The Autumnal.

Question 1

Overview:

Answer 1

• Donne presents a platonic approach to love as he argues that youthful beauty cannot be compared to the mature beauty of his subject.
• The speaker develops this argument through a dialectic comparison of youth and maturity.
• The concern about age unveil the speakers own concern about his death.

Question 2

20 Marker - 2 Key Points.

Answer 2

The comparison of ageing as being an Autumn - consider the mellow images associated with ageing. “torrid and inflaming time”.

Consider the poem leading to the realisation that the speakers overall fixation with a woman’s age comes out of concern for his own mortality. “but name not winter faces”.

Question 3

Context:

Answer 3

• Thought to be written for his patron Mrs Herbert.
• Reflects some of Donne’s typical combinations through a combination of eroticism and the contemplation of mortality in a mode of grotesque humour.
• Written in early 17th century which was characterised by social and cultural transformations such as the humanist movement that focussed on the capabilities of human beings - age was considered a decline in society - however Donne glorifies it.

Question 4

“no spring nor summer beauty hath such grace/ As I have seen in one Autumnal face”.

Answer 4

• Sets up initial argument of the poem.
• Autumn being an unconventional measure of beauty.
• view of the speaker that aged women are superior.

Question 5

“torrid and and inflaming time/ tolerable tropic clime”

Answer 5

• Weather metaphor, suggests that youth is turbulent.
• Rhyme couplet - suggest lyricality - also bounds the liens together - implies something harmonious in platonic love.
• Links to the notion of older love being autumnal - peaceful and serene.

Question 6

“In progresse”, “Standing House”…

Answer 6

• Royal conceit.
• Though the God of love is everywhere the metaphor suggests that his permanent residence is in the subjects beauty.
• Agrees that mature beauty is like an evening, with calm enjoyments.
• In the woman’s presence one can enjoy a kings “revels” and the judgement and learning of a kings “counsalle”.

Question 7

“But name not winter faces, whose skin’s slack, lank”.

Answer 7

• Communicates Donne’s aversion and fear of death.
• Acutely scathing of the elderly and objectifies and dehumanises them.

Question 8

Form:

Answer 8

• Consistent rhyme scheme and iambic pentameter - means that poem retains a conversational tone.
• Poem an elegy - a traditional form of writing that expresses deep reflection - Donne uses the form to reflect on the beauty of aging and the value of mature love.