English Notes

‘The Flower’ by George Herbert describes how the changing of the seasons impacts a speaker’s outlook on life and relationship with God. The poem begins with the speaker celebrating the arrival of spring. This is something, he relishes every year as it brings about a great mental and emotional transformation during present starta. During the winter months, like a flower, he is shriveled up in the ground finding comfort where he can. When spring comes, life improving and God’s opinion of the world improves, he grows up towards heaven. This is his most important goal in life, to prove himself to God. The speaker imagines what it will be like in heaven and knows that he would do anything to get there. He doesn’t imagine there could be anyone of the planet feeling any differently than he. He did so what he wanted in his life to prove himself as a super thought. 

It’ is a poem written by English metaphysical poet John Donne . It is published in 1633, the poem is viewed as exemplifying Donne’s wit and ironical approach. It is addressed to one friend from another, but concerns itself with the complexities of romantic love: the speaker presents love as so all-consuming that lovers forgo other pursuits to spend time together. In this sense, love is asceticism, a major conceit in the poem. The poem’s title serves a dual purpose: while the speaker argues that his love will canonise him into a kind of sainthood, the poem itself functions as a canonisation of the pair of lovers. New Critic Cleanth Brooks used the poem, along with Alexander Pope’s “An Essay on Man ” and William Wordsworth’s “ Composed upon Westminster Bridge , September 3, 1802”, to illustrate his argument for paradox as central theme to poetry. The Holy Sonnets also known as the Divine Meditations or Divine Sonnets are a series of nineteen poems by the English poet John Donne (...

It’ is an erotic metaphysical poem ( posthumously in 1633) by John Donne (1572–1631). The exact date of its composition is unknown ; but it is probable that Donne wrote this poem in the 1590s when he was a young law student at Lincoln’s Inn, before he became a respected religious figure as Dean of St Paul’s Cathedral . The poem uses the conceit of a flea, which has sucked blood from the male speaker and his female lover, to serve as an extended metaphor for the relationship between them. The speaker tries to convince a lady to sleep with him, arguing that if their blood mingling in the flea is innocent, then sexual mingling would also be innocent. His argument hinges on the belief that bodily fluids mix during sexual intercourse. According to Laurence Perrine, this poem, along with many other of Donne’s poems, solidifies his place in the literary movement, creating what is now known as metaphysical poetry. Although the term was not found until after his death, it is still wide...

Metaphysical Poetry is a style of poetry that has used complex figurative languages, paradoxes and philosophical approach. It has been originated in the 17th century in England having such features as intellectuality, sharp images, complications of spirit or religion. The poetry is rich in complexity or a combination of two dissimilar images. Imaginative figures had been taken from different fields of knowledge as History, Geography, Astronomy, Alchemy, Mathematics, etc. John Dryden was the first to use the term “Metaphysic” in his criticism. Samuel Johnson widely extended it to a group of poets. In “The Lives of The Poet”, Johnson stated that “about the beginning of the 17th century appeared a race of writers that may be termed the metaphysical poets”. Both John Dryden and Samuel Johnson had been used the term “Metaphysical” in a negative sense to criticize the poets. After that the term widely used by John Donne, Andrew Marvel, Henry Vaughan, George Herbert and Richard Crashaw. ...

Sweetest Love I Do Not Goe" is a metaphysical poem written by John Donne and published posthumously in 1633 in Songs and Sonnets. After boaring in life, It was written to comfort his wife Anne More, before leaving her on a journey. There are some important points to understand well in this love poem:-  Reason for Leaving his wife:- The speaker clarifies that he is not leaving because he is tired of her, nor is he looking for a better love anywhere. Instead, he views his temporary departure as a "feigned death" (a practice run) to prepare them for the ultimate or an unavoidable separation of actual death. Separation is also a type of spiritual death between wife and husband.  The Sun used as Metaphor in the stanzas:- He compares his journey to the daily cycle of the sun. Just as the sun sets every evening and rises again the next day, he promises to return. He adds that he would return even faster than the sun because he possesses human reason, desire, and the emotional ...

In Ancient time, less acceptable role of women in art and literature in the society. However, the exact attention of women towards addressing their issues throughout the words of literature gradually began. Around the world, womenism and feminism could have the immense influence in literature in the first half of 20th century. Although, in 1929 when author Virginia Woolf wrote A Room of One’s Own, stating, “Women and fiction remain, so far as I am concerned, unsolved problems”, the portrayal of women in literature remains a topic much discussed today. In order to evaluate how and why women are portrayed the way they are today, one must look at historical evidence of the roles of women in both society and literature, and how they have changed and modified over time. In Ancient Greece, women had a limited role in society, society could not had allowed them to walk freely, talk freely, work freely and this devaluation of women is reflected in the literature of the time.    ...

William Wordsworth was born in 1770 and died in 1850. He was an English poet and one of the best known figures of the Romantic period. Samuel Taylor Coleridge, William Wordsworth wrote Lyrical Ballads, and the publication of this collection launched the Romantic Age in English literature in 1798. However, Wordsworth’s most important work is said to be The Prelude, a semi-autobiographical poem that he wrote in his youth. This poem was revised several times, and William Wordsworth worked on it during his whole life. The Prelude was published posthumously. As a central figure of the Romantic Movement, William Wordsworth focused his poetry on the personification of nature and its relationship with men. Moreover, his poems describe intense emotions; these are the main source of his aesthetic experience. Also, past and nature are meant to be glorified by the use of spontaneous language. ‘She Was a Phantom of Delight’ was written in 1803 and published in 1807. It is said that William Wordswor...