Hepworth one day told me that he thought I would like to read John Donne's poems, so I took some time out of my busy schedule :) and dove into one of my other anthologies in which was a surplus of John Donne to discover. My overall first impression was something along the lines of, "woah." He is very almost cryptic in the sense that he combines metaphors that don't necessarily work together so I found myself going..."why the hell is that there, and what does that mean." Okey sort of helped me through a lot of it and with his pluthera of seemingly useless knowledge about little historic tid-bits made my reading make much more sense. Here is my favorite (of what I've read, surely there is more out there) of his poems, and it actually one of his Holy Sonnets, as I found out, he was a preacher or something like that and had twelve kids with his wife of a different religion. Anyways, it is Holy Sonnet 6 and the first line will sound quite familiar, I think. I did to me anyways:
6
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 popison, war, and sickness dwell,
And popy, 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.
I really liked it, but I think that some of his other poetry is not simple like this one. Read it, though because it is unlike anything you'll read. The words are pretty awesome, even if cryptic. I really liked his poem, "The Good Morrow" which is a very romantic love poem, but was not as much a fan of the flea. Good read! Oh and he looks just like Shakespeare with a beard!
I love John Donne! My favorite poem is his is "Elegy 19: To His Mistress Going to Bed." It's erotic, yet romantic in a way, and I just melt whenever I read it. But that's just me. :) "The Flea" is also high up on my list.
ReplyDeleteI thought "The Flea" was pretty interesting and fun, too! I'll have to track down Elegy 19, because a lot of the stuff I did read of his that was romantic...was SO romantic! I found myself thinking, what a stud! and then, I would read some of his sexist jerk stuff and it balanced him out. I think that was what he enjoyed, though, stretching the limits and the boundaries so that we have no idea what he means or what he, as the author truly feels.
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