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‫كلية التربية بقنا‬

‫‪POETRY2‬‬
‫‪Compiled and Prepared by:‬‬
‫‪Assistant Professor‬‬
‫‪Dr. Shaimaa Adham‬‬
‫الفرقة الثانية أساس قسم‬
‫اللغة الاجنلزيية‪ -‬لكية الرتبية‬
‫بقنا‬
‫أس تاذ املقرر‪:‬‬
‫أ‪.‬م‪ .‬د‪ .‬ش اميء أدمه‬
‫العام اجلامعي ‪2024-2023‬‬
‫اللكية‪ :‬الرتبية‬
‫الفرقة الثانية أساس‬
‫التخصص‪ :‬اللغة الاجنلزيية‬
‫عدد الصفحات‪197 :‬‬
‫‪1‬‬
16TH AND 17TH

CENTURIES

POETRY

2
Introduction

THE RENAISSANCE

A golden age of English literature commenced in

1485 and lasted until 1660. Malory's Le morte

d'Arthur was among the first works to be printed by

William Caxton, who introduced the printing press

3
to England in 1476. From that time on, readership

was vastly multiplied. The growth of the middle

class, the continuing development of trade, the new

character and thoroughness of education for

laypeople and not only clergy, the centralization of

power and of much intellectual life in the court of

the Tudor and Stuart monarchs, and the widening

horizons of exploration gave a fundamental new

impetus and direction to literature.

The English Renaissance Poetry

Poetry of the Renaissance period tended to contain

elements truer to the poet than those which had

been seen earlier in poetry. The Renaissance poets

tended to raise up the importance of their own

native vernacular (pulling away from the classical

4
Latin). These poets also tended to focus upon ironic

and satirical situations found in life. The most

famous Renaissance poets of this period were

Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare.

The English Renaissance, the age of William

Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe, Sir Philip

Sidney, Ben Jonson, John Donne, and John Milton,

was one of the most brilliant periods in Western

literary history for the production of great poetry.

English Renaissance poetry is customarily

divided chronologically in two ways. Scholars

distinguish between either the 16th and 17th

centuries, or between Tudor (1485–1603) and Stuart

(1603–1649) periods. The division between Tudor

and Stuart poetry is useful, for instance, in tracing

5
how different poetic concerns, such as satire and

religious poetry, challenged sonnet and epic. It

helps account for how a growing insistence on

“strong lines” of condensed poetic thought found

expression in both the measured Augustan style of

Ben Jonson and John Donne’s mannered wit.

6
" SONNET 18":
SHALL I COMPARE THEE TO THE

SUMMER'S DAY"

7
Short Biography William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare (1564-1616). English poet and

playwright – Shakespeare is widely considered to be the
greatest writer in the English language. He wrote 38 plays
and 154 sonnets.

The son of John Shakespeare and Mary Arden, he

was probably educated at the King Edward VI Grammar
School in Stratford, where he learned Latin and a little
Greek and read the Roman dramatists. At eighteen, he
married Anne Hathaway, a woman seven or eight years his
senior. Together they raised two daughters: Susanna, who
was born in 1583, and Judith (whose twin brother died in
boyhood), born in 1585.

Shakespeare the Poet

William Shakespeare wrote 154 sonnets mostly in the
1590s. These short poems, deal with issues such as lost
love. His sonnets have an enduring appeal due to his
formidable skill with language and words.
8
While Shakespeare was regarded as the foremost
dramatist of his time, evidence indicates that both he and
his contemporaries looked to poetry, not playwriting, for
enduring fame. Shakespeare’s sonnets were composed
between 1593 and 1601, though not published until 1609.
That edition, The Sonnets of Shakespeare, consists of 154
sonnets, all written in the form of three quatrains and a
couplet that is now recognized as Shakespearean. Nearly
all of Shakespeare’s sonnets examine the inevitable decay
of time, and the immortalization of beauty and love in
poetry.

In his poems and plays, Shakespeare invented

thousands of words, often combining or contorting Latin,
French, and native roots. His impressive expansion of the
English language, according to the Oxford English
Dictionary, includes such words as: arch-villain, birthplace,
bloodsucking, courtship, dewdrop, downstairs, fanged,
heartsore, hunchbacked, leapfrog, misquote, pageantry,
radiance, schoolboy, stillborn, watchdog, and zany.

9
The poem:

"Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?"

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?

Thou art more lovely and more temperate:

Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,

And summer’s lease hath all too short a date:

Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,

And often is his gold complexion dimm’d;

And every fair from fair sometime declines,

By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm’d;

But thy eternal summer shall not fade

Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st;

Nor shall Death brag thou wander’st in his shade,

When in eternal lines to time thou growest:

So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,

So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

10
Summary: Sonnet 18

The speaker opens the poem with a question

addressed to the beloved: “Shall I compare thee to a
summer’s day?” The next eleven lines are devoted
to such a comparison. In line 2, the speaker
stipulates what mainly differentiates the young man
from the summer’s day: he is “more lovely and
more temperate.” Summer’s days tend toward
extremes: they are shaken by “rough winds”; in
them, the sun (“the eye of heaven”) often shines
“too hot,” or too dim. And summer is fleeting: its
date is too short, and it leads to the withering of
autumn, as “every fair from fair sometime
declines.” The final quatrain of the sonnet tells how
the beloved differs from the summer in that respect:
his beauty will last forever (“Thy eternal summer
shall not fade...”) and never die. In the couplet, the
speaker explains how the beloved’s beauty will
accomplish this feat, and not perish because it is
preserved in the poem, which will last forever; it
will live “as long as men can breathe or eyes can
see.”

11
Paraphrase work

Translate Shakespeare’s words into moden

English language:

1- Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?

………………………………………………………

……..

………………………………………………………

……..

2- Thou art more lovely and more temperate:

………………………………………………………

……..

……….……………………………………………

12
………

3- Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,

………………………………………………………

………………………………………………………

……………..

4- And summer's lease hath all too short a date:

………………………………………………………

………………………………………………………

……………..

5-Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,

………………………………………………………

………………………………………………………

13
……………..

6- And often is his gold complexion dimm’d;

………………………………………………………

………………………………………………………

……………..

7- And every fair from fair sometime declines,

………………………………………………………

………………………………………………………

……………..

8-By chance or nature’s changing course

untrimm’d;

………………………………………………………

………………………………………………………

14
……………..

9-But thy eternal summer shall not fade

………………………………………………………

………………………………………………………

……………..

10-Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st;

………………………………………………………

………………………………………………………

……………..

11- Nor shall Death brag thou wander’st in his

shade,

………………………………………………………

………………………………………………………

15
……………..

12- When in eternal lines to time thou growest:

………………………………………………………

………………………………………………………

……………..

13- So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,

………………………………………………………

………………………………………………………

……………..

14- So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

………………………………………………………

………………………………………………………

……………..

16
Technical Analysis

However much it might look he’s praising a

beloved, this poet is definitely more concerned

with tooting his own horn. Really, you could sum

up the poem like this: "Dear Beloved: You’re

better than a summer’s day. But only because I

can make you eternal by writing about you.

Love, Shakespeare." That message is why images

and symbols of time, decay, and eternity are all

over this poem. Whether or not we think the

beloved is actually made immortal (or just more

immortal than the summer’s day) is up in the

air, but it’s certainly what the speaker wants you

to think.

17
• Line 4: This is where the speaker starts

pointing to how short summer feels. Using

personification and metaphor, the speaker

suggests that summer has taken out a lease on

the weather, which must be returned at the end

of the summer. Summer is treated like a

home-renter, while the weather is treated like

a real-estate property.

