SONG—By John Donne
GO and catch a falling star,
Get with child a mandrake root,
Tell me where all past years are,
Or who cleft the devil's foot,
Teach me to hear mermaids singing,
Or to keep off envy's stinging,
And find
What wind
Serves to advance an honest mind.
If thou be'st born to strange sights,
Things invisible to see,
Ride ten thousand days and nights,
Till age snow white hairs on thee,
Thou, when thou return'st, wilt tell me,
All strange wonders that befell thee,
And swear,
No where
Lives a woman true and fair.
If thou find'st one, let me know,
Such a pilgrimage were sweet;
Yet do not, I would not go,
Though at next door we might meet,
Though she were true, when you met her,
And last, till you write your letter,
Yet she
Will be
False, ere I come, to two, or three.
1633
Questions:
1. What are the 7 impossible
things the speaker asks for in
the first stanza? # them in
poem.
2. What do all the elements
listed in the first stanza have
in common, if anything? In
other words, why did Donne
chose THOSE particular
images?
3. In the second stanza, how is
the word “snow” being used?
(noun/ adj/verb/adv. etc)
4. What is a hyperbole?
5. Find an example of a
hyperbole in the poem.
Underline.
6. How much time will pass
between finding an ‘honest
‘women and discovering
she’s false?
7. How does the speaker feel
about women?
8. Does this mean that John
Donne felt the same way?
Why not?
9. What is a paradox?
10. How can a “strange sight” be
“invisible to see”?
11. What is the rhyme scheme of
the poem?
12. How does the rhyme scheme
work with the meaning?
13. What do the short lines do to
the way one reads the poem?
(the meter/ stressing of
syllables, rate, emphasis)
HOLY SONNETS—John Donne (+/- 1610)
X.
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 picture[s] 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'rt 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.
http://www.luminarium.org/sevenlit/donne/sonnet10.htm
Questions:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
Who is the speaker directly addressing?
What illusions does Death have about his power according to the speaker?
What really kills people according to the poem?
What, therefore, is really in charge of Death?
How does the speaker “win” in this argument with Death?
What is the rhyme scheme?
What words are linked by the rhyme scheme?
What might those links add in terms of ideas, meanings?
How does the rhyme scheme divide the poem?
Why is this division important to notice?
How do the ideas match that division?
What do we call this kind of poem? (Hint- count the lines, look at the rhyme scheme)
How might the structure be deemed appropriate/ inappropriate for the content/ theme/ message of the
poem?
We are told that when reading poetry, we should pay most attention to punctuation, NOT to line
breaks. Read the first two lines, first pausing at the line break, then pausing only at the commas/
periods. What changes in the meaning?
Our book puts the phrase “Death, thou shalt die” on a separate, and 15th line. Luminarium does not.
How does this change the meaning/ affect of that last line/s?
A VALEDICTION1 FORBIDDING MOURNING by John Donne
(+/-1611, probably to his wife!)
AS virtuous men pass mildly away,
And whisper to their souls to go,
Whilst some of their sad friends do say,
"Now his breath goes," and some say, "No."
Valediction Forbidding Mourning:
So let us melt, and make no noise,
No tear-floods, nor sigh-tempests move ;
'Twere profanation of our joys
To tell the laity our love.
Moving of th' earth brings harms and fears ;
Men reckon what it did, and meant ;
But trepidation of the spheres,
Though greater far, is innocent.
Dull sublunary lovers' love
—Whose soul is sense—cannot admit
Of absence, 'cause it doth remove
The thing which elemented it.
5
10
15
But we by a love so much refined,
That ourselves know not what it is,
Inter-assurèd of the mind,
Care less, eyes, lips and hands to miss.
20
Our two souls therefore, which are one,
Though I must go, endure not yet
A breach, but an expansion,
Like gold to aery thinness beat.
If they be two, they are two so
As stiff twin compasses are two ;
Thy soul, the fix'd foot, makes no show
To move, but doth, if th' other do.
And though it in the centre sit,
Yet, when the other far doth roam,
It leans, and hearkens after it,
And grows erect, as that comes home.
25
30
Such wilt thou be to me, who must,
Like th' other foot, obliquely run ;
Thy firmness makes my circle just,
And makes me end where I begun.
Source: Donne, John. Poems of John Donne. vol I.
E. K. Chambers, ed.
London, Lawrence & Bullen, 1896. 51-52.
http://www.luminarium.org/sevenlit/donne/mourning.php
1
Act of bidding farewell
35
1. What is the rhyme
pattern?
2. What is the meter? Is the
meter the same for every
line? Steady?
3. Is the speaker of this
poem a male of female?
Could it work for either?
4. Why might it actually work
better if it were a female
speaker?
5. What else could Donne
have used instead of gold
in the simile in line 24?
6. IF Donne did mean a
compass for telling
direction, would the poem
work? Explain.
7. Survey your group; when
you think of someone you
love, someone who isn’t
with you, what do you
miss most? Eyes? Lips?
Hands? What else?
HOMEWORK:
Write a metaphysical poem; at
least 12 lines. Any rhyme, any
meter, but use at least ONE
metaphor or simile from the fields
of math, science, engineering.
