Imaginative Core Of Donne's Poetry example essay topic

Ideas are clearly the imaginative core of John Donne's poetry. This is vividly evident through the study of Donne's poetry, and in particular his works; "The Relique", "The Sunne Rising" and "A Valediction: forbidding mourning". Donne utilizes a focus concept throughout his array of poetic works, and maintains his audiences attention through the exploration of those concepts. Various thematic settings are applied to convey the intended thought, and provide a base on which Donne builds his exploration of ideas. With a vast array of imagery and conceits combined, Donne manages to produce imaginative exploration of his intended concepts. Through the study of "The Relique", it is clearly evident that Donne's use of imagery is essential to the audiences understanding of the ideas portrayed.

Throughout this poem Donne explores his ideas using the hypothetical image of his grave being reopened by future generations. He questions what will be thought of his character when his casket is opened and "A bracelet of bright hair about the bone" is discovered. He feels very strongly about the purity of the love that he shares, and portrays this using detailed imagery to construct this hypothetical situation. Donne's use of conceits also largely adds to the clarify that ideas are the imaginative nucleus of his poet works.

This is clearly evident after an analytical view of the work "A Valediction: forbidding mourning". The thematic setting and central focus of the poem is that of love surpassing physical boundaries. The conceit Donne manipulates in order to express this is the famous compass; "If they be two, they are two so / As stiff e twin compasses are two", through which he is writing about the two souls. This conceit is set to convey the ide of love surpassing physical boundaries. Therefore it is seen that ideas are the imaginative core of Donne's poetry. "The Sunne Rising" also utilizes conceits to express the ideas that are the imaginative core of his poetry.

As opposed to the conceit that "A Valediction: forbidding mourning" represents, "The Sunne Rising" is a self centered conceit. Placing the author and his lover not only as the center of each others lives but as the center of the universe. When the two lovers are disturbed by the sun shining through their window in the early hours of the day. In the opening phrase the author draws his audiences attention to his own celestial supremacy with; "Busi e old fool e, unruly Sunne". Yet, within the last stanza, the author adopts a serious tone, quoting that "She is all States, and all Princes, I / Nothing else is" while still belittling the sun and ordering it to "Shine here to us, and thou art everywhere / This bed thy center is, these walls, thy sphere".

This conceit proves itself effective by placing the two new found lovers at the center of the universe, it shows how strong and issue love is for them, which in turn is the central focus of this poem. This again supports the statement that ideas are the imaginative core of Donnes poetry. Through an extensive study of John Donnes poetry and, in particular, extensive study of "The Relique", "The Sunne Rising" and "A Valediction: forbidding mourning", it is evident that the author employs a vast array of techniques to convey various complex ideas through his poetry. It is clear that the imaginative core of Donnes poetry lies in the in-depth exploration of complex conceptions, which, integrated with his use of conceit and extensive imagery, produces these poetic masterpieces. Ideas are definitely the imaginative core of John Donne's Poetry.