2. An Unusual
Character
• A member of the
Protestant clergy
but known for his
sensual and erotic
writing.
• Liked the ladies but
often showed
cynical contempt
towards them.
3. Goe and Catch a Falling Starre
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.
4. Batter My
Heart
• …“Except you'enthrall me,
• Healthy never shall be free,
appetite for Nor ever chaste, except you
life and its ravish me”…
pleasures
5. What is Metaphysical Poetry?
• Highly intellectual and philosophical
• Intensive use of ingenious conceits
• Turns of wit
8. • Moves away
from Petrarchan
tradition used by
Shakespeare and
Spenser
• Revolts against
clichéd
comparisons
9. A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning
…“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”….
14. Nobody Likes
Change
• Shift from “Donne, for not keeping of
classical forms to accent, deserved hanging”
more personal
Ben Johnson
poetry
• Jagged rhythms
resembling
casual speech
15. Poetic Metre
• Represented a
shift from
classical forms to
more personal
poetry
• Changing and
jagged rhythms
closely resemble
casual speech
16. However…In
Time
“I remember being
appalled when
someone criticised me
for beginning just like
John Donne but not
quite managing to
finish like John Donne,
and I felt the weight of
English literature on
me at that point.”
Sylvia Plath, 1962
