Biography
John Donne was a famous English poet, satirist, lawyer and priest of his time. Known for his realistic and sensual style, his writings include literary works from sonnets, love poetry and religious poems to Latin translations, epigrams, elegies, songs, satires and sermons.
As a representative of metaphysical poets, his collection of poetry is a complete stand out for their vibrant language and use of metaphors. He works were mainly metaphysical poetry, usually witty, had employed paradoxes, subtle analogies and puns. One of the important themes of his poems was the idea of religion. He wrote many secular poems which showed his considerable attention in religious beliefs. Apart from the metaphysical poetry, Donne also wrote erotic and love poems.
His writings often carried ironic and cynical elements, especially human motives. Later, Donne became an Anglican priest following an order of King James I. After serving as a member of parliament twice in 1601 and 1614 and appointed as the Dean of St. Paul's in London in 1621.
Death, be not proud (Holy Sonnet 10)
Death, be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadful, for thou are 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.
Analysis
Every person fears Death. Outside of Life, it is the only universal condition for all living things. Donne’s belief is that Death is just another stage in “God’s” plan for humans, it should not be excessively feared but accepted. In the first stanza, Donne makes Death a personification, addressing it directly as if Death was a person. This personification immediately lessens the fear of “mighty and dreadful” Death. He even states that even those who think that Death kills them, “Die not”, as their souls will be welcomed into Heaven by a forgiving God.
Death is just a passageway “from thee much more must flow” to the “soul’s delivery”.Death can be seen as only a delivery boy. Death does not take life, it only manages traffic between our earthly life and our spiritual lives with God. Death should not be feared considering how common of an occurrence it is. After death, we’ll all realize that “mighty and dreadful” Death is just something that happens. Death should not be feared if you put it in its proper perspective.
Meditation 17
Devotions upon Emergent Occasions
'No Man is an Island'
No man is an island entire of itself; every man
is a piece of the continent, a part of the main;
if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe
is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as
well as any manner of thy friends or of thine
own were; any man's death diminishes me,
because I am involved in mankind.
And therefore never send to know for whom
the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.
Analysis
This poem was written as prose, as one of Donne’s religious reflections on the relationship between people as directed by God. It was written for Prince Charles, future king of England, and directs each of us, including royalty, to consider our connection to others. We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us.” We need to respect each other in our daily lives, regardless of our beliefs or nationality or station in life. This is a considerable statement because most nations of Europe were often at war with each other.
Donne bluntly uses geography as a metaphor of each individual’s relationship to his fellow man. “Every man is a piece of a continent” is a graphic image that we are bound to each other for security and stability against the forces of nature and life. If even the smallest part of “the main” is broken away, it will be washed away and lost by the unforgiving “sea”. The thought that “any man’s death diminishes me” reflects Donne’s religious beliefs that each member of humanity is bound together by God’s plan and that – even if the other man is unknown to the reader, across the continent – “any man’s death diminishes me.”
It’s only social curiosity which person has died on any given day, if we believe that each individual’s life is part of the greater whole.
Today, and on each day, we need to be “involved in mankind”, as soon it will be our turn to answer for our actions toward others.
The Flea
Mark but this flea, and mark in this,
How little that which thou deniest me is ;
It suck'd me first, and now sucks thee,
And in this flea our two bloods mingled be.
Thou know'st that this cannot be said
A sin, nor shame, nor loss of maidenhead ;
Yet this enjoys before it woo,
And pamper'd swells with one blood made of two ;
And this, alas ! is more than we would do.
O stay, three lives in one flea spare,
Where we almost, yea, more than married are.
This flea is you and I, and this
Our marriage bed, and marriage temple is.
Though parents grudge, and you, we're met,
And cloister'd in these living walls of jet.
Though use make you apt to kill me,
Let not to that self-murder added be,
And sacrilege, three sins in killing three.
Cruel and sudden, hast thou since
Purpled thy nail in blood of innocence?
Wherein could this flea guilty be,
Except in that drop which it suck'd from thee?
Yet thou triumph'st, and say'st that thou
Find'st not thyself nor me the weaker now.
'Tis true ; then learn how false fears be ;
Just so much honour, when thou yield'st to me,
Will waste, as this flea's death took life from thee.
Analysis
This poem is one of Donne’s metaphysical and erotic poems, using a blood-sucking flea to seduce a woman into having sex with him. “How little thou deniest me” tells us that the maiden is not falling for the narrator’s seduction techniques but is willing to allow herself to be invaded by a common flea, drawing her blood without shaming herself or losing “her maidenhead” (virginity). The poet argues that if she is willing to spare blood for a small flea, how bad would it be to spare blood for him. Donne then aligns his desires to the religious ceremony of marriage.
Donne even warms that the maiden should not take this situation lightly: if she simply swats the flea dead with both of their bloods mingled, it would be “three sins in killing three”. The intentions of the narrator are overall clear and universal: sex. He uses a common flea to lessen the whoever/maiden’s concerns about what really should be a valuable asset, her virginity, to make her consider that sex is just one of the common things that happen in life. He starts with a very simple idea and adds layers of significance: a flea bite, the joining of blood, marriage, suicide and murder. He creates it into a big idea and then brings back down to say: wouldn’t it just be easier to have sex?
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