A "conceit" is a fanciful notion, expressed through an elaborate analogy or metaphor.

From Petrarch, the poets of the Renaissance took not only a conventional form but also conventional sentiments:

Eyes like stars or the sun, hair like golden wires, lips like cherries, etc. are common examples. Petrarchan conceits were overused to the point of nausea in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

A stock feature of this poetry is a comparison known as the

Petrarchan Conceit

SONNET 130My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;Coral is far more red than her lips' red;If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.I have seen roses damask'd, red and white, But no such roses see I in her cheeks;And in some perfumes is there more delightThan in the breath that from my mistress reeks.I love to hear her speak, yet well I knowThat music hath a far more pleasing sound; I grant I never saw a goddess go;My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground:And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rareAs any she belied with false compare.

17th Century Poetry

Metaphysical PoetryHighly intellectualStructured as subtle, witty argumentsUse of the conceitConversational, irregular rhythms “The most heterogeneous ideas are yoked by

violence together” –Dr. Samuel JohnsonTerms to apply: ParadoxMetaphysical conceitAnalogy

John Donne• Privileged background• Catholic in his youth• Ambitious and worldly as

a young man• But became “The

passionate divine”• Complex, sensuous poetry• “Language stretched to the

limits of its complexity.”

Two people in one:“Jack Donne”

–man about town• Very ambitious: attended

Inns of Court• Part of court life • Period of sensuous, graphic

love poetry like “The Flea”THEN. . .

THE FLEA.by John Donne

MARK but this flea, and mark in this,How little that which thou deniest me is ;

It suck'd me first, and now sucks thee, And in this flea our two bloods mingled be.

Thou know'st that this cannot be saidA sin, nor shame, nor loss of maidenhead ;

    Yet this enjoys before it woo,    And pamper'd swells with one blood made of two ;

    And this, alas ! is more than we would do.

O stay, three lives in one flea spare,Where we almost, yea, more than married are.

This flea is you and I, and thisOur marriage bed, and marriage temple is.

Though parents grudge, and you, we're met,And cloister'd in these living walls of jet.    Though use make you apt to kill me,    Let not to that self-murder added be,

    And sacrilege, three sins in killing three.

Cruel and sudden, hast thou sincePurpled thy nail in blood of innocence?

Wherein could this flea guilty be,Except in that drop which it suck'd from thee?

Yet thou triumph'st, and say'st that thouFind'st not thyself nor me the weaker now.

'Tis true ; then learn how false fears be ;Just so much honour, when thou yield'st to me,

Will waste, as this flea's death took life from thee.

http://www.luminarium.org/sevenlit/donne/flea.php

Let’s define words you don’t know:• maidenhead• woo• cloistered• jet

1. Explain the conceit: What is being compared to what?

2. Explain the logic of the argument3. Explain how he builds the argument from one

stanza to the next

THE FLEA.by John Donne

MARK but this flea, and mark in this,How little that which thou deniest me is ;

It suck'd me first, and now sucks thee, And in this flea our two bloods mingled be.

Thou know'st that this cannot be saidA sin, nor shame, nor loss of maidenhead ;

    Yet this enjoys before it woo,    And pamper'd swells with one blood made of two ;

    And this, alas ! is more than we would do.

O stay, three lives in one flea spare,Where we almost, yea, more than married are.

This flea is you and I, and thisOur marriage bed, and marriage temple is.

Though parents grudge, and you, we're met,And cloister'd in these living walls of jet.    Though use make you apt to kill me,    Let not to that self-murder added be,

    And sacrilege, three sins in killing three.

Cruel and sudden, hast thou sincePurpled thy nail in blood of innocence?

Wherein could this flea guilty be,Except in that drop which it suck'd from thee?

Yet thou triumph'st, and say'st that thouFind'st not thyself nor me the weaker now.

'Tis true ; then learn how false fears be ;Just so much honour, when thou yield'st to me,

Will waste, as this flea's death took life from thee.

THE FLEA.by John Donne

MARK but this flea, and mark in this,How little that which thou deniest me is ;

It suck'd me first, and now sucks thee, And in this flea our two bloods mingled be.

Thou know'st that this cannot be saidA sin, nor shame, nor loss of maidenhead ;

    Yet this enjoys before it woo,    And pamper'd swells with one blood made of two ;

    And this, alas ! is more than we would do.

O stay, three lives in one flea spare,Where we almost, yea, more than married are.

This flea is you and I, and thisOur marriage bed, and marriage temple is.

Though parents grudge, and you, we're met,And cloister'd in these living walls of jet.    Though use make you apt to kill me,    Let not to that self-murder added be,

    And sacrilege, three sins in killing three.

Cruel and sudden, hast thou sincePurpled thy nail in blood of innocence?

Wherein could this flea guilty be,Except in that drop which it suck'd from thee?

Yet thou triumph'st, and say'st that thouFind'st not thyself nor me the weaker now.

'Tis true ; then learn how false fears be ;Just so much honour, when thou yield'st to me,

Will waste, as this flea's death took life from thee.

Overt sexual imagery

Marriage to Anne More

“John DonneAnne DonneUndone.”

•Ruin and disgrace

•Time in jail

•Poverty and other problems

BUT. . .

Their love was real and long-lasting

“A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning”

•Relationship with Anne, his wife

•Meaning of valediction

•Imagery is drawn from astronomy, alchemy, and

meteorology

•The Ptolemaic Universe

•Gold facts

•The compass

“A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning”

Jot down these questions:

• Who is the speaker?

