Autori inglesi

Materie:	Appunti
Categoria:	Lingue
Download:	124
Data:	16.02.2001
Numero di pagine:	4
Formato di file:	.doc (Microsoft Word)

John Donne:

* born in London, Catholic family

* he never took a degree, never became lawyer

* he travelled a lot on the continent

* attended courtly circles

* made himself known for his poems and translations

* 1601 he secretly married 17 years old Anne More, without permission from her family

* Donne was fired and imprisoned

* Then his poetry became more serious, he thought about problems of life and death, human impulses and sin, conflict between individual energy and the passing of time

* "The anniversaries" written for the death of Elisabeth Dury, daughter of one of his patrons. We can see Donne's uncertain position between the old Medieval world and the new Renaissance.

* 1615 Donne took the way of the Anglican church; King James1 was an admirer of Donne and his intellectual energy, he thought Donne would make a great Anglican preacher.

* After this conversion he became one of London's most succesfull men: theacher in Lyncoln's Inn, Dean of St. Paul Cath. And King's fav. Preacher.

SONGS AND SONNETS:

He wrote love elegies and songs, in this collection there aren't true sonnet => this term was used to indicate a song.

He is not in the hands of his lady, he doesn't think that suffering in silence is a lover's greatest virtue, but he makes his love explicity physical.

World of Donne's Poetry: real objects, animals, people.

He believes that the unin of the two souls is stronger than that of the bodies.

The Sun(busy old fool) rising:

At the beginning he attaks the sun because he comes into his private life, than there is the reconciliation.

Setting: bedroom. Power of Sun Vs Power of Speaker tah could eclipse the sun closing his eye. Nobody is happy as the 2 lovers are. Rapporto amore-tempo: l'amore non ha tempo. Rapporto amanti e coloro i quali hanno la vita regolata dal tempo.

A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning:

Poem about the separation of 2 lovers (for his wife). Donne refuses the idea of being separated from hi lady.

2 lovers compared to the legs of a compass, that always draw a perfect circle, symbol of unity.

Union of 2 souls is like a piece of gold wich may be beaten very thin without breaking

HOLY SONNETS:

* H.S. were begun after the death of Donne's wife

* Donne is distressed at the thought of his past errors and is frightened by the idea of repenting too late.

* Are Donne's only real sonnets.

Batter my heart:

One of donne's most famous holy sonnets, he asks to god to take his heart with the violence.

The city is the poet, the real king of this city is god but the evil forces try to capture the city => god must take again the control of the city, because th city can't defend himself
Andrew Marvell

Born in Winestead, his best poetry was published after his death in 1678. Was a Puritan, a friend of Milton.

We can find the coexstence of wit and high rhetoric. Was able to reconcile his religious beliefs with a passion for life and sensation ( unusual in the Puritan party).

This sensuality was manifested in 2 ways:

- Contemplation of natural scenery ( Upon Appleton house)

- And another pagan sensuality that we can find in "To his coy mistress", where we can see the carpe diem motif(Donne).

This is the most famous poem of marwell

Musicality of the poem

Donne's ifluence is visible in the division of the poem into 3 stanzas.

If they had infinite time and space => they would be in no hurry. But the time does hurry them and death lies in wait.

Marvell uses macabre visions to capture the love of lady, he explains that after death, with the decay of body, it will be too late for love.

Metaphysical and Cavalier Poets

We have to remember jhon donne, who was the first metaphysical poet, and Ben Johnson, who was the model of a group of poets called "the tribe of Ben" who were classicits in literature and royalists in politics.

Metaphysical school: a school never really existed as a group of poets working together.

George Herbert: anglican priest, he sees the hand of god everywhere, world=book written by god. Full of symbols and patterns. He wrote "Easter Wings"

It is an example of shaped verse, a shaped poem "looks" like its subject. The subject of the poem are the 2 angel's wings, a hellenistic poem shaped like cupid's wings might have suggested the form to Herbert.

Richard Crashaw: is the best English example of baroque sensibility influenced by G.Marino and Donne.

The Cavalier Poets: took the theme of passionate love and gave it sober.

Robert Herrick: was a great classicist, we can see this in his collection of short poems(Hesperides) Love is for Herrick an irresistible force, and he follows th Horace's precept of carpe diem.

John Bunyan

He came from a poor family and received little education, he served in Cromwell's army as a foot soldier, he wrote his greatest work"The piligrim's progress from this world to that wich is to come"while he was in prison. It's an allegory, the journey has perils and difficulties. He uses a prose style based on the language of the Bible and popular story-telling to make his allegory profoundly significant.

If we want to go to heaven we must to be able to resist the temptations.