or do you want it like a murder mystery? (![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} inrevolt) wrote in ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif){kind=small} litjrnalfromhel,@ 2008-02-15 13:54:00 |
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HOLY SONNET 6 & THE METAPHYSICAL CONCEIT
HOLY SONNET 6
Among John Donne’s Holy Sonnets, Holy Sonnet 6 is a direct, detached, thoughtful piece, unlike some of his other more emotional writing. “Death, be not proud” states its intent in the first line: it addresses death itself, personified or not, and builds a lovely poem on the back of this apostrophe. Donne draws the reader in by taking such a direct and determined stand against the whole world’s common enemy; we know without reading further that he is on our side, that he is challenging the Other and not ourselves.
In Holy Sonnet 6, Donne reminds death of its place along side famine, pestilence and war, and warns it that when it has achieved its goal and destroyed all humans, it itself will die. So it might as well not hurry. Not that Donne is afraid of death – he enjoys sleeping, he says, so why would death not be enjoyable? Which he thinks explains why so many good people die young: they’re simplu going to their reward.
THE METAPHYSICAL CONCEIT
The metaphysical conceit is a highly conceptual way of forming original, intelligent metaphors based on unrelated or unexpected things.
HOLY SONNET 6
Among John Donne’s Holy Sonnets, Holy Sonnet 6 is a direct, detached, thoughtful piece, unlike some of his other more emotional writing. “Death, be not proud” states its intent in the first line: it addresses death itself, personified or not, and builds a lovely poem on the back of this apostrophe. Donne draws the reader in by taking such a direct and determined stand against the whole world’s common enemy; we know without reading further that he is on our side, that he is challenging the Other and not ourselves.
In Holy Sonnet 6, Donne reminds death of its place along side famine, pestilence and war, and warns it that when it has achieved its goal and destroyed all humans, it itself will die. So it might as well not hurry. Not that Donne is afraid of death – he enjoys sleeping, he says, so why would death not be enjoyable? Which he thinks explains why so many good people die young: they’re simplu going to their reward.
THE METAPHYSICAL CONCEIT
The metaphysical conceit is a highly conceptual way of forming original, intelligent metaphors based on unrelated or unexpected things.
