Sapientia Clamitans - John Donne

Advantages: Do you like poetry,or not?
Disadvantages: The outdated language

...John Donne was born in 1572,into Shakespearan England,and yet he is so different to Shakespeare in his works.He is usually described as a metaphysical poet,although I do not think that a particularly helpful description.Donne is physical,emotional,sexual.I was introduced to Donne by my A-Level English Literature teacher.Many of his poems are short and easily understood- particularly the erotic "The Flea" and "The Sunne Rising".Others,especially "The Anniversaries" need to be ploughed through.Donne's poetry is vivid and haunting,and intense.Much of Donne's work is love poetry,which is wonderful,although his later work is of a religious nature,given his Catholic background.All of it it inspired. You,reader of the 21st century,may think Donne had nothing to say to you.Think again!... Read review

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Advantages: very good read
Disadvantages: controversion

...John Donne is one of the most fantastically interesting metaphysical poets. Just to give you a brief description of what metaphysical poetry is about: metaphysical poets were a group of poets in the 17th century whose name was given to them after they had been writing by Samuel Johnson. It's hard to describe exactly what a metaphysical poem is just because, well there isn't really a strict pattern they follow as most of them were not famous until after death and well didn't really know of each other. Anyway, the key thing that more or less all of the metaphysical poems contain is an extended metaphor or conceit throughout the poem. For example in John Donne's 'The Flea' the conceit is that he imagines himself and his lover throughout the poem making love inside of the flea, their "marriage temple". Sounds strange, i know... Read review

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Advantages: Stong visual images
Disadvantages: can take a fair bit of getting into

...Andrew marvel is one of the Metaphysical poets - a group who were not a conscious movement but who were about contemporary to Shakespeare. Other names include John Donne, George Herbert and Thomas Carrew. There are some others who might or might not belong with this set. (but for rasons of sanity, i shall not go into details.) What is metaphysical poetry? The term was initially coined as an insult, a citicism of a group of people with strange ideas and even stranger ways of expressing them. What typifies these writers is their use of a technique called the conceit. A metaphor is saying something is something else "The fire was a raging demon locked in a prison or iron" "The man at the window was no more than a shadow, a whisp of smoke, a fragment of a long forgotten dream." Obviously none of these things are literaly true... Read review

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