17th Century

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17th Century
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John Donne (1572-1631), by an unknown painter,
ca. 1595
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An older John Donne
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John Donne

• Roman Catholic
• Appointed secretary to high official in QEIs
  court
• 1601- married Anne More (father opposed and was
  actually illegal because she was a minor)
• 1614- converted to Anglicanism- became a priest
• Became Dean of St. Pauls Cathedral- highly
  influential minister
• Twelve children, five died in infancy

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• Deep learning
• Dramatic wit
• Metaphorical style
• Intellectual poetry
• Two categories of poems metaphysical and
  religious

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John Donne (1572-1631)

• Metaphysics (OED) The branch of philosophy that
  deals with the first principles of things or
  reality, including questions about being,
  substance, time and space, causation, change, and
  identity theoretical philosophy as the ultimate
  science of being and knowing.

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Metaphysical Conceit

• Conceit (Silvae Rhetoricae)
• An extended metaphor. Unlike allegory, which
  tends to have one-to-one correspondences, a
  conceit typically takes one subject and explores
  the metaphoric possibilities in the qualities
  associated with that subject.

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Metaphysical Poetry

• Rhythms of colloquial (spoken) English
• Speaker often sounds blunt, angry, brooding, or
  as if he is thinking out loud
• Always using brains- highly intellectual poetry
• Contains conceits metaphors

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Song

• Love poem
• Cynical view of love (disillusioned)
• Playful skepticism about finding true love and a
  faithful woman
• An example of his unusual comparisons
  (child-mandrake catch- a falling star)
• Judges women harshly
• Hyperbole and metaphor

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Holy Sonnets

• Divine poems, written before 1615
• Meditations on sin, death, salvation, moving
  between extremes to examine the possibility of
  redemption

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Holy Sonnet 10

• Sonnet, but not a conventional structure
• An example of his religious poetry
• Death itself will die- eternal life
• Death depends on fate, chance, and kings
• Scornful tone almost pities death

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Meditation 17

• Deeply religious
• All mankind is connected of another
• Compares church to a continent and a living
  organism
• Affliction- a treasure because it will bring man
  closer to God
• Death as a means to an end

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Civil War

• Stuart monarchs James I (1603-25), Charles I
  (1625-49)
• 1629 Charles I dissolves Parliament
• 1642 Civil War begins Parliament (dominated by
  Puritans, Roundheads) vs. kings army
  (Cavaliers)
• 1649 Charles I tried for treason and executed
• Interregnum Puritan Oliver Cromwell (d. 1658)
  rules the Commonwealth as Lord Protector
• 1660 Restoration of Stuart monarchy under Charles
  II

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Above Charles I (1600-49), by an unknown
artist Right Charles II (1630-1685), ca. 1685
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A Cavalier From French for horseman a knight
or horsed warrior, typically one who is also a
courtly gentleman Specifically, the Cavaliers
were those who fought on the Royalist side to
support Charles I in the war between him and
Parliament
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(No Transcript)
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Cavalier Poets (Sons of Ben)

• Robert Herrick (Anglican priest, friend of
  Jonson 1591-1674)
• Henry Vaughan (Welsh, fought for Royalist cause
  1622-95)
• Richard Lovelace (courtier of Charles I, fought
  for Royalist cause 1618-57)

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Richard Lovelace (1618-57)
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The Chameleon Andrew Marvell (1621-78) Wrote
poems in praise of both Republicans /
revolutionaries and Royalists Friend of Milton (a
Puritan), but satirized the Restoration regime
under Charles II
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Right Nicholas Ferrar and George Herbert in a
window (installed 1933) at the church of St.
Andrew, parish of Fugglestone-cum-Bemerton, to
which Herbert came as a deacon in 1630