• Lines 7-8: These lines give us the problem

(everything’s going to fade away) that the poet

is going to work against.

• Lines 9-12: These lines are full of all sorts of

figurative language, all pointing to how the

speaker is going to save the beloved from the

fate of fading away. The beloved’s life is

18
described in a metaphor as a "summer," and

then his or her beauty is described in another

metaphor as a commodity than can be owned

or owed. Death is then personified, as the

overseer of the shade (a metaphor itself for an

afterlife). Finally the "lines to time" are a

metaphor for poetry, which will ultimately

save the beloved, and "eternal" is a parallel

with "eternal summer" in line 9.

• Lines 13-14: What’s so interesting about these

lines is that it’s hard to tell whether the

speaker is using figurative language or not.

Does he actually mean that the poem is alive,

and that it will keep the beloved alive? Well, it

depends what we mean by "alive." If we read

19
alive scientifically, as in breathing and

thinking, well then alive is definitely a

metaphor. But if we read it as describing a

continued existence of some kind, well then

maybe he does mean it literally, since surely

the poem and the beloved exist for us in some

sense.

If the major question of this poem is how to become

immortal, and thus more wonderful than a

summer’s day, the speaker’s answer is poetry. For

that reason, poetry takes on an inflated importance

in the poem, and is attended by dramatic, powerful

language.

• Line 1: This rhetorical question accomplishes

a lot, including setting down the main axis of

20
comparison in the poem, and also implying

that the speaker is only making a show of

caring what we readers or the beloved actually

think (since he clearly can’t care how or

whether we answer him). In addition to these

roles, though, the word "compare" gives this

line a special charge, since it is a word that is

so closely tied up with the role of poetry. If

you were to try to define poetry, one thing you

might say is that poets really like to compare

things that are really dissimilar and show they

can be connected. In a sense, then, we can

read this line as "should I write a poem about

you?" In that way, the speaker has already

made the act of writing poetry an issue in this

21
poem, and, as we’ll see, his answer to this

question is obviously, "heck yeah I should

write a poem about you, since I can make you

immortal!"

• Lines 12-14: These lines are where the poet

finally begins to talk about poetry more

clearly. The phrase "lines to time," creates a

metaphor for poetry, since poetry is lines of

words set to a time, or meter. Then, using a

parallel in the last two lines, he asserts that as

long as humans live, his poetry will survive,

and, in turn, so too will the beloved. The

question, of course, is what he means by the

poem giving "life" to the beloved. It’s in some

sense a metaphor, at least, since the poem isn’t

22
about to perform CPR on the beloved’s corpse

every time the poem is read. But if "life" just

means having someone think about you, then

sure, the poem could give life to the beloved.

From the beginning of the poem, the speaker

tries to set up a contrast between the beloved and

a summer’s day. He tries really hard to

distinguish them, ultimately arguing that the

beloved, unlike nature, will be saved by the force

and permanence of his poetry. The thing is, the

contrast doesn’t really work, since summer, if

anything, seems much more eternal than the

beloved. If being written about preserves

immortality, then the summer ought to be

immortal because the speaker’s writing about it

23
as well. And then there’s the fact that summer

actually is, in some sense, immortal, since it

returns in full force every year.

• Line 1: This is a rhetorical question, as the

speaker definitely doesn’t care how or

whether we answer him, and it also introduces

what will be the main metaphor of the poem,

as the summer’s day will be discussed using

concepts more literally applicable to the

beloved than to summer itself.

• Line 2: "Temperate" is a pun, since it carries

two important meanings here. When applied

to the beloved, it means "showing moderation

or self-restraint," but when applied to the

24
summer’s day it means, "having mild

temperatures."

• Lines 3-4: This is all personification here.

Even if winds might really be able to "shake"

things, and buds could be described as

"darling," these are both words more often

applied to human actions. The next line is a

much more obvious case of personification, as

summer can’t literally take out a lease on

anything. Note also that this implies a

metaphor of the weather as a rentable

property. Also, the "darling buds" introduce an

extended metaphor of plant life and the

conditions needed to sustain life that runs

through the rest of the poem

25
• Lines 5-6: There’s the apparent opposition

here, in that sometimes the weather is too hot,

and sometimes it’s too cold. But there’s also

personification with "eye" and "complexion."

What’s more, "complexion" doesn’t just mean

the appearance of the face, but also had a

second meaning in Shakespeare’s time,

referring to someone’s general internal well-

being. Note also that the plant life extended

metaphor is continued in "shines" and

"dimm’d," since plants need light in order to

flourish.

• Line 9: Here the personification is inverted:

instead of describing nature in human terms,

the speaker is describing the beloved in the

26
terms of nature, giving him or her an "eternal

summer" which could not literally apply.

• Line 11: "Shade" makes for a continuation of

the plant life extended metaphor, since if

you’re a plant stuck in the shade, that’s some

bad news. "Shade" is also a pun, because it

can mean "ghost."

• Line 12: The plant life extended metaphor is

completed, as the speaker finally points out a

way that plants can "grow," instead of all of

these problems they faced in previous lines of

the poem. Now what is this way? Well,

perhaps aside from suggesting poetry, "lines to

time" could also conjure up an image of plants

lined up in rows in a farm. In other words,

27
plants need to be organized and cultivated by

humans in order to survive. This works really

well with the main theme in the rest of the

poem: that the beloved needs to be organized

and developed by the poet in order to survive.

The speaker of "Sonnet 18" is really trying to

simplify nature and fate, since he’s trying to

hurdle over their limitations with his poetry. One

way he does it is to reduce them to economic

transactions – something simple, easy to

understand, and most importantly, work around.

• Line 4: He describes summer as having a

"lease" over the weather. This is, of course,

personification, since summer couldn’t hold a

lease, but for the purposes of this theme, it’s

28
also a metaphor, since the weather isn’t

actually a product that can be bought, sold, or

rented.

• Line 10: Here the speaker jumps back into the

economics lingo, using both a metaphor and a

pun. The metaphor is similar to what we saw

in line 4: here beauty, instead of the weather,

is what can be bought, sold, and rented. But

here there’s also a cool pun with the word

"ow’st," as it could mean both "owest" and

"ownest." Either way, he’s still playing with

the property metaphor, but we can wonder

whether the beloved’s beauty is something he

or she owns, or something that he or she has

29
only borrowed, and would have to return if not

for the speaker’s poetry.

FORM AND METER

A Shakespearean Sonnet in Iambic Pentameter

This is a classic Shakespearean sonnet with fourteen

lines in very regular iambic pentameter. With the

exception of a couple relatively strong first syllables

(and even these are debatable), there are basically

30
no deviations from the meter. There aren’t even any

lines that flow over into the next line – every single

line is end-stopped. There are two quatrains (groups

of four lines), followed by a third quatrain in which

the tone of the poem shifts a bit, which is in turn

followed by a rhyming couplet (two lines) that

wraps the poem up. The rhyme scheme is ABAB

CDCD EFEF GG.

The form of this sonnet is also notable for being

a perfect model of the Shakespearean sonnet

form. Just as in older Italian sonnets by which the

English sonnets (later to be called Shakespearean

sonnets) were inspired, the ninth line introduces a

significant change in tone or position. Here

31
Shakespeare switches from bashing the summer to

describing the immortality of his beloved. This

poem also has the uniquely English twist of a

concluding rhyming couplet that partially sums up

and partially redefines what came before it. In this

case, the closing lines have the feel of a cute little

poem of their own, making it clear that the poet’s

abilities were the subject of this poem all along.

