are not permanent and it is just a short sleep. We will wake up refreshed from pleasurable sleep that death brought. * The sonnet ends in a paradox ‘death, thou shalt die’ implying that death will be abolished. Probably this is a Biblical reference to the day of judgment, when all souls will rise from the dead. Donne is certain that death will be abolished. * Monosyllables and alliteration add power to Donne’s sense of certainty and confidence. * High rates of premature death in Donne’s society, due to plague and disease, made people afraid of dying. Donne lost his brother and wife when they were quite young, so the only way he could come to terms with his loss was to face death and not fear it. * The tone is serious, sombre, authoritative and assertive as he confronts death. * Stachiniewski claimed that this poem was ‘more bravura than assurance’ because the tone is defiant, confident and highly declamatory, yet the logic of arguments is weak. It is the use of rhetorical devices that makes this poem so convincing that actually death should not be feared. Let not the royal bed of Denmark be a couch for luxury and damned incest  To be honest as this world goes, is to be one man picked out of ten thousand  I am but mad north-west-north  Madness in great ones must not go unwatched  Wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king  My fault is past  Tis brief, my lord  These words like daggers enter my ears  It is not madness that I have uttered  He's loved by the distracted multitude  Some craven scruple of thinking too precisely on th' event  How stand I that have a father killed, a mother stained  Before you tumbled me, you promised me to wed  I'll be revenged  But my revenge will come  Though I am not splenative rash, yet have I in me something dangerous  This is mere madness They are not near my conscience  You will lose, my lord  Give him the cup  Gertrude, do not drink  And yet it is almost against my conscience  I am justly killed with my own treachery  The lady doth protest too much, methinks  Conscience does make cowards Duke, royal lecher,  For to be honest is not to be i' th' world  wives are but made to go to bed and feed  O, one incestuous kiss picks open hell  Begot against the seventh commandment  My revenge is just  Tell him my honor shall have rich name  Men know that know us; we are so weak, their words can overthrow us  Tis no shame to be bad, because tis common  O, if thou knew'st what t'were to lose it, thou would never keep it  Why are there so few honest women, but because tis the poorer profession'  Were't not for gold and women there would be no damnation  The pen of his bastard writes him cuckold  It well becomes the judge to nod at crimes that does commit greater himself and lives  May fault being sport  More serious business calls upon our hours  I die for that which every woman loves  True, but the violence of my joy forgot it  O, kill me not with that sight I have known those who have been five and fifty  Has wit enough to murder any man, and I'll give him means To weep is to our sex naturally given, but to weep truly, that is a gift from heaven  For honest women are so seld and rare  Our wrongs are such, we cannot be justly revenged too much  He that climbs the highest shall have the greatest fall