Context of john Donne

Context of John Donne
John Donne is a poet of 17th century. He is first metaphysical poet. In his poems he gives d concept of combination if body n soul n says combination of soul n body is compulsory in love.
(Next jis poem ki text aye us poem ka intro dain for instance u have to explain text from "go n catch a falling star" then do give intro of poem in d context as
This poem has been written in cynical mood. We can say this poem is about antigen and hostile to fair sex. These Lines r opening or closing lines of d song. He wants to tell that women r a bundle of contradiction. He laughs at her inconstancy n faithlessness......
after that explain given verses from Donne

Donne use of wit

Donne use of wit

Dr. Johnson describes the wit of John Donne as being a kind of “discordia concors”, or a combination of dissimilar images, or a discovery of occult resemblances in things apparently unlike.

          Donne's poems have plenty of wit, as defined by Dr. Johnson, in relation with the metaphysical poets. His conceits indeed are startling, but ultimately just. The poet often proves their truth. The ability to elaborate a conceit to its farthest possibility without losing the sense of its appropriateness speaks for a high intellectual caliber.

 In ‘The Good Morrow’, the poet compares himself and his beloved to two hemispheres which form the whole earth--- what is more, they are even better than the actual earth, for they do not have the "sharp North" and the "declining West". It is a complex image conveying the exclusive world of the lovers and the warmth of passion in this world on which the sun never sets.

         

The compasses image in ‘A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning’ is another intricate conceit which is logically developed by Donne.

          Wit may manifest itself in humorous remarks too. Donne was capable of this kind of wit too. Some of his poems show his capacity for satiric and ironic wit, as in‘The Song: Go and Catch a Falling Star’, and ‘The Elegies’.

In ‘The Flea’, we have a remarkable display of wit. Out of a flea bite, Donne has drawn an ingenious simile and written twenty-seven lines of witty argument.

          Donne's wit also manifests itself in the argumentation and ratiocination present in the poems. How logically he moves from mood to mood in ‘The Sun Rising’; from willing the busy old sun to leave the lovers alone he goes on to end the poem by saying that the sun can warm the whole world by just shining on their small room, for the lovers constitute the whole world.

         

The paradoxical style of some of his poems also reflect Donne's wit, especially so in ‘The Holy Sonnet, Batter my heart’.

          Moreover, Donne's poems are strewn with brilliant witty lines---such as ‘A bracelet of bright hair about the bone’,which is striking for the image it conjures.

          Donne's wit is no trick of fashion. It arises from a deeper source-- his very attitude to life-- and is an expression of his wisdom. His poems reflect his poetic intelligence, his ability to fuse thought and feeling.   

John done attitude towards women

Donne attitude towards women
There are two phases in
the life of Donne regarding his conduct with women. The very first stage is when he was unmarried, he considered the woman to be treacherous, deceitful and worthless. In his poem "GO AND CATCH A FALLING STAR", he holds the viewpoint that it is a herculean task to find a sincere woman, he compares the finding of such sincere woman like catching a falling star.
In the second phase of his life, Donne treats women in very passionate manner. His earlier womananthrope is over right here in this stage. This is the time when Donne is married and he loves and adores his wife passionately, ardently and enthusiastically. He considers his beloved to be the part and parcel of his life. He epitomizes their love in the shape of a compass which has two feet. If he goes away from his house, his wife remains connected to his thoughts. The movement of compass is the symbolic expression of the mutual love of the two lovers.