Don’t be fooled, though: beyond the form, this

is not your stereotypical sonnet. The main reason is

that sonnets, at least before Shakespeare was

writing, were almost exclusively love poems.

Certainly this poem has some of the qualities of a

love poem, but, to say the least, this poem isn’t just

32
a poet’s outpouring of love for someone else. Check

out the "Love" theme for more on that.

33
Work on the poem

MCQ questions
• 1- Q. Shakespeare says his mistress will live on
forever in his "eternal lines." What does this mean?
answer choices
a. People will read about her in his poems
b. She will die and go to heaven
c. She will fall out of line
d. People will know her because of her beauty
• Question 2
Q. What does "Rough winds shake the darling buds of
May" mean?
answer choices
a. strong winds destroy spring flowers
b. Strong winds cannot touch the flowers
c. Strong winds don't stand a chance against his love
• Question 3
Q. Shakespeare's sonnet 18 compares a girl to..
answer choices
a. spring day
b. summer's day
c. nature
d. his heartbeat
• Question 4
Q. Which of the following is NOT criteria for a sonnet?
a. 14 lines
b. specific sound devices
c. specific rhyme scheme
d. specific rhythm
• Question 5
Q. What is the metaphor in Sonnet 18?
answer choices
a. Comparing Shakespeare to his beloved
34
b. Comparing his beloved to a summer's day
c. Comparing Shakepeare to a summer's day
d. Comparing his beloved to time
• Question 6
Q. What poetic device is used in the following line of
Sonnet 18: "Nor shall Death brag thou wanderest in his
shade" (Hint: Death is bragging!)
answer choices
a. Metaphor
b. Personification
c. Hyperbole
d. Alliteration
• Question 7
Q. In Sonnet 18, the "eye of heaven" refers to the
answer choices
a. Friend's eye
b. Sky
c. Sun
d. Moon
• Question 8
Q. What proof does the speaker offer for his assertion in
Sonnet 18, that his Friend's "eternal summer shall not
fade"?
answer choices
a. The friend will live in heaven.
b. The speaker's love will prevent the friend from
dying.
c. The sonnet will immortalize the friend.
d. Death will not brag after the speaker's friend dies.
• Question 9
Q. The third quatrain of the sonnet is there to
a. introduce the main theme or metaphor
b. extend the metaphor or theme
c. provide a shift, twist, or conflict

35
d. summarize the sonnet and leave the reader with a
lasting image
• Question 10
Q. The couplet in a Shakespearean Sonnet is there to
answer choices
a. explain the main theme and summarize the sonnet
b. extended the poem's metaphor
c. provide a twist or conflict
d. leave the reader with a lasting image
• Question 11
Q. In Sonnet 18, Shakespeare does all of the following
except
answer choices
a. compare a persona favorably to a certain moment of
the year
b. assure the person addressed of some sort of
immortality
c. pay someone some very flattering compliments
d. suggest that poetry is more interesting than most
people
Question 12

Q. In effect, in Sonnet 18, Shakespeare assures the

person addressed that death
answer choices
a. is easily avoided and defeated
b. remains the enemy of seasons but not of youth
c. can be defeated by literary immortality
d. in a sense can be frustrated by those who die young

13- Shakespeare uses the metaphor of _____ in this

sonnet.
spring summer

fall weather
36
14- Which negative characteristic does Shakespeare
observe about summer in this sonnet?

a. the days can be too short

b. the days can be too cloudy
c. the days can be too hot
d. all of the above

15- Shakespeare promises his love that her beauty will

never _____.

a. affect another man

b. fade
c. be like another woman's
d. grow

16- Sonnet 18 is written in

―
(a) iambic trimester
(b) iambic tetrameter
(c) iambic pentameter
(d) iambic hexameter

17. Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 18” follows the rhyme

scheme of ―
(a) abba abba cde cde
(b) abab cdcd efef gg
(c) abcd abcd efef gg
(d) abba ccdd eegf gg

37
18- The wind that blows in the summer is ―
(a) hot
(b) dry
(c) rough
(d) balmy

19- Which type of figurative language are these lines an

example of?
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
a. metaphor
b. hyperbole
c. imagery
d. personification
20- Which term refers to a figure of speech that makes
a comparison between two objects by stating one thing
is another?

a. personification
b. hyperbole
c. imagery
d. metaphor

38
FIND IN THAE POAEM
Alliteration (repetition of the same sound at the beginning
of several words in a sequence):
……………………………………………………………
………………….…………
Assonance (repetition of similar vowel sounds, usually
close together):
………………………………………………………………
………………………….
Anaphora (repetition of the same word at the beginning of
successive clauses or verses):
………………………………………………………………
……………………..
A rhetorical question is a question employed in order to
make a point, rather than to get a real answer.
1……………………………………………………………
…………

2……………………………………………………………
…………
Images:

1-
………………………………………………………………
…… (Image of…………..)

2-
………………………………………………………………
…… (Image of…………..)
39
3-
………………………………………………………………
…… (Image of…………..)

4-
………………………………………………………………
…… (Image of…………..)

5-
………………………………………………………………
…… (Image of…………..)

apostrophe. Apostrophe is when the speaker of the poem

addresses someone who is absent, an abstract idea (e.g.,
love, time),
………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………
…………………
Personification :

………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………
…………………

………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………
…………………
Metaphor:
………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………
…………………
………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………
…………………
40
………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………
…………………
………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………
…………………

Symbolism:
………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………
…………………

ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS

1. Write your first thoughts about the poem.
2. In Shakespeare’s day, poets often made extravagant
claims about the person they loved.What extravagant claim
is made at the start of this poem?
3. Why does Shakespeare then say he refutes the claim?
4..What image does Shakespeare use to demonstrate that
summer weather is unpredictable?
5. What is the “eye of heaven,” and why is it not constant
or trustworthy?
.6. According to lines 7-8, what might happen to any kind
of beauty?
.7. In the third quatrain (lines 9-12), the speaker makes a
daring statement to his lover. What
does he claim will never happen?
8. ..Quote the line containing an example of
personification.
9. .The narrator opened the sonnet with a question about
whether or not he might find an appropriate simile or
metaphor to describe the person he loves. How has he
answered that questions?
10. What does the final couplet mean and what does “this”
refer to?
41
SONNET 130 WORK QUESTSTIONAIRE
Sonnet 130
by William Shakespeare

My 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 delight
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
That 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 rare
As any she belied with false compare.

Poem Analysis
After you read the poem, what does the literal meaning
seem to be? What is happening in the poem?

Imagery
Pick out three uses of sensory details/imagery and write
them below (this will most likely be a phrase or line from
the poem), then explain what the poet is trying to convey
with this image.

Image1:……………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………
…………………
Meaning:…………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………
42
……………………

Image2:……………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………
………………
Meaning:……………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………
………………

Image3:……………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………
………………
Meaning:……………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………
………………

Figurative Language
Find at least five examples of figurative language devices
(this will most likely be a phrase or line from the poem),
identify it, and explain what they mean. You are looking for
terms like: simile, metaphor, allusion, symbolism,
personification, oxymoron, hyperbole, etc.

1- Figurative Language:
………………………………………………………………
….……
MEANING:
………………………………………………………………
….……

43
2- Figurative Language:
………………………………………………………………
….……
MEANING:
………………………………………………………………
….……

3- Figurative Language:
………………………………………………………………
….……
MEANING:
………………………………………………………………
….……
4- Figurative Language:
………………………………………………………………
….……
MEANING:
………………………………………………………………
….……

5- Figurative Language:
………………………………………………………………
….……
MEANING:
………………………………………………………………
….……

Theme
What do you think is the message of this poem? Why do
you think this is the message? Give at least two reasons
from the poem—these should be answers you’ve already
written on this sheet
………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………
44
………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………….