• What is the occasion?

• Who is the audience?

• What is the purpose?

• What is the subject?

• What is the tone (attitude)?

AS virtuous men pass mildly away,      And whisper to their souls to go, 

Whilst some of their sad friends do say,     "Now his breath goes," and some say, "No."   

So let us melt, and make no noise,                                No tear-floods, nor sigh-tempests move ;

‘Twere profanation of our joys      To tell the laity our love. 

Moving of th' earth brings harms and fears ;     Men reckon what it did, and meant .

But trepidation of the spheres,      Though greater far, is innocent.

Dull sublunary lovers' love     —Whose soul is sense—cannot admit 

Of absence, 'cause it doth remove                                    The thing which elemented it.

But we by a love so much refined,     That ourselves know not what it is, 

Inter-assurèd of the mind,      Care less, eyes, lips and hands to miss.

Our two souls therefore, which are one,      Though I must go, endure not yet  A breach, but an expansion,      Like gold to aery thinness beat. 

If they be two, they are two so    As stiff twin compasses are two; Thy soul, the fix'd foot, makes no show     To move, but doth, if th' other do. 

And though it in the centre sit,     Yet, when the other far doth roam, It leans, and hearkens after it,      And grows erect, as that comes home. 

Such wilt thou be to me, who must,     Like th' other foot, obliquely run; Thy firmness makes my circle just,     And makes me end where I begun. 

A Valediction Forbidding Mourning. by John Donne

Answer these questions:

• Who is the speaker?

• What is the occasion?

• Who is the audience?

• What is the purpose?

• What is the subject?

• What is the tone (attitude)?

John Donne himself

He is leaving

Anne, his wife

To console her

The nature of love

Serious

Read & annotate the 1st two stanzas:AS virtuous men pass mildly away, 

    And whisper to their souls to go,  Whilst some of their sad friends do say,

    "Now his breath goes," and some say, "No."   

So let us melt, and make no noise,           5                     No tear-floods, nor sigh-tempests move;

‘Twere profanation of our joys      To tell the laity our love. 

profanation=violation of something sacred; defilement

laity= all those not in the clergy of a church; those outside a profession

AS virtuous men pass mildly away,      And whisper to their souls to go, 

Whilst some of their sad friends do say,     "Now his breath goes," and some say, "No."   

So let us melt, and make no noise,                                No tear-floods, nor sigh-tempests move ;

‘Twere profanation of our joys      To tell the laity our love. 

Moving of th' earth brings harms and fears ;     Men reckon what it did, and meant .

But trepidation of the spheres,      Though greater far, is innocent.

Dull sublunary lovers' love     —Whose soul is sense—cannot admit 

Of absence, 'cause it doth remove                                    The thing which elemented it.

But we by a love so much refined,     That ourselves know not what it is, 

Inter-assurèd of the mind,      Care less, eyes, lips and hands to miss.

Our two souls therefore, which are one,      Though I must go, endure not yet  A breach, but an expansion,      Like gold to aery thinness beat. 

If they be two, they are two so    As stiff twin compasses are two; Thy soul, the fix'd foot, makes no show     To move, but doth, if th' other do. 

And though it in the centre sit,     Yet, when the other far doth roam, It leans, and hearkens after it,      And grows erect, as that comes home. 

Such wilt thou be to me, who must,     Like th' other foot, obliquely run; Thy firmness makes my circle just,     And makes me end where I begun. 

A Valediction Forbidding Mourning. by John Donne

Cavalier Poetry

•Based on Classical Models (Imitation, quite often)

•Light and often witty•Polished and refined•Urbane and sophisticated•Often cynical in their attitude toward women and love

Cavalier. . . Chevalier. . .Chivalry=knight or gentleman

Gather ye rose-buds while ye may,Old time is still a-flying:And this same flower that smiles to-day,To-morrow will be dying.The glorious Lamp of Heaven, the Sun,The higher he's a gettingThe sooner will his race be run,And nearer he's to setting.That age is best which is the first,When youth and blood are warmer;But being spent, the worse, and worstTimes, still succeed the former.Then be not coy, but use your time;And while ye may, go marry:For having lost but once your prime,You may for ever tarry.

“To the Virgins”

Robert Herrick

BACKGROUND:

• “An Invitation to Love”• Based on a poem by the

Roman poet, Catullus• Cavalier in form

– Rhyming couplets– Classical allusions– Sophisticated and worldly– Polished and metrical

But this is also metaphysical. . .• A subtle argument in 3 parts

• Shocking and grim imagery • Speaker & Audience:

– Marvell– His “Mistress,” who is “coy”

What do these words mean?

Coy: Quiet and shy, but also undecided

Mistress: An unmarried young woman

Notes:5] Ganges: a river in India7] Humber: the river Humber in northern England, close to

Marvell’s home.8] the Flood: this refers to the flood in Genesis; in other words, the

beginning of time10] The conversion of the Jews was to take place just before the end

of the world.22] Time’s winged chariot: a link to Roman mythology: Apollo’s

flying chariot drove the sun29] quaint: elegant, artificial.36] instant: immediate and urgent.38] birds of prey: scavenger birds that live off of carrion, like

vultures39] devour: to eat hungrily40] languish: to suffer in an unpleasant situation40] slow-chapp'd: slowly devouring jaws.