John Donne

A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning
• Metaphysical Conceit (奇喻)
• A “metaphysical conceit” is a far-fetched and ingenious extended comparison(or “conceit”) used by metaphysical poets to explore all areas of knowledge. It finds telling and unusual analogies for the poet’s ideas in the startlingly esoteric(深奥的) or the shockingly commonplace –usual stuff of poetic metaphor. • The metaphysical poets fashioned conceits that were witty, complex, intellectual, and often startling.
Later Period
• Donne acceded to the King’s, James 1 of England, wishes and in 1615 was ordained into the Church of England. In 1621 Donne was made Dean of Saint Paul’s, a leading and wellpaid position in the Church of England and he held until his death in 1631.
A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning • Rhyme
• Each four-line stanza is quite unadorned, with an ABAB rhyme scheme and an iambic tetrameter. It is iambic tetrameter with eight syllables(four feet) per line. Each foot ,or pair of syllables, consists of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. The first two lines of the second stanza demonstrate this metric pattern: So let / us melt/,and makes / no noise, No tear / -floods, nor/sigh-tem/pests move,
• 1)Early poetry • He wrote satires which dealt with common Elizabethan topics, such as corruption in the legal system, mediocre poets, and pompous courtiers. • His early career was also le for his erotic poetry, especially his elegies(挽歌).
Questioning his own faith
• His brother Henry was arrested in 1593 for harboring a Catholic priest • He was put into the prison because of his marriage • Then he was released and lived in poverty for 15 years and his wife dead. • At his age of 42, he abandoned his loyalty of his family and faith and took orders from Anglicanism
• “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning” is a metaphysical poem written by John Donne in 1611 to his heavily pregnant wife Anne More when he left for a diplomatic mission to Continental Europe with Sir Robert Drury. He had a presentiment that this separation will be a farewell. Therefore, the whole poem is covered with a layer of the color of mourning. • Valediction comes from the Latin verb “valedicere”, meaning to bid farewell • The title says, in essence, “When we part, we must not mourn.”
Works
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Holy Sonnets (圣 十四行诗） Songs and Sonnets(歌与十 四行诗）--- a collection of his 55 love lyrics , was published after his death in 1633.
Works
• Devotions upon Emergent Occasions(突发事 件的祷告) • The Elegies(挽歌) • The Flea(跳蚤)
A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning • Theme
• “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning” is one of Donne’s most famous and simplest poems and also probably his most direct statement of his ideal of spiritual love . • The speaker explains that he is forced to spend time apart from his lover, but before he leaves, tells her that their farewell should not be the occasion for mourning and sorrow.
A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning
• The poem then explains that a maudlin show of emotion would cheapen their love, reduce it to the level of the ordinary and mundane. Their love, after all, is transcendent, heavenly. Other husbands and wives who know only physical, earthly love, weep and sob when they separate for a time, for they dread the loss of physical closeness. But because Donne and his wife have a spiritual as well as physical dimension to their love, they will never really be apart, he says. Their souls will remain united even though their bodies are separated until he returns to England.
John Donne (1572 －1631)
• • • • 少年风流才子,中年虔诚教长 少年笃信天主，中年改信国教 诗歌，我少年时的情人 神学，我中年时的伴侣
Early Life
• Born in a Roman Catholic family • Education: 1583 Oxford University Cambridge University Lincoln’s Inn of Court • He joined the expedition of Essex for Cadiz in 1596,and for the Azores in 1597. • In 1601 he eloped with Ann More, niece of Egerton’s wife.
John Donne (1572 －1631)
• • • • 少年风流才子,中年虔诚教长 少年笃信天主，中年改信国教 诗歌，我少年时的情人 神学，我中年时的伴侣
A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning
A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning
John Donne &
A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning
I. Life Experience II. Writing Style & Works III. A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning IV. Appreciation of “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning”
St. Paul's Cathedral
Donne’s writing style
• John Donne was the representative of metaphysical poetry in the seventeenth century in Britain. • John’s works are notable for their realistic and sensual style and include sonnets, love poetry, religious poems. • His works can be divided into two parts:
Metaphysical
• The term “metaphysical” is used to designate the work of 17th century writers who were part of a school of poets using similar methods and who revolted against the romantic conventionalism of Elizabethan love poetry, in particular the Petrarchan conceit. It includes a certain anti-feminist tradition. • Features 1)The diction is simple as compared with that of the Elizabethan 2)The imagery is drawn from the actual life. • Theme: Love Religious Death • Stylistic features • 1)Conceits 2)Argument with an imagined Learer 3)Use of paradox
• 2)Later poetry • Having converted to the Anglican Church , Donne focused his literary career on religious literature. He quickly became noted for his sermons and religious poems. • Towards the end of his life, Donne wrote works that challenged death. He believed that those who die are sent to heaven.