Personal Response
Did you like this poem? Why/Why not?

………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………

Need help understanding the poem? Check out any OR

all of the following:
• http://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/shakesonne
ts/section9.rhtml
• http://www.shakespeare-
online.com/sonnets/130detail.html
• http://www.gradesaver.com/shakespeares-
sonnets/study-guide/section13/
• http://www.shmoop.com/sonnet-130/analysis.html*

45
II

METAPHYSICAL

POETRY

46
The metaphysical poetry:

Defining the metaphysical poetry:

Metaphysical (what is beyond the physical, the body or the

real existence By itself, metaphysical means dealing with

the relationship between spirit to matter or the ultimate

nature of reality.) is a term which is generally applied to a

group of 17th century poets; mainly, John Donne, Carew,

George Herbert, Richard Crawshaw, Henry Vaughan,

Andrew Marvell, Cleveland, Cowley and Habington.

The intensely rich literary products of this school or

movement consist of: arresting, and original images and

conceits (witty and far-fetched though analogies1 between

microcosm and macrocosm), ingenuity, employment of

colloquial2 speech, complex themes sacred and profane),

keenly felt awareness of mortality, refined delicacy

gracefulness and deep feeling; passion as well as wit.

1
Analogy: comparison between two things that seem similar.
2
Colloquial: used in informal and ordinary speech.
47
Metaphysical poetry (the term was invented

considerably after the group flourished) is both intellectual

and emotional, exploring both intellectual matters and

emotional or psychological ones. It uses ordinary speech as

well as terms drawn from3 the science of the day (and

scientific concepts also).

Technical devices (associated with the school are

paradox and CONCEIT. Metaphysical is a poetic style

where figurative language is used for producing meditative 4

poetic arguments. Love and religion were probably its most

common themes and subject matter; these tow subjects

were sometimes treated in the same style, with an address

to a lover being phrased in the language of an address to

God, and an address to God being phrased in the language

and Style of the romantic love poem.

3 drawn from: comes from

4
Meditative: thinking deeply about something
48
Metaphysical poetry features elaborate conceits and

surprising symbols. Donne's verse, like that of George

Herbert, Andrew Marvell, and many of their

contemporaries, exemplifies these traits5. But Donne is also

a highly individual poet, and his consistently ingenious

treatment of his great theme--the conflict between spiritual

piety and physical carnality. It contains hard odd and

unexpected ideas into very little space. Therefore, ordinary

readers get perplexed at the meaning of the poetry. The

beauty of the poetry lies in its strangeness.

The Major characteristics of the metaphysical poetry:

1- Intellectuality: Metaphysical poetry treats human

experiences and emotions in terms of analytical,
intellectual rather than emotional terms, frequently
becoming one long reasoned argument. For instance, if the
poet is discussing his love for a lady or his love for God,

5
Trait: particular quality.
49
instead of saying "I love thee," offering direct emotional
expression of his feelings, he will analyze his love.
2- Leading Figurative language: Use of ordinary speech
mixed with puns, paradoxes and conceits (a paradoxical
metaphor causing a shock to the reader by the strangeness
of the objects compared; some examples: lovers and a
compass, the soul and timber, the body and mind.)
Comparing two things, most frequently comparing spiritual
truth to physical objects. A conceit fuses disparate items
and goes beyond the "normal" bounds of metaphor.

3-Using the elements of wit, and originality in figures of

speech.

4-Using terminology6 often drawn from science or law

5-Often poems are presented in the form of an argument

6-In love poetry, the metaphysical poets often draw on

ideas from Renaissance to show the relationship between
the soul and body and the union of lovers' souls

7-They also try to show a psychological realism7 when

describing the tensions of love.

6
Terminology: using terms or technical words on a particular subject, ‫استخدام‬
‫المصطلحات الفنية العلمية‬
50
John Donne

7
Describing things as they really are/ ‫مذهب الواقعية فى الفن و األدب‬
51
John Donne (1572-1631)

John Donne (/ˈdʌn/ DUN) (between 24 January and 19 June

1572[1] – 31 March 1631) was an English poet, satirist, lawyer

and a cleric in the Church of England. He is considered the pre-

eminent representative of the metaphysical poets. His works are

noted for their strong, sensual style and include sonnets, love

poetry, religious poems, Latin translations, epigrams, elegies,

songs, satires and sermons. His poetry is noted for its vibrancy

of language and inventiveness of metaphor, especially

compared to that of his contemporaries.

Donne's style is characterised by abrupt openings and various

paradoxes, ironies and dislocations. These features, along with

his frequent dramatic or everyday speech rhythms, his tense

syntax and his tough eloquence, were both a reaction against the

smoothness of conventional Elizabethan poetry and an

adaptation into English of European baroque and mannerist

52
techniques. His early career was marked by poetry that bore

immense knowledge of British society and he met that

knowledge with sharp criticism. Another important theme in

Donne’s poetry is the idea of true religion, something that he

spent much time considering and theorising about.

He wrote secular poems as well as erotic and love poems. He is

particularly famous for his mastery of metaphysical conceits. [2]

Despite his great education and poetic talents, Donne lived in

poverty for several years, relying heavily on wealthy friends. He

spent much of the money he inherited during and after his

education on womanising, literature, pastimes, and travel.

In 1601, Donne secretly married Anne More, with whom he had

twelve children.[3] In 1615, he became John Donne 2 an

Anglican priest, although he did not want to take Anglican

orders. He did so because King James I persistently ordered it.

In 1621, he was appointed the Dean of St Paul's Cathedral in

53
London. He also served as a member of parliament in 1601 and

in 1614. Queen Elizabeth's last Parliament in 1601 In his later

years, Donne's writing reflected his fear of his inevitable death.

John Donne died in London in 1631.

54
John Donne!

"The Dream"

55
The Dream
BY JOHN DONNE

Dear love, for nothing less than thee

Would I have broke this happy dream;
It was a theme
For reason, much too strong for fantasy,
Therefore thou wak'd'st me wisely; yet
My dream thou brok'st not, but continued'st it.
Thou art so true that thoughts of thee suffice
To make dreams truths, and fables histories;
Enter these arms, for since thou thought'st it best,
Not to dream all my dream, let's act the rest.

As lightning, or a taper's light,

Thine eyes, and not thy noise wak'd me;
Yet I thought thee
(For thou lovest truth) an angel, at first sight;
But when I saw thou sawest my heart,
And knew'st my thoughts, beyond an angel's art,
When thou knew'st what I dreamt, when thou knew'st
when
Excess of joy would wake me, and cam'st then,
I must confess, it could not choose but be
56
Profane, to think thee any thing but thee.

Coming and staying show'd thee, thee,

But rising makes me doubt, that now
Thou art not thou.
That love is weak where fear's as strong as he;
'Tis not all spirit, pure and brave,
If mixture it of fear, shame, honour have;
Perchance as torches, which must ready be,
Men light and put out, so thou deal'st with me;
Thou cam'st to kindle, goest to come; then I
Will dream that hope again, but else would die.

