Lecture Five
Metaphysical poetry & John
Donne (1572-1631)
Terms
The metaphysical
poetry is commonly
used to name the
work of the 17th
century writers who
wrote under the
influence of John
Donne.
John Donne(1572-1631) is noted for
his excellent love poetry, religious
verse and sermons. As one of the
most important poets of the
Renaissance, he is also the leading
figure of the “metaphysical school”.
With a rebellious spirit, Donne broke
away from the "decorative and
flowery" verse that characterized
most poetry during the Elizabethan
period to develop his own unique
style.
Characteristics of
metaphysical writers
 Theme: they wrote on a variety of religious
and secular themes. The poems reflect a
broad knowledge of science, art and other
branches of learning and express common
human feelings such as jealousy, the loss of
religious faith, the complexities and the fear
of death.
 Rhetorical devices: they used conceits and
paradox.
 The finest of metaphysical poets combined
intellectual subtlety with great emotional
power.
Paradox:(似是而非的隽语，悖论，似
矛盾而可能正确的说法) is a figure of
speech consisting of a statement
which seems self-contradictory,
absurd or contrary to an
established fact or practice, but
on further thinking and study may
prove to be true, well-founded,
and even to contain a succinct(简
洁的) point.
Example 1: Juliet: My only
love sprung from my only
hate.我仅有的爱来源于我仅有的恨
2. This suspense is terrible.
I hope it will last (Oscar
Wilde)这种悬念实在是让人受不了，
我希望他能继续下去。
3. Death, thou shalt die.

A conceit(别出心裁或不着边际的比喻) is a
combination of thoughts or images that are not
usually associated with one another. In general,
a metaphysical conceit will use some sort of
shocking or unusual comparison as the basis for
the metaphor. When it works, a metaphysical
conceit has a startling appropriateness that
makes us look at things from an entirely new
perspective. The classic metaphysical conceit is
Donne’s comparison of the union between the
two lovers to the two legs of a compass in “A
Valediction Forbidding Morning”.
Characteristics of Donne’s poems
 1.
the most striking feature of
Donne‘s poetry is precisely its tang
(characteristic) of reality in the
sense that seems to reflect life in a
real rather than a poetical world.

2. Donne’s language is subtle,
complex, and often startling. Besides
allusions, he frequently applies wild
conceits, i.e. extended, fanciful
metaphors that make a surprising or
unexpected comparison and
Paradox, self-contradiction that
reveals a kind of truth. His conceits
may be divided into two kinds: easy
ones and difficult ones. By combining
the easy conceits with the difficult
ones, Donne achieves surprisingly
good effects in his poetry.

3. Donne's poetry involves a
certain kind of argument(玄思冥
想，热衷思辨), sometimes in
rigid syllogistic form .三段论
法
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Death be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadful, for, thou art 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.
 死神，你莫骄傲

死神，你莫骄傲，尽管有人说你

如何强大，如何可怕，你并不是这样；

你以为你把谁谁谁打倒了，其实，

可怜的死神，他们没死；你现在也还杀不死我。

休息、睡眠，这些不过是你的写照，

既能给人享受，那你本人提供的一定更多；

我们最美好的人随你去得越早，

越能早日获得身体的休息，灵魂的解脱。

你是命运、机会、君主、亡命徒的奴隶，

你和毒药、战争、疾病同住在一起，

罂粟和咒符和你的打击相比，同样，

甚至更能催我入睡；那你何必趾高气扬呢？

睡了一小觉之后，我们便永远觉醒了，

再也不会有死亡，你死神也将死去。
Theme
 This is one of Donne’s 19 holy sonnets, which
were believed to have been written before his
ordination. The poem reveals his belief in life
after death. Here death is compared to a short
sleep. Death is but momentary while happiness
after death is eternal. But this religious idea is
curiously expressed in the author’s supposed
dialogue with “death”, as various reasons are
given in the poem to argue against the common
belief in death as “mighty and dreadful” .In this
way the sonnet was a typical work of the school
of metaphysical poetry.
诗人在诗中首先提出死亡并不像人们通常
想象的那么强大，因为那些被认为死去的
人其实并没有死；继而，诗人又提出死亡
并不可怕，因为睡眠和梦境就是死亡的画
像；既然人们能从睡眠和梦境中获得许多
快乐，那在死亡中能获得的快乐就一定更
多。接着，诗人说，死亡向来和战争、疾
病、毒药同居一处，又质问死神，鸦片和
幻药也能让人睡去，而且入睡过程十分轻
松愉悦，死亡有什么值得骄傲的地方。最
后诗人宣告，死亡自己也必定会死去。
Form
This simple sonnet follows an ABBAABBA
CDCDEE rhyme scheme and is written in
a loose iambic pentameter. In its structural
division of its subject, it is a Petrarchan
sonnet rather than a Shakespearean one,
with an octet establishing the poem’s
tension, and the subsequent sestet
resolving it.