Today

’

s Agenda:

• Ice Breaker: Sometimes, Always, Never • Intro to Lesson-Quickwrite: You will need one sheet of paper. You will have 5 minutes to write everything you can remember about John Donne and his poetry. Discuss.

• Listen to “ At the Round Earth ’ s Imagined Corners ” .

• PowerPoint on Donne and Metaphysical Poetry- Take Notes! (This will also be on the Moodle site in case you miss something!) • Analyze the following poems: “ The Flea ” and “ Holy Sonnet 6& 10 apostrophe.

” for meter, form, tone, metaphysical conceit, paradox, and

Today

’

s Objective:

• After the PowerPoint, students will be able to apply their knowledge of John Donne and metaphysical conceits by choosing two topics from the given list and creating two original metaphysical conceits in complete sentences with no grammatical errors.

John Donne 1572- 1631

Just So You Know…

• • • “

Donne wrote some of the most passionate love poems and most moving religious verse in the English language

”

(Damrosch and Dettmar 1669). He is hailed as the

“

Monarch of Wit

”

xi).

(Dickson He wrote FIVE different types of poems:

– Satires – Elegies – Verse Letters – Songs & Sonnets – Holy Sonnets or “ Divine Poems ”

Donne

’

s Background

• 1572-1631 • An outcast.

• Left England to travel abroad. A.k.a. “ find himself ” • Returned and converted to the English church.

• Secretary to Sir Thomas Egerton, Lord Keeper of the Great Seal in 1597.

• Good for John Donne! Right?

Background…

• It ’ s always about a girl!

• Ann More-17 years old(his bosses niece!) • Donne lost his job and was imprisoned.

• “ John Donne, Ann Donne, un-done • Marriage was declared unlawful.

” • They remained husband and wife.

– 12 children

Background…

• Donne could never obtain a patron.

• He finally resorted to the church. He became an Anglican priest in 1615.

– Made a royal chaplain and received an honorary Doctorate of Divinity from Cambridge. • Sadly, Ann dies during childbirth at age 33.

• Changed the focus of Donne ’ s poetry.

Why

“

Metaphysical

”

?

• A very broad term, but it combines several 17 th century poets: John Donne, Andrew Marvell, George Herbert.

• Samuel Johnson gave this name to the group long after they lived.

“

Life of Cowley

”

(1779)

• “ “

But wit, abstracted from its effects upon the hearer, may be more rigorously and philosophically considered as a kind of discordia concors;

’

a combination of dissimilar images, or discovery of occult resemblances in things apparently unlike. Of wit, thus defined, they have more than enough. The most heterogeneous ideas are yoked by violence together; nature and art are ransacked for illustrations, comparisons, and allusions; their learning instructs, and their subtlety surprises; but the reader commonly thinks his improvement dearly bought, and, though he sometimes admires, is seldom

Metaphysical:

• Dealing with the relationship between spirit to matter or the ultimate nature of reality.

Characteristics of Metaphysical Poetry:

• What I want you to understand today: • Metaphysical Conceit • Complex • Paradox • Posed as an argument

Metaphysical Conceit:

•

What do you think of when you hear the word: -conceit?

•

In Donne

’

s day, conceit simply meant: idea.

• Metaphysical Conceit: combination of heterogeneous ideas yoked together by violence that is sustained throughout the poem.

Complex:

• • Meant to make you think.

“ It makes demands upon the reader and challenges him to make it out. It does not attempt to attract the lazy and its lovers have always a certain sense of being a privileged class, able to enjoy what is beyond the reach of vulgar wits ” (

The Metaphysical Poets

17).

Paradox:

• What is paradox?

• An apparently untrue or self-contradictory statement or circumstance that proves true upon reflection or when examined in another light. • This will be seen in Donne ’ s “ Holy Sonnet 10 ” .

Form:

• The poems are posed in the form of an argument. • What is the argument in “ The Bait ” ? • Persuade, defines, or proves a point.

• The poems form force the reader to trace the argument throughout the entire poem.

• The meters of his poems vary.

• Love is a recurring theme. Either love for another person or love between a human and God.

QUESTIONS?

IS THERE ANYTHING THAT YOU NEED TO REVISIT ABOUT DONNE ’ S BACKGROUND OR THE METAPHYSICAL GENRE?

Exit Slip:

• Before you leave, we will do a review activity.

–

3-2-1:

On a sheet of paper, please legibly write: •

3: Important details

from the PowerPoint on Donne •

2: Connections.

(Make connections between Donne ’ s personal life and the poetry you have read).

•

1: Question You Still Have

–

When you have completed the 3-2-1 activity, please pass them to the front of the row.