57
The poem:
The poem, The Dream, is an admirable lyric that illustrates
several qualities of Donne’s poetry. It has been praised
highly by a number of critics. This is a very abstract and
intellectual poem; an yet the effect of it is anything but
abstract. It is an absolutely consecutive and continuous
piece of argument from the very first line to the last of the
poem, and its each simile, whether phenomenal, such as
lighting, taper, torches, or intellectual, such as angels,
simple and compound substances, is almost inseparable
from the thought it illustrates and expresses.
The pictorial element, if present at all, is at
minimum: what is described is not a sight but such thoughts
and feelings as the sight might be supposed to have
suggested. The diction is precise and almost scientific and
the words are completely uncharged with associations, not
strictly relevant. There is as much of drama, imagination,
feeling, sensation, experience as of intellect and logic, and
this sensational or experimental element is conveyed, not
by a choice of words rich in association, but by speech-
rhythm, inflexion, cadence. Every line, in fact, is intensely
alive. On the whole, this is one of best love poems by
Donne.

58
Critical Analysis

Dear love, for nothing less than thee

Would I have broke this happy dream;
It was a theme
For reason, much too strong for fantasy,
Therefore thou wak’d’st me wisely; yet
My dream thou brok’st not, but continued’st it.
Thou art so true that thoughts of thee suffice
To make dreams truths, and fables histories;
Enter these arms, for since thou thought’st it best,
Not to dream all my dream, let’s act the rest.
The poem, The Dream,by John Donne, begins in an easy,
conversational style. Addressing his beloved, the poet says
that he had been dreaming a dream which moved him so
strongly that it could not have been merely imaginary and
fanciful. As a matter of fact, it had its basis in truth and
reality, for he was dreaming of her and of the pleasure of
making love to her, when she arrived and interrupted his
dream. It was wise for her to do so, for by her arrival his
‘phantasy’ has been corrected and made more reasonable.
No doubt her arrival has interrupted his dream, but in a way
it will continue, for now the pleasures he dreamed of have
been converted into reality.

59
Her arrival is giving him the same pleasure as he was
enjoying in his dream. One reads of such beauty only in
fables, that is; imaginary stories, but she, a real, living
breathing woman, has made such fabulous accounts of
female beauty look real and truthful like facts of history.
She is the very embodiment of all that the poets have
imagined about feminine charms and perfections. The poet
exhorts her to come to him and let him embrace her, so that
he may enjoy in reality the pleasure which he was about to
enjoy in his dream when it was interrupted by her arrival.
Donne’s use of hyperbole is to be noted here.

As lightning, or a taper’s light,

Thine eyes, and not thy noise wak’d me;
Yet I thought thee
(For thou lovest truth) an angel, at first sight;
But when I saw thou sawest my heart,
And knew’st my thoughts, beyond an angel’s art,
When thou knew’st what I dreamt, when thou knew’st when
Excess of joy would wake me, and cam’st then,
I must confess, it could not choose but be
Profane, to think thee anything but thee.
Continuing in the same hyperbolic vein, the poet compares
the brightness of her eyes to the light of a candle or to
lighting. It was not the sound made by her arrival, but the
60
bright and dazzling light of her eyes, that woke him up. At
first he thought that it was an angel that had entered his
room, for she, too, is truthful like an angel. But then the
angels cannot look into the heart of a person and know his
thoughts.

Only Gods can do so. As she knows his thoughts and

feelings, as she can look into his heart and read his
thoughts, she is not only angelic but also divine. She is a
goddess much superior to angels. That she knows his
thoughts and feelings is proved by the fact that she knew
that he was dreaming of her, and came just at the point
when the very excess of his joy would have broken his
dream.
Therefore, it would be an impious act to think her to
be less than a goddess. She is divine and must be worshiped
and adored accordingly. Thus like a clever lawyer, Donne
has given arguments after arguments to establish the point
that his beloved is a goddess in human form.

Coming and staying show’d thee, thee,

But rising makes me doubt, that now
Thou art not thou.
That love is weak where fear’s as strong as he;
‘Tis not all spirit, pure and brave,
61
If mixture it of fear, shame, honour have;
Perchance as torches, which must ready be,
Men light and put out, so thou deal’st with me;
Thou cam’st to kindle, goest to come; then I
Will dream that hope again, but else would die.
In this last and third stanza of the poem, the poet is
rather critical of his divine beloved. Her coming to his
bedroom and staying there for sometime showed that she
was really a divine being, not at all concerned with the
opinion of the world. But her rising and getting ready to go
away shows that she is false to her own divine nature. It
shows that her love is not so strong as he had supposed it to
be. It is mixed up with such worldly considerations as
shame and fear or disgrace and loss of reputation. Such
feelings are unworthy of a goddess like her.
But it is possible that she is leaving him not from a
fear of loss of reputation, but from other considerations. In
order to explain his point, Donne makes use of a conceit.
He compares himself to a torch, and his beloved to a person
who lights a torch, tests it and then extinguishes it and
keeps it ready for use. Her arrival in his bedroom was
intended to arouse his passions – to light the torch of his
desires – and to satisfy herself that he was fully capable of
satisfying her own sexual desires. Now she is going away
but would soon return to make use of the torch she has
lighted. He would continue to dream of her early return. It
is this hope along which could make him live; without this
hope he is sure to die.

62
TECHNICAL ANALYSIS

The Dream, by John Donne, is a poem that is filled with

passionate diction, syntax, and figurative language along
with a tender tone meant to convey the almost celestial
feelings Donne has for his lover.

The first stanza shows a wide range of fantastical

language with the intention of drawing the reader slowly and
steadily into the hazy, dreamlike setting. Along with the
words like ?fantasy?, ?fables? and ?dreams? come
affectionate phrases that effectively show us that the poem is
meant to be addressed to a lover, ?Dear love? being the most
obvious example. Later on in the poem, the language shifts
from drowsy and steady to more intense and complicated,
yet less passionate and more doubtful. Donne?s choice in the
last stanza to utilize…………………..

The poet wants to stand out. These four-syllable

statements include ?It was a theme? and the most powerful,
?Thou art not thou?, when he initially becomes dubious of
his lover?s intentions. This line, which reinforces the
ambiguity of the dream-state, is also a paradox, among
others.

• Donne employs the ABBA end rhyme scheme?

WHY?

Answer: To accentuate the sudden outbursts of

pleasure and overwhelming emotion,

63
The last line of a poem is always full of the most
meaning, and Donne delivers this concluding line with a
hyperbole of death and a period to signify finality:
Discuss

The figurative language is a metaphysical poet?s

strongest tool to convey their feelings in an arduous way.
Donne compares his lover to an angel, which would be
considered a religious allusion constructed during his
religious phase in life, yet the almost erotic undertones
imply that the poem was written in his earlier years. ?(For
thou lovest truth) an angel, at first sight,?(l.14).

Donne as a Love Poet

John Donne’s love poetry covers many different emotions
than that of any earlier poet. It is not bookish but is rooted
in his personal experiences. His experiences for love were
varied and wide and so is the emotions range of his love-
poetry. As is known to the poem lovers, he had love affairs
with several women, some of them permanent and lasting,
others only of a short duration.

64
Work on the poem, “The Dream”
s
t
a
n
Original Text Meaning
z
a

1 Dear love, for nothing less than thee

Would I have broke this happy dream;
It was a theme
For reason, much too strong for fantasy,
Therefore thou wak'd'st me wisely; yet
My dream thou brok'st not, but continued'st it.
Thou art so true that thoughts of thee suffice
To make dreams truths, and fables histories;
Enter these arms, for since thou thought'st it best,
Not to dream all my dream, let's act the rest.