Poppies in October

POPPIES IN OCTOBER
CRITICAL APPRECIATION.
1) This poem of Plath is of this period when she wrote mainly about violence, but this poem is about enchanting and breath taking beauty of Poppy . The poem has the same toxicating effect as poppies. These are so beautiful that even the bright red and shiny sun cannot passaround them and had to stop to watch the beauty of these showy flowers. And the woman who is in the ambulance cannot evade their charm. Her heart has gone after them and she is spell bound.
2) A gift of beauty, a natural talent bestowed over these little flowers, was unasked for. It is heavenly as beauty always is. Encircling and burning intensely and brightly arousing passion whichis at the same time sweet and insane and dangerous like carbon monoxides through eyes and is dimmed when the shady petals are closed or not complete;y open.
3) Plath must be feeling like Wordsworth did when he saw " The Daffodils" for she says:
" O my God, what am I
That these late mouths should cry open".
Thus poppies welcome the visitors by opening their petals and giving a bright grim in the chill and frosty season.
4) Popppies are well known symbol of Remembrance Day. The setting can be interpreted in many ways: it can be a woman tending to a patient, or a woman fighting for her life. Upon the mention of skirts, forests and cornflower and a love gift, usually given to women, one gets the strong feminine impression.
5) Her hair red, can also be compared to the poppies. Is it a coincidence that the month chosen is prior. to the one which poppies reign? this section holds a key to the setting presented in the poem and may be the emotion conjured by the over surge of automobiles.
6) Carbon monoxide, toxic and distasteful can be dangerous to all who inhale too much of it or little bits too often. It is a negative thing, which leads to concluding that this piece has a anegative feeling.
7) Emotions such as distress and sadness are important to Sylvia Plath poems. Most of her poems are based on these two easy to relate emotions, and loosely on the pleasure it can motivate you to seek and enjoy when you have it.
8) The most frequent colour here is red. Poppies are red, her hair is red, love is associated with red and so is a heart. Reds of lighter tones are usually connected with lust, anger and rage and those deeper reds with love, passion andheat.
9) Poppies are of a lighter red, they might represent the anger in the poem, the blood if there is any in the ambulance etc.
10) When she speaks of God, and crying in nature, we can say it is his creation that she is crying out for His creation; bountiful, pleasant and beautiful, she is asking almost for permission to speak and be in the company of beauty. The last lines each keats idea of beauty.
"As thing of beautyis a joy for ever
Its loveliness increases, it will never,
Pass into nothingness;

Is Oedipus ‘worst of men’ as he calls himself?

Is Oedipus ‘worst of men’ as he calls himself?

No it is wrong to say that because:
It is against the very concept of Aristotelian concept of the tragic hero. An ideal tragic hero:
is an essentially a good (though not noble) character
But, at the same time, he has common human weaknesses and commits an error of judgment or suffers from a fatal flaw (hamartia), causing his peripeteia (tragic and drastic fall from prosperity into adversity).His fall arouses pity and fear in the audience and provides an opportunity to them for catharsis (process of release of emotions)
We equate ourselves with the tragic hero and his fall because, firstly, he morally belongs to the average humanity like all of us and, secondly, his fall is caused, not by any of his evil actions, but by his fatal flaws which affect each and every single one of us and, that, too, because of the working of destiny and fate.
If tragic hero is evil, why would the spectators equate themselves with him and why pity and fear would be aroused in them
In case of evil tragic hero, the spectators would feel relieved at his fall as they would do in case of seeing the murderers and rapists and robbers fall
But why does he call himself ‘the worst of men’? It actually refers to the weaknesses of which he actually was ignorant and only came to know them after his fall e.g.
• Oedipus committed patricide and incest which are unpardonable crimes but he came to know these when it was too late
• He falls at the hands of his indomitable pride and ambition, but this is true of all tragic heroes who have weaknesses. For instance look at the weaknesses of other tragic heroes: Hamlet, procrastination; Lear, arrogance and ignorance; Othello, jealousy; Julius Caesar, arrogance; Macbeth, ambition; Faustus, his ambition and pride in his unlimited knowledge.
So what is really to blame is the tragic Irony of fate and destiny. Oedipus knows all and is the only person in the world to solve the riddle of the Sphinx, but we know that the discovery of truth is not going to help him. So ironically, he remains ignorant of his own crimes of patricide and incest and the moment truth is revealed, he starts hating himself. That Oedipus is not the worst of men can be proved even by his decision to leave Thebes for fear of the fulfilment of the prophecies but it the evil and tragic irony of fate that somehow ends up in the same country of his birth and commits what he is so bent upon avoiding but what is destined to happen.