John Donne as an Innovative Poet

John Donnes typeset as a revered and respected poet is non unjustified. The depth and snorkel of literary works written about him along with the esteemed property he held among his comtemporaries is evidence of his popularity. As a metaohysical poet his poesy was frequently everywherecharge and theoritical and he utilised poetry to display his learning and above every his wit. He was approximately certainly an innovative love poet who moved off from the Shakespearian localize on form intensely literary genius. He was an expert in argu ment and much used exr=tended conceits to put transport these line of works.The drama in his poetry and his use of language all look to highlight his skills as an innovative and creative poet. In order to probe Donnes innovative style I will discuss five of his verse forms, A Nocturnal Upon St. Lucys Day, The Flea, A Valediction Forbidding Mourning, The Sunne Rising and The Anniversarie. Donne was frequently classed as the first and gre atest of the metaphysical poets. This group of writers were classed together, not because of any historic connection, but largely due to their similiarity of style. The term metaphysical could be classed in a number of ways the work of these poets was both celebrated and criticised.For some metaphysics was a branch of philosophical speculation concerned with questions of our being and existence. It was often characterised by the se of inventive conceits and speculation on topics such as love or religion. For Samuel Johnson, who coined the term the metaphysical poets, they were overly comcerned with style and the materialization of learning. He believed these poets, who included George Herbert and Andrew Marvel as well as Donne, were only when using this style of poetry to show off their intelligence, The metaphysical poets were men of learning and to show their learning was their whole endeavour. Johnson, 1876 48. The impact Donne and his innovative style do on his contemporarie s is evidenced further when we look at the reaction of his contemporaries to his oddment. Such was their grief at his passing that a book of elegies dedicated to his was published two years after his death. Among these was doubting Thomas Carews An Elegie Upon the Death of the Deane of Pauls Dr John Donne. In this Carew laments the passing of Donne and believes that his death will deflect other poets as he was their inspiration. For Carew, Donnes inovation ay in his use of the English llanguage and he described him as having freed the English language from the weeds which had grown all over it. Carew also suggests that other poets are indebted to Donne as he created a style that was a source of inspoiration for many other poets. This stance in reaction to his death further reinforces the idea that Donne was an innovative love poet and not one who writes with an awareness of tradition of earlier love poetry. William Shakespeare was the Elizabethan eras most prolific love poet. He e mployed a highly literary style in his writing and a rigid structure in much of his poetry.A comparison between Donnes work and Shakespeares traditional love poetry effectively highlights Donnes innovation in the field. Shakespeares poem Venus and Adonis and Donnes poem A Nocturnal Upon St Lucys Day are love poems that employ similiar logical businesss to acquire their themes. Donnes innovation becomes obvious however in the style and diffuculty of his argument. In Shakespearess verse line his heroine refuses to believe that her lover has died based on the argument that if he was d.o.a. then the whole world would be in chaos and she withal would be dead, to wail his death who lives and must not die/ coin bank mutual overthrow of mortal kind Shakespeare 1015 1020. Once the point has been do the poem moves on. In Donnes poem on the other hand his argument on the liklihood of proving his death continues for many lines and utilises comparisons to many scientific points. For Don ne it is not the logical system of the argument that counts but the argument itself and he continues to press the argument until he can go no further. This poem is also evidence of Donnes focus on metaphysics. He uses the unfeeling language of philosophy and science to gain ground his arguments. Intellectual argument and attempts to persuade are a frequent give of Donnes poetry.Many of them are exercises in the use and abuse of logic. His poem The Flea contains twenty septenary lines of witty closely-knit argument on the significance for two lovers of a flea bite. The poem contains three connecteded arguments the first it that the flea, who has bitten both the speaker and his lover, now contains the blood of distributively and so they are mingled withing the body of the flea in which they have effectively made their marriage bed. The second is that by killing the flea, she will be committing death penalty (killing him), suicide (killing herself) and sacrilege (destroying the tem ple which was their marriage bed).The final segment of the argument takes describe after his lover has killed the flea. The speaker reasons that as neither he nor she has suffered from the death of the flea, if she yields to him, she will lose no more honour than when this fleas death took spirit from her. Donne line 27. Donne pursues his argument in a cogitate logical means and in this poem in particular the argument carries an irreverent tactile property and through its ludicrousness and wit Donne demonstrates both his intellect and ingenuity.Another of Donnes poem which employs a reasoned argument is Valediction Forbidding Mourning. Unlike the irreverent tones of The Flea however this poems argument is filled with emotional intensity as Donne assures his wife that the physical outdo between them as he undertakes a long journey to europium with his patron Sir Robert Drury will not alter their relationship. He makes the unusual argument that their separation is not only unim portant but in detail impossible. In the poem