Easter Wings
by George Herbert
Lord, Who createdst man in wealth and store,
Though foolishly he lost the same,
Decaying more and more,
Till he became
Most poore:
With Thee
O let me rise,
As larks, harmoniously,
And sing this day Thy victories:
Then shall the fall further the flight in me.
My tender age in sorrow did beginne;
And still with sicknesses and shame
Thou didst so punish sinne,
That I became
Most thinne.
With Thee
Let me combine,
And feel this day Thy victorie;
For, if I imp my wing on Thine,
Affliction shall advance the flight in me.
http://www.luminarium.org/sevenlit/herbert/wings.htm
Questions:
1. What does this poem
physically draw on the
page? Be a little
creative- turn the page in
different directions.
2. Between lines 5 and 6,
and between lines 15 and
16, what happens?
3. How does this pattern
reflect the mood/
emotions of the speaker?
4. How does the speaker’s
mood change from line
1-5, from 6-10, from 1115, and from 16-20?
5. How does the physical
shape of the poem match
the content?
6. What is central metaphor
of the poem?
7. What does this metaphor
communicate?
8. Find examples of
alliteration, and explain
how they add to the
affect of the poem.
9. What is the rhyme
scheme?
10. How does the rhyme
scheme fit with the
physical structure of the
poem and the content?
11. Who is the poem
addressed to?
12. Why is the poem called
“Easter Wings”?
To his Coy Mistress
by Andrew Marvell
Had we but world enough, and time,
This coyness, lady, were no crime.
We would sit down and think which way
To walk, and pass our long love's day;
Thou by the Indian Ganges' side
Shouldst rubies find; I by the tide
Of Humber would complain. I would
Love you ten years before the Flood;
And you should, if you please, refuse
Till the conversion of the Jews.
My vegetable love should grow
Vaster than empires, and more slow.
An hundred years should go to praise
Thine eyes, and on thy forehead gaze;
Two hundred to adore each breast,
But thirty thousand to the rest;
An age at least to every part,
And the last age should show your heart.
For, lady, you deserve this state,
Nor would I love at lower rate.
But at my back I always hear
Time's winged chariot hurrying near;
And yonder all before us lie
Deserts of vast eternity.
Thy beauty shall no more be found,
Nor, in thy marble vault, shall sound
My echoing song; then worms shall try
That long preserv'd virginity,
And your quaint honour turn to dust,
And into ashes all my lust.
The grave's a fine and private place,
But none I think do there embrace.
Now therefore, while the youthful hue
Sits on thy skin like morning dew,
And while thy willing soul transpires
At every pore with instant fires,
Now let us sport us while we may;
And now, like am'rous birds of prey,
Rather at once our time devour,
Than languish in his slow-chapp'd power.
Let us roll all our strength, and all
Our sweetness, up into one ball;
And tear our pleasures with rough strife
Thorough the iron gates of life.
Thus, though we cannot make our sun
Stand still, yet we will make him run.
http://www.luminarium.org/sevenlit/marvell/coy.htm
The Passionate Shepherd to His Love
Come live with me and be my love,
And we will all the pleasures prove
That valleys, groves, hills, and fields,
Woods, or steepy mountain yields.
And we will sit upon rocks,
Seeing the shepherds feed their flocks,
By shallow rivers to whose falls
Melodious birds sing madrigals.
And I will make thee beds of roses
And a thousand fragrant poises,
A cap of flowers, and a kirtle
Embroidered all with leaves of myrtle;
A gown made of the finest wool
Which from our pretty lambs we pull;
Fair lined slippers for the cold,
With buckles of the purest gold;
A belt of straw and ivy buds,
With coral clasps and amber studs;
And if these pleasures may thee move,
Come live with me, and be my love.
The shepherds's swains shall dance and sing
For thy delight each May morning:
If these delights thy mind may move,
Then live with me and be my love.
Christopher Marlowe
1599
http://www.rjgeib.com/thoughts/shepherd/shepherd.html
QUESTIONS: Marlowe page 302
1. In what ways is Christopher
Marlowe’s poem similar to Andrew
Marvell’s? (theme, structure,
imagery, tone, etc)
2. In what ways are the two poems
different? (theme, structure,
imagery, tone, etc)
3. What arguments does Marlowe
(The Shepherd) use to get his girl?
4. What arguments does Marvell use?
5. Which one do you feel is more
effective/affective (=moves you),
and why?
6. Had Raleigh read Marvell’s poem,
how do you think his “Nymph”
might have responded? Aye or
Nay? WHY?
The Ganges River in all its majesty
Maybe the right Humber River
Classwork/ Homework WRITE:
A Concrete poem (poem in a shape that is meaningful to your
content- choose simple shapes!)- no need to worry about rhyme,
meter, since the SHAPE controls the line length. You must use
NORMAL size print. But, lines can slant and curve if you wish!
A Metaphysical poem- a poem that uses a conceit (weird
metaphor) from science, math, engineering, science, zoology,
alchemy etc. (Does NOT have to rhyme, or have steady meter)
(sure, why not zoology? I wish I was a starfish, and could
regenerate myself if I lose pieces… both of my soul and body!)
A Carpe Diem poem—a poem about seizing the day- not letting
chances slip through your fingers like sand through an hourglass.
A combination of any of these!