Poetry Donne's Use Of Paradoxes example essay topic

John Donne's poetry is most remembered for his metaphysical conceits. He brilliantly develops long drawn out metaphors using comparisons that are far from the norms of his time. Another of Donne's fancies as a writer is to create amusement through puns. Donne's passion for playing with language is seen not only in his elaborate conceits and witty puns, but also in his paradoxes. While conceits might be Donne's most famous and often used poetic device, he also excels at creating paradoxes and then resolving them. Like his conceits, Donne's paradoxes require close reading and an analytical mind as they force the reader to try to understand how things that cannot be, are.

Donne's use of paradoxes extends throughout his subjects. In his poems "The Canonization" and "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning", Donne implements paradoxes within love poems, while in his "Holy Sonnet 10" and "Holy Sonnet 14", he employs paradoxes within religious poems. Donne is a master craftsman with words, and when he builds a paradox it does not fall apart. Donne's "The Canonization" is a lover's plea. The speaker in the poem asks not to be ridiculed or scolded for his love, but rather to be exalted or venerated for his love. In the fifth stanza Donne lays out an elaborate paradox that represents the heart of the poem: We can die by it, if not live by love, And if unfit for tombs and hearse Our legend be, it will be fit for verse; And if no piece of chronicle we prove, We " ll build in sonnets pretty rooms; As well a well-wrought urn becomes The greatest ashes, as half-acre tombs, And by these hymns, all shall approve Us canonized for love: Donne hits the reader with his paradox in the first line of this stanza.

The speaker in the poem claims that if they "die by" love, they would still "live by love", which is a paradox because people can't live and die at the same time. As the stanza continues Donne sets out to resolve this statement. The second and third lines of the stanza give immediate resolve to the paradox. The speaker explains that the exploits of their love cannot be buried in a "tomb" or carried in a "hearse" like their bodies when they die, but rather the exploits of their love "will be fit for verse", and thusly live on even after the lover's physical death.

Donne's speaker follows this resolution with more examples, such as in the fifth line of the stanza when he asserts, "We " ll build in sonnets pretty rooms", furthering the notion that the lover's exploits will be recorded and remembered. In the closing two lines of the stanza, Donne gets crafty and uses the fore mentioned paradox to help back up another paradox, which is contained in the line, "Us canonized for love". This line is a paradox because to canonize someone is to make them a saint, someone to be venerated. People are canonized for the sacrifices they make in their lifestyles for the good of others. People are not supposed to be sainted for passionate love affairs; however, this paradox is resolved through the paradox discussed earlier.

It is because of the lover's immortality in "verse,"sonnets", and "hymns" that they will be "canonized for love". Everyone who reads of the lover's exploits will remember those exploits and exalt in them, just as people remember and exalt in saints. In another poem concerning love, "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning", Donne's speaker attempts to stop his lover from being sad because of their upcoming temporary separation. In stanzas seven, eight and nine, Donne creates an unusual conceit, comparing the speaker and his lover to a compass.

Within stanza seven, Donne places a paradox inside this conceit: If they be two, they are two so As stiff twin compasses are two; Thy soul, the fixed foot, makes no show To move, but doth if the other do. The paradox in this stanza is that the speaker's lover, who is compared to "the fixed foot" of a compass, stays in one spot at the same time as she moves with the speaker, who is represented by the other foot. How can the speaker's lover be with the speaker and apart from the speaker at the same time? This quandary is the paradox.

The poem's next stanza resolves this issue. Donne's speaker argues, And though it in the center sit, Yet when the other far doth roam, It leans and hardens after it, And grows erect, as that comes home. The paradox's resolution can be seen in this further comparison to the compass. Just as the stationary foot of the compass stays at a fixed point, yet is always connected to the moving foot, so too does the speaker's lover stay at home, yet remain attached to the speaker even as he travels far and wide. Donne's skill at creating and resolving paradoxes is very evident throughout his love poems. Turning to another theme within Donne's poetry, he uses paradoxes quite effectively within his religious poems as well.

In his "Holy sonnet 10", Donne opens the poem with a paradox addressed to death: Death, be not proud, though some have called thee Mighty and dreadful, for though art not so; For those whom thou think " st thou dost overthrow Die not, poor death, nor yet canst thou kill me. In these first four lines of the sonnet, Donne presents the reader with the idea that death is not a "mighty and dreadful" creature because when death takes someone, they do not really die. Donne has done it again. He gives the reader another paradox to vex over. How could someone who has died not really die? Donne's resolution for this paradox draws on a religious theme.

It is the last two lines of this sonnet that offer the resolution, "One short sleep past, we wake eternally / And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die". In these lines Donne explains to death that when our short lives pass and we die, we really wake up in heaven to live eternally with out death. Donne has resolved his paradox through the notion that we live on forever in the afterlife. In Donne's "Holy Sonnet 14", he again makes use of a paradox within a religious poem.

This poem is about Donne's relationship with God. He speaks to God as if God is a welcomed conquering force, coming to free Donne from the bonds of God's "enemy". Lines 10-13 of this poem spell out the paradox: But am betrothed unto your enemy. Divorce me, untie or break that knot again; Take me to you, imprison me, for I, Except you enthrall me, never shall be free, Donne's paradox is that he can only be free if God imprisons him. It is an obvious paradox, in that one cannot be free and imprisoned at the same time.

Donne has cleverly created another paradox that he will solve with the idea of heaven. The resolution to this paradox begins with Donne being "betrothed" or married to God's "enemy". In other words, Donne is bound to the devil, and needs God to "divorce" him from the devil. Once divorced from the devil, Donne needs God to imprison him in order to keep him away from the devil, so that Donne's soul can be set free in heaven rather than damned in hell.

Donne has resolved his paradox of freedom through imprisonment, and once again shown his tremendous skill as a poet. Though all poets undoubtedly enjoy playing with language, none do it more playfully than Donne. While Donne's playfulness shows up in his metaphysical conceits, witty puns, startling images, and resolvable paradoxes, it is the paradoxes that are by far the most enthralling. In poetry, to create two contradictory ideas and then explain how they can coexist takes an intellectual mind, and leaves an intellectual puzzle that must be unwound by an avid and thinking reader. Donne is a master of this art, and is able to use paradoxes to tackle any theme about which he writes. His cleverness and inventiveness with regards to poetic devices has forever cemented Donne as one the most cherished and enjoyable poets to read.