What was Donne thinking? (1 Viewer)

[Kathman]

Hey Guys,

I really need some desperate help on John Donne. I have no idea what he is blabbering on about. I mean I understand the gist of the poems but I'm up the creek without a paddle about anything else to do with him.

Can anyone help me I'm going crazy and am counting the days till the exam.

I think I may go on strike soon against John Donne.

Please help, thanks in advance.

 

[ezzy85]

Go to your library and have a look at Horizon notes on Donne and read about his poetry on the net. Dont worry if its not specifically written for the HSC course. Just read as much as you can whether it be about his life or poetry. Understanding the context hes writing in can help, so i recommend just reading as much as you can on him and his poetry.

 

[Cumquott]

Heya

Donne sux..eh? I know stuff about Donne...but I can't sit here and type everything I know about him. I'd love to help you out...but I need you to be specific about what you don't know....then I can help you.

Hang in there..the HSC is SO NOT the end of the world. You're gonna do great things in your life and what happens next year is not dependant on your UAI. You WILL live past the expectations of your teachers..parents, and even past the expectations of yourself...so don't let this thing get in the way of your quality of life, OK?

Take care, keep smiling!

 

[sugaryblue]

John Donne is a metaphysical poet of the Renaissance. The subjects of his poetry studied in the HSC english course are religion and love.

He often uses metaphysical techniques such as conceits, extended metaphors and other stuff like that.

 

[Toodulu]

his poems are usually an intellectual argument rather than following the spencerian poetry and petrarchan conventions. (language of argument: therefore, and so.. etc)
you'll also need to look at how the conceits work.
in the religious ones you should talk about his dilemma and how that is portrayed through metaphysical styles. if you find some books on him, there are usually some pretty general stuff about his life. basically the catholic>protestant. and his marriage.

but remember that you're studying about different interpretations of his poems. my suggestion would be to do a traditional reading and then a more radical one, like a feminist for example.

find a reading.. take an aspect that you could talk about and start from there. always remember to include techniques and not just blabber on about context or other schmuzzles.

 

[Minai]

To further Toods' post, it'd be beneficial to look at contrasting critics on Donne in a contextual sense - ie how has a critic's context affected their view on his poetry (eg say, Eliot vs. Johnson)

 

[Misturi]

The only thing l can put down - don't know if its relevant but my tecaher told me that he was never really in love, he was in it all for sex, thats why you never know much about "her"

 

[leeshleesh]

if you are really stuck ill send u all my notes ive typed up on my computer and hopefully they will help u, that goes for anyone. i really like donnes work so ive put lots into it. email me at lauren_666_@hotmail.com and ill send u some stuff if you would like?

 

[Minai]

Originally posted by leeshleesh
if you are really stuck ill send u all my notes ive typed up on my computer and hopefully they will help u, that goes for anyone. i really like donnes work so ive put lots into it. email me at lauren_666_@hotmail.com and ill send u some stuff if you would like?

can u email them to me as well - j.minai@student.unsw.edu.au
so we can upload them to this site when the HSC is over?
that is, if u feel generous enough

 

[hurrotisrobbo]

AAARGH! The avatar changed again!
Stop scaring me.

>What was Donne thinking?

The crack. Definitely the crack.
(Or the snuff box. Or is that too late 19thC?)

 

[ezzy85]

your thinking of coleridge. he was into that kinda stuff

 

[Toodulu]

Originally posted by sarah_#1_eel
The only thing l can put down - don't know if its relevant but my tecaher told me that he was never really in love, he was in it all for sex, thats why you never know much about "her"

if you say that, you have to have a critic to back it up because you can't say that was donne's original purpose, unless you're comparing 2 radical readings which i think will be really hard. a feminist critic you could look at is stevie davies, her criticism is excellent for making donne to be a sexually driven, phallic, mysogynistic and philandering rake.

i have read 2 readings on why donne never describes his mistress or give her a voice. one of them is that his fear of the women makes him a real bastard and the other one is that his only contact with women were those with an inferior intellect.