As lightning, or a taper's light,

2 Thine eyes, and not thy noise wak'd me;
Yet I thought thee
(For thou lovest truth) an angel, at first sight;
But when I saw thou sawest my heart,
And knew'st my thoughts, beyond an angel's art,
When thou knew'st what I dreamt, when thou
knew'st when
Excess of joy would wake me, and cam'st then,
I must confess, it could not choose but be
Profane, to think thee any thing but thee.

Coming and staying show'd thee, thee,

3 But rising makes me doubt, that now
Thou art not thou.
That love is weak where fear's as strong as he;
'Tis not all spirit, pure and brave,
If mixture it of fear, shame, honour have;
Perchance as torches, which must ready be,
Men light and put out, so thou deal'st with me;
Thou cam'st to kindle, goest to come; then I
Will dream that hope again, but else would die.

65
no Figure Line Meaning
of
speech
As lightning, or a taper's He compares her eyes to
1 simile light,/ Thine eyes,……… the light of a candle
……………………….
2

6 The
rhyme
scheme

7 The
rhythm

66
67
The Canonization
For God's sake hold your tongue, and let me love,
Or chide my palsy, or my gout,
My five gray hairs, or ruined fortune flout,
With wealth your state, your mind with arts
improve,
Take you a course, get you a place,
Observe his honor, or his grace,
Or the king's real, or his stampèd face
Contemplate; what you will, approve,
So you will let me love.

Alas, alas, who's injured by my love?

What merchant's ships have my sighs drowned?
Who says my tears have overflowed his ground?
When did my colds a forward spring remove?
When did the heats which my veins fill
Add one more to the plaguy bill?
Soldiers find wars, and lawyers find out still
Litigious men, which quarrels move,
Though she and I do love.

Call us what you will, we are made such by love;

Call her one, me another fly,
We're tapers too, and at our own cost die,
And we in us find the eagle and the dove.
The phœnix riddle hath more wit
By us; we two being one, are it.
So, to one neutral thing both sexes fit.
We die and rise the same, and prove
Mysterious by this love.

68
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.

And thus invoke us: "You, whom reverend love

Made one another's hermitage;
You, to whom love was peace, that now is rage;
Who did the whole world's soul contract, and
drove
Into the glasses of your eyes
(So made such mirrors, and such spies,
That they did all to you epitomize)
Countries, towns, courts: beg from above
A pattern of your love!"

69
The Theme

The Canonization" by John Donne is a complex piece of

rhetoric, which uses persuasive and poetic techniques to

manipulate readers through different understandings of the

place of love within society. Beginning with the

condemnation8 of love by society, the persona establishes

an argument by which means love challenges9 conventional

religion, before taking its place as religion, martyrdom,

canonization and grace.

This complicated poem, spoken ostensibly to

someone who disapproves of the speaker's love affair, is

written in the voice of a world-wise, sardonic courtier who

is nevertheless utterly caught up in his love. The poem

simultaneously parodies old notions of love and coins

elaborate10 new ones, eventually11 concluding that even if

8
Blame ‫ لوم‬,‫ ادانة‬, ‫ استهجان‬accusation
9
Face, fight
10
Detailed, complicated
11
finally
70
the love affair is impossible in the real world, it can become

legendary through poetry, and the speaker and his lover

will be like saints to later generations of lovers. (Hence the

title: The Canonization" refers to the process by which

people are inducted into the canon of saint.

The very title can tell us a good deal about the

dramatic development of the Poem. Saints are "canonized"

that is, the Church declares them to be saints-because of

their extraordinary exemplification of Christian love- love

of God and of their fellow human beings. The saints give

up the pursuit12 of wealth, secular13 ambitions, and

everything else that might distract14 him from God's

kingdom. He does so in his desire to devote himself

completely to the service of God. The lovers in this poem,

so its speaker prophesies15, will be "canonized" too,

12
Follow, come after, chase
13
Relating to the real life, irreligious
14
Keep away
15
Expecting for the future, ‫يتنبأ‬
71
because of their superlative16 love-though for romantic

love, the love that unites a man and woman.Thus, in this

poem sacred17 love becomes a metaphor for the

transcendent18 (quality of their human love(

Summary

The speaker asks his addressee to be quiet, and let him

love. If the addressee cannot hold his tongue, the speaker

tells him to criticize him for other shortcomings (other than

his tendency to love): his palsy, his gout, his “five grey

hairs,” or his ruined fortune. He admonishes the addressee

to look to his own mind and his own wealth and to think of

his position and copy the other nobles (“Observe his

Honour, or his Grace, / Or the King’s real, or his stamped

face / Contemplate.”) The speaker does not care what the

addressee says or does, as long as he lets him love.

16
Exceptional, good
17
Holly, blessed by God
18
Inspiring,
72
The speaker asks rhetorically, “Who’s injured by my

love?” He says that his sighs have not drowned ships, his

tears have not flooded land, his colds have not chilled

spring, and the heat of his veins has not added to the list of

those killed by the plague. Soldiers still find wars and

lawyers still find litigious men, regardless of the emotions

of the speaker and his lover.

The speaker tells his addressee to “Call us what you

will,” for it is love that makes them so. He says that the

addressee can “Call her one, me another fly,” and that they

are also like candles (“tapers”), which burn by feeding

upon their own selves (“and at our own cost die”). In each

other, the lovers find the eagle and the dove, and together

(“we two being one”) they illuminate the riddle of the

phoenix, for they “die and rise the same,” just as the

phoenix does—though unlike the phoenix, it is love that

slays and resurrects them.

73
He says that they can die by love if they are not able

to live by it, and if their legend is not fit “for tombs and

hearse,” it will be fit for poetry, and “We’ll build in sonnets

pretty rooms.” A well-wrought urn does as much justice to

a dead man’s ashes as does a gigantic tomb; and by the

same token, the poems about the speaker and his lover will

cause them to be “canonized,” admitted to the sainthood of

love. All those who hear their story will invoke the lovers,

saying that countries, towns, and courts “beg from above /

A pattern of your love!”

The Technical Analysis of the Poem

I-Sound Techniques:

74
1-Form: The poem consists of 5 stanzas, each of 9 lines,

2- the Rhyme Scheme:

The structure of "The Canonisation" is an example of a

love , and operating within considerable Lyric19 Rhyme.

with a scheme of ABBCDDDCAA. Such regular rhyming

thereby highlighting the deep sense of Metaphysical

poetry. This strict format.

3- rhythm and meter:

The meter of the lines varies within, tetrameter, and

trimeter, and pentameter often changing various meters

alternating basically on the iambic rhythm. This is a

reflection of the Metaphysical, so as to be more Rhythm

attempts at a more conversational20 accessible21 in meaning.

This strict structure also allows for distinct stages in

the development in the persona's argument ( he second

stanza presents the case of the persona's argument.) A

19
Relating to a song
20
Informal ordinary speech
21
Easy to get to
75
decision is therefore already made before the reader has

heard all cases, forcing them to accept the message of the

text,

4- Alliteration in "...ruined fortune flou"....

II- Imagery Techniques:

1- Images:

The eagle, as a conventional image of male strength,

and the dove, representing female gentleness,

embodying the elements that are connected to each

bird.

Also the mythological Phoenix in: "By us, we two

being one, are it, So, to one neutral22 that (" ...dye and

rise...).

2-Symbolism:

Conventional symbols of the "...Eagle and the Dove..."

are used to describe the relationship within the love

affair.

22
Not male or female
76
3-Metaphors:

The poem be full of many metaphors, makes a very vivid,

bright, moving image as we can see in the second stanza,

the 'merchant ships" that can be drowned by the poet's

"sighs", the lands that are covered by his "tears" , his cold

that may change seasons, or the "heat in his veins" that may

kill people.

