Metaphysical Poetry: John Donne

Question 1

Context on John Donne:

Answer 1

• John Donne was a Roman Catholic at the time this faith was under threat.
• Father died when young, mother re married twice.
• Donne became a priest in the Church of England. SHIFT IN RELIGION.
• John Donne arrested for secretly marrying Anne Donne due to her father not blessing the marriage.

Question 2

Summary on ‘St Lucy’s Day’:

Answer 2

• Lucy’s Day was believed to be the shortest day. December 13th.
• Poem about grief.
• Speaker in numbness and believes he is nothing without his partner.
• Seasons are passing but he doesn’t care as he is too full of grief.

Question 3

Summary of ‘At the Earths Imagin’d corners,blow’:

Answer 3

-Holy Sonnet
- Pleading for Jesus to not come back to earth yet as he is not ready to face judgement day.

Question 4

Summary ‘Women’s Constancy’:

Answer 4

• Narrator doesn’t believe the women he spent the night with will stay the night.
• Believes them sleeping together is the same as marriage, bonds them together through lust and sexual desire.

Question 5

Summary of ‘The Good Morrow’:

Answer 5

• There souls have only since woken up now they’ve met each other.
• There love was an epiphany and he hasn’t know anything like the love and desire for one another.

Question 6

Summary of ‘To Hymn to God the Father’:

Answer 6

• Speaker expresses concern that his past sins may affect his future life beyond death.
• A confessional

Question 7

Summary of ‘The Flea’:

Answer 7

• Narrator trying to persuade a lady to sleep with him because fleas have already transferred their blood.
• Uses fleas as a conceit to emphasis no harm or sins is done if she sleeps with him.

Question 8

Summary of ‘Batter my heart’:

Answer 8

• Holy Sonnet
• Presents the speakers personal crisis of faith, he believes his soul is captured by the devil.
• He wants God to break the connection with Satan and regain his faith with God.

Question 9

Summary of ‘Song’:
‘Go and catch a falling star’

Answer 9

• Finding a true women is impossible and it’s more likely to find something super nature or miracle like.

Question 10

Summary of ‘The Sun Rising’:

Answer 10

• Narrator doesn’t want the sun to rise as he doesn’t want his mistress to leave his bed.
• Feels as if he’s in competition with the sun.

Question 11

Summary of ‘A valediction of weeping’:

Answer 11

• Poem to his lover as the man prepares and leaves for the journey eg. War.
• His letter of farewell.

Question 12

Summary of ‘The Apparition”:

Answer 12

• Narrator tells his ex lover how he is going to get revenge on her.
• The revenge is from haunting her once he dies, making her so miserable she’ll regret rejecting him.

Question 13

Summary of ‘An Elegy: To his Mistress going to bed”:

Answer 13

• The narrator wants to sleep with his mistress as soon as possible.
• He is desperate for the lady to undress herself and sleep with him.

Question 14

Summary of ‘Death be not proud”:

Answer 14

• Talking directly to death, telling he is not afraid and he believes death will be overcome by something greater- Heaven