Analysis of Two Poems by John Donne - Essay Example

Poem analysis Introduction John Donne is one of the renowned early English poet whose works are still of relevance to the contemporary literary student. The poet composed several poems all of which exhibited specific poetic features that depict the relative nature of arts and culture. Arts often represent a society by portraying such through the analysis of the artist. Among his greatest works are The Flea and The Legacy in which he depicts the society in different ways. However, in doing this, the poet maintains certain natural poetic features that help qualify his works as such. Poems have particular structures and require the appropriate utilization of language in order to depict the feelings of the poet but still maintain the basic poetic nature. Such features do not change and has not changed through time since the earliest poets such John Donne employed them in their poems and so are the modern day poets as discussed in the essay below. Poems tell stories by addressing specific features of the society. They do these by analyzing the social occurrences in the form of thematic issues, which the poets analyze poetically and represent in their works while maintaining the relativity of thought and feelings enjoyed by artists. John Donne did this in his two works in which he portrays several thematic issues. In The Legacy, the poet discussed the gravity of separation, relationships break, and families separate for different reasons. Such separations are always sad and emotion. The pot discusses this using several social factors which he feels best describe the feelings people have whoever separated by their loved ones (Donne 31). Among the social factors, he sues in discussing the importance and gravity of separation is death. Death is a social phenomenon that has been in the society since time immemorial. Humans feel pain whenever they lose their loved ones to death. John Donne thus compares the pain his separation creates to that of his death (Carey 54). He does the same with The Flea in which he discusses sexual sin. Sex just as death in the Legacy has been a part of humanity since time immemorial. People attach immense importance to sexual relations and so does John Donne in the poem. The persona in the poem tries to convince a woman to sleep with him and in doing so; the persona explains his belief in relation to sexual intercourse. He for example explains that during the intercourse their blood would mingle thus making them one. In composing the poem, the author discusses several social and physical phenomena that help describe the nature of his society. One of such is Christianity, religion. By personifying the flea, the poet represents the trinity a basis of the Christianity. He uses the flea and its blood sucking nature to portray the mingling of human blood during sexual intercourse. Poems have natural features that help them qualify as such. As a renowned poet, John Donne portrays immense understanding of the structure and features of poetry thus employ them effectively. Among the important features of poetry and poems is the need for rhythm. Rhythm refers to the specific sound patterns that poems have thus making their recital easier. The poet employs different poetic elements in establishing rhythm in his poems. Among the most evident elements, he uses are rhymes and the use of chorus among many others. Rhymes are an essential aspect of poems that help develop the rhythm thus making recital of poems easier. The poetic element refers to the use of words with similar sound patterns in the lines of a stanza. The words placed at the end of the lines should have similar sound patterns during pronunciation thus helping recite the poems as they lead the audience from a line to the next. Rhymes thus have patterns and The Flea has one definite rhyme patterns throughout the entire poem. The first two lines end in a similarly sounding word as so are the second two lines as the poem progresses. Such a pattern is known as the aa, bb, cc, dd, ee. The poet creates the pattern naturally by selecting the words he places at the end of the sentences. In doing this, does not only seek to develop and maintain the pattern but to achieve the effectiveness of communication he envisions of his poems. The same is attributable to The Legacy, which unlike The Flea has an irregular sound pattern. An irregular rhyme patterns refers to one in which the poet does not maintain a similarity in the ending words. The poem does not have a definite rhyme pattern thus making it difficult for an ordinary audience to recite and interpret easily. The rhyme pattern in the poem is abbcdefg. Among the most important structural features of poems is the manner of their construction. Poems have a great similarity to songs only that they are not. They must therefore have definite and distinctive structures. Poems have stanzas, which have specific number of lines. The number of stanzas in a poem varies depending on the demands on the peculiar issues that an author decides to discuss in the poem. Both The Flea and The Legacy have particular structures that help distinct them from any other previously existing poems. The Legacy for example has three stanzas with each having eight lines. The Flea on the other hand has three stanzas as well but with nine lines in each stanza. It is notable in the two poems that the stanzas must have equal number of lines in order to provide the poem with a definite structure. The two poems have other additional poetic and literary features that help qualify them as effective representation of their societies. The poet employs fundamental features in the two poems with the view of improving the readability of the poem. Additionally, some of such features help place the poems in particular contexts. Among the most evident features and elements in The Legacy is dialogue. Dialogue refers to a conversation between two or three people. He uses the quotation marks to represent the dialogues. While dialogues are used often in other literary works, it helps develop an essence of interactivity in the poem thus eases the reading and recital of the poem. Additionally, poets enjoy a relative utilization of languages. They are free to create unique words and employ specific grammatical features in their poems in order to improve the readability of the poems. Among one of such feature that John Donne employs in his two poems is truncation. This refers to the deliberate shortening of words in order to develop particular sound bites. Shortened words are only relevant in poems and songs since poets use them specifically to improve the readability of their works. By truncating particular parts of a word, the poet remains with a word that can easily fit a space and derive the appropriate readability in both a line and a stanza. John Donne uses truncation in both poems. In The Legacy, he truncates such words as ripp'd, and search'd. To mark the deliberate truncation, he uses the apostrophe that thus helps the audience interpret his action. This is the case in the Flea in which he truncates, 'Tis true, in this statement, the poet does not only truncates the litter I but also combines two words into one before truncating a part of the resulting new word. However, by truncating the letter, the poet makes the combination strategic as it improves the readability of the stanza. Just as with any other literary works, the two poems portray the nature of the poet’s society. The poet achieves this by addressing specific thematic issues in the two poems. In the Legacy, for example the poet discusses separation and infuses such themes as death. He therefore explains the effects that death had on people in the early society. In the Flea on the other hand, the poet analyzes the role and importance of sexual relations in the society. The poet also discusses the importance of religion by personifying the flea thus portraying as the persona in the poem. Besides the evident use of themes to analyze the nature and structure of the society, the poet also uses language. The early English society used a different language from that spoken in the contemporary English society. The difference in the two languages thus helps depict the language used in the early society. In the Legacy for example, the author uses such words as thee to imply you and thine to mean mine. Such words are depictive of the Elizabethan English spoken in the early English society. However, language develops and the English language has developed through time as it spread to different parts of the world. The poems also portrays the personality of the poet, born to ardent Catholics and in a politically volatile society, Donne developed a dislike for both politics and catholic as he later defected to the protestant church at the dismay of his father who disowned him. In his works, he therefore avoids both politics and religion. He does this successfully in the two poems as he deliberately avoids any political undertones. He however discusses religion in both poems since owing to the relation that religion and Christianity has in the society. By discussing death, the poet analyzes the relationship between the living and the dead. On the Flea on the other hand, the poet out rightly depicts the holy trinity thus developing the essence of religion in the society and the holy trinity to Christianity. In a summary, poetry represents the society just as any other artwork. In doing this, the poet must however maintain particular structural features and elements in order to qualify a work as such. Such features include the establishment of rhythm and the need for a definite structure with even number of lines in every stanza of the poem. John Donne achieves owing to his vast experience in poetry. Works cited Carey, John. John Donne. Life, Mind and Art. London: Faber and Faber Limited, 1981. Print. Donne, John. The Legacy. Massachusetts USA: Peter Smith, Gloucester, 1965. Internet resource. Read More