4- Conceits:

second half of the forth stanza employs conceits when the

lovers are compared to "...The greatest ashes..." and the

poem which immortalizes23 them" ...

A scientific conceit is found also in the poet's use of

"...glasses..." in referring to his lover's eyes. Again, the

practical scientific analogy combined with the

metaphysical theme of love.

23
Give them life for ever, ‫يخلد‬
77
5- We cannot ignore the wit hint to the money, "his

stamped face" referring to the king's face that is painted on

the coins in England.

III- the Language techniques:

1- Dramatic Monologue:

The poet is addressing a friend who is not saying a

word. Then by the end of the poem the poet is

addressing his lover.

2- The Tone.

The repetition of words such as "die," "tomb,"

"hearse" can't give but a deep sad tone of the poem that is

mixed with a clear ironical language beginning from the

title of the poem to its last line.

Thus, we can say that "The Canonization" is one of

Donne's most famous and most written-about poems.

Work on “CANNONIZATION” POEM

Q. For God's sake hold your tongue, and let me _____.

78
a. be
b. pass
c. love
d. dance
Q. What merchant's ships have my sighs _____?

a. sunk
b. drown'd
c. damag'd
d. wreck'd
Q. Call her one, me another _____.
e.

a. phoenix
b. two
c. fool
d. fly
Q. And if unfit for tomb or _____

a. dress
b. poem
c. grave
d. hearse
Q. Countries, towns, _____ beg from above.

a. cities
b. courts
c. schools
d. subdivisions

79
Q. What is the metrical base for each of the poem's
lines?

a. the spondee
b. the trochee
c. the iamb
d. the you are
Q. "Let me love" represents which sonic technique?

a. assonance
b. consonance
c. alliteration
d. obliteration
Q. "We die and rise the same, and prove" represents
which sonic technique?

a. resilience
b. consonance
c. alliteration
d. assonance
Q. "Though she and I do love" is written in which
meter?

a. archaic thermometer
b. trochaic hexameter
c. iambic pentameter
d. iambic trimester

80
Q. Ending the first and last line of every stanza with the
word "love" represents what poetic technique?

a. refrain
b. repetition
c. anaphora
d. Sephora

Which of the following poetic forms are mentioned in

the poem?

a. haiku
b. sonnets
c. odes
d. battle raps
Q. What mythical creature is mentioned in the poem?

a. unicorn
b. honest politician
c. minotaur
d. phoenix
Q. Which of the following does the speaker offer up to
be made fun of?

a. his big nose

b. his gout
c. his weak chin
d. his peanut allergy
Q. Which of the following occupations is not mentioned
in the poem?

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a. merchant
b. lawyer
c. soldier
d. publisher
Q. Which of the following is a bird mentioned in the
poem?

a. hawk
b. dove
c. sparrow
d. Big Bird

The Canonization: The Theme-itization True or False

1.Which of the following poetic forms are mentioned in the

poem? -> haiku
True False
2.What mythical creature is mentioned in the poem? ->
phoenix
True False
3.Which of the following does the speaker offer up to be
made fun of? -> his gout
True False
4.Which of the following occupations is not mentioned in
the poem? -> publisher
True False
5.Which of the following is a bird mentioned in the poem?
-> dove
True False
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“The Canonization”Poetry Analysis Worksheet.

1- Who is the speaker and what is his condition?

How old is he?
……………………………………………….
2- To whom is he speaking?
……………………………………………………
3- What sort of values can we ascribe to the auditor
by inference from the first stanza?

………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………
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4-What values does the speaker oppose to these?
How does the stanzaic pattern of the poem
emphasize this value?

………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………
5.The sighs and tears, the fevers and chills, in the
second stanza, were commonplace in the love poetry
of Donne’s time. How does Donne make them fresh?

………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………

6-What is the speaker’s argument in this stanza?

How does it begin to turn from pure defense to
offense in the last three lines of the stanza?
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………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………
7.How are the things to which the lovers are
compared in the third stanza arranged? Does their
arrangement reflect in any way the arrangement of
the whole poem?
………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………

8. .Explain line 21.

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………………………………………………………

9. Interpret of paraphrase lines 23-27.

…………………………………………………………
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10. What status does the speaker claim for himself and
his beloved in the last line of this stanza?

…………………………………………………………
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Essay Questions

1. Is this speaker a fan of love, or just a fan of his own

relationship? How can you tell?
2. What is the best way to love, according to the
speaker? Do you agree with his assessment? Why or
why not?
3. What is the relationship between love and religion in
this poem?
4. What is the relationship between poetry and
immortality, according to this poem?
5. How would you characterize the relationship
between the speaker and the person he's addressing
in this poem?
6. Reflect this poem, “Canonization” John Donne‟s
life
7. How this poem reflect the metaphysical movement
poetry?

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George Herbert

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George Herbert wrote poetry in English, Greek, and
Latin. His major work of English-language verse
was The Temple: Sacred Poems and Private
Ejaculations. This work was published
posthumously after Herbert’s death at the age of 39.
The work’s main section, “The Church,” meditates
on all that takes place in a church: prayer, devotion,
doubt, suffering, but most of all, the embrace of
faith. As Herbert was a priest himself, this volume
can be seen to contain Herbert’s own religious
experience in all its forms. The volume is still
valued today for its formal innovation and complex
rendering of Christian faith.

George Herbert (1593-1633) is one of the

greatest devotional poets in English literature; he is
also associated with the Metaphysical Poets of the
seventeenth century. ‘Jordan (I)’ is one of his most
famous poems, and concerns itself with the role of
poetry itself.

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Jordan (I)

BY GEORGE HERBERT

Who says that fictions only and false hair

Become a verse? Is there in truth no beauty?
Is all good structure in a winding stair?
May no lines pass, except they do their duty
Not to a true, but painted chair?

Is it no verse, except enchanted groves

And sudden arbours shadow coarse-spun lines?
Must purling streams refresh a lover's loves?
Must all be veil'd, while he that reads, divines,
Catching the sense at two removes?

Shepherds are honest people; let them sing;

Riddle who list, for me, and pull for prime;
I envy no man's nightingale or spring;
Nor let them punish me with loss of rhyme,
Who plainly say, my God, my King.

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Summary:
‘Jordan (I)’ is a poem about poetry: George Herbert takes
as his theme the proper material for poetry, as well as the
proper language for poetry. In the first stanza of ‘Jordan
(I)’, Herbert asks, why is it that people consider only made-
up or fictional stories and situations suitable for poetry?
Why aren’t things that are true to life considered beautiful,
and therefore fit material for the poet to use as well?
Herbert’s image of the winding stair suggests something
circuitous and indirect, the implication being that plain
speech (which would be like a straightstaircase) is not
considered ‘right’ for poetry: a poet always has to express
himself in a winding and obscure way.

The poet, Herbert regrets, is never allowed to ‘tell it

like it is’. Herbert concludes the first stanza by asking
another question: are the only ‘lines’ of verse that will
‘pass’ as true poetry those that praise an imagined chair
rather than a real one? (This alludes to the custom of ‘doing
one’s duty’ to the king’s chair, or throne, even when the
king wasn’t in it: one was expected to bow when passing
the chair as a sign of respect.)

In the second stanza, Herbert names (and shames)

some of the tired clichés of poetry, especially pastoral
poetry: ‘enchanted groves’, ‘sudden arbours’, ‘purling
streams’. Pastoral poetry was often set in an idealised
version of the countryside, so Herbert’s objection to these
stock features of such poetry follows and develops his
objection, in the first stanza, to the notion that ‘false’ poetry
is the only kind of poetry worth doing. What’s more, such
stock images are often there to mask (or ‘shadow’) the

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inelegant poetry written by mediocre poets (‘coarse-spun
lines’). Herbert goes on to ask:

Must all be veil’d, while he that reads, divines,

Catching the sense at two removes?

In other words, why is the reader of such poetry always

made to work so hard to ‘divine’ the meaning of the poem?

In the third stanza, Herbert moves from questioning

to stating. It’s as if he’s set up his objections now, and
wants to proceed to a solution, or analysis of ‘true’ poetry.
He starts off by asserting, ‘Shepherds are honest people’,
and so their lives should be written about plainly and
honestly. ‘Riddle who list, for me, and pull for prime’: in
other words, those poets who want to construct riddles in
their poetry and write cryptically are welcome to do so, if
they choose (‘list’). They’re also welcome to strive for pre-
eminence in the writing of such poetry (‘pull for prime’).
But Herbert does not want to copy them and use their
clichéd poetic tropes, such as nightingales or springs
(streams). But, by the same token, he’d rather that such
poets didn’t accuse him of not being a true poet (‘loss of
rhyme’) simply because he speaks plainly in order to
worship and pay homage to God: ‘my God, my King.’

Comment:
The first stanza seems to keep questions directed at
the problem of the truth being direct. Anything that isn’t
truth must be fancy:
Who sayes that fictions onely and false hair
Become a verse? Is there in truth no beauty?
Is all good structure in a winding stair?

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May no lines passe, except they do their dutie
Not to a true, but painted chair?
“False hair” implies that beautiful verse is a mere
covering-up of the past’s inability to last. Truth has no such
problem. What is stranger is “good structure” and what
follows. Truth doesn’t have “good structure?” Only Babel
does (“winding stair”)?
Truth doesn’t consist of “lines?” No cliche sounds
poetic? “Painted chair” might be a Platonic image. The
form of the chair is invisible but makes the chair useful.
Man rests in the chair. The paint is totally unnecessary. By
implication, words and sight at this point are completely
unnecessary.
You’re wondering why I say “words” given that the
poem ends with shepherds who “plainly say.” Two
thoughts: you don’t need to know the content of a name to
use it. I can ask “Who is Aristotle?” and not know a thing
about Aristotle. A similar argument can hold for “My God,
My King.” Secondly, all words are “false hair” (they make
the perishable seem lasting), grammar has structure, and
one could say all prose is really just bad poetry.
If my thoughts are correct, Herbert might be leading
up to a bigger question than the six he initially posed. Let’s
say Christianity is a myth like any other. Why should
someone believe it? What about “God is love” is the truth
in an overpowering way, that the details matter precisely
because they don’t? – If you say Christianity matters
because of Scripture alone, to what degree is this praise of
poetry? –
Herbert’s speaker dare not say something so
blasphemous. He’s just going to imply it really, really
strongly:
Is it no verse, except enchanted groves
And sudden arbours shadow course-spunne lines?
Must purling streams refresh a lovers loves?
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Must all be vail’d, while he that reades, divines,
Catching the sense at two removes?
So it seems we have verse that is of pagan myth and
most importantly pagan love. That verse brings us back to
nature. But drop “enchanted” and you can see the “groves”
have trees with “coarse-spun lines.” In a way, this is what
the first stanza was calling for. “Purling streams” could be
about nymphs and people like Narcissus. It could also be
Psalm 23. For the practical purpose of finding the truth,
paganism doesn’t get dismissed. Nature and Creation are
both in question inasmuch they are verse of any sort. The
real issue is how – or simply that – we read:
Must all be vail’d, while he that reades, divines,
Catching the sense at two removes?
“Veiled” is not a problem peculiar to verse. We live
in a world of appearances. What is real and what is not is
always the issue. The problem peculiar to verse is that of
good reading. Good reading is in a way “divination.” You
take a guess at what someone means – try to read their
mind – and apply it as if it were wisdom, seeing if it makes
sense in the world. I know, I’m making that sound like
scientific method. You know practically that it is anything
but. It’s more like fortune telling.
I do think Herbert was wondering where the truth of
Christianity could possibly lie. That question has
transformed, though. At first, it was the issue of whether
truth is distinguishable from myth. It may be, but that still
brings up who is reading in the first place. Questions of
beauty and nature lead back to what one wants out of
beauty and nature:
Shepherds are honest people; let them sing:
Riddle who list, for me, and pull for Prime:
I envie no mans nightingale or spring;
Nor let them punish me with losse of rime,
Who plainly say, My God, My King.
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Herbert’s speaker is no shepherd. How honest
shepherds are generally is an open question. What’s
important is that inasmuch they are distinct from the
speaker, they are “honest.” They sing (themselves?). Our
speaker is writing a poem. It seems he’ll take on being
called a liar.
Truth has dropped out as a consideration altogether.
When one focuses on who wants truth, it isn’t clear any of
us really do. What we have are at least two sorts of people
who like myth:
Riddle who list, for me, and pull for Prime:
I envie no mans nightingale or spring;
Instead of puzzling over “Riddle who list, for me,
and pull for Prime” alone, I put it in context. Herbert’s
speaker does not envy anyone else’s fancy. We know
shepherds have some pagan fancies as well as part of the
truth. What confuses the speaker is their “listening” and
“pull for Prime.” He’s not clear on how they listen (don’t
you have to be a careful reader to listen well?) and really
not clear on “pull for Prime.” That can be getting a pump
started – doing a lot of work for no immediate result – or
trying to get a trump card to win a game outright. Herbert’s
speaker does acknowledge that some kind of humility is
important for Christian truth:
Nor let them punish me with losse of rime,
Who plainly say, My God, My King.
But it isn’t the “humility” of smashing all the idols
and trying to get everyone to conform to an impression of
the commandments. Herbert’s poet has said the same, even
plainly. What people don’t like is that philosophical
problems are not terribly deeply buried under their more
pious concerns. God is the Word, but words inform us
about beauty and nature, which reflect on truth’s human
aspect. There are only questions with that in mind. The

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declarative last stanza is a plea for privacy of conscience in
the name of humility more than a call for unified belief.

Work on the poem

Comment on the title of the poem and its
implications.

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2- Why is the title important to one's understanding

of the poem's subject? Consider that in the Bible,
the river Jordan Is associated with Jesus' baptism; it
is also the river that the Israelites crossed as they
approached the Promised Land.
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3- In what way is this sonnet similar in theme to

Sidney's "Sonnet 1?" What argument about
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language, i.e. poetry, does Herbert raise and then, in
the final stanza, try to answer?
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4. Is Herbert's "answer" convincing? (Consider the

language and style in some of his other poems.)
Why or why not?
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no Figure of Line Meaning
speech
1 Rhetorical Who sayes that fictions …………………
onely and false hair …………………
question Become a verse? Is there
in truth no beauty?

2 Metaphor Shepherds are honest …………………

people; let them sing: …………………

6 The
rhyme
scheme
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7 The
rhythm

ANDREW MARVELL

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Andrew Marvell was born at Winestead-in-
Holderness, Yorkshire, on 31 March 1621 the son of the
Rev. Andrew Marvell, and his wife Anne. When Marvell
was three, the family moved to Hull as Rev. Marvell
took-up the post of Master of the Charterhouse and
Lecturer at Holy Trinity Church. He was educated at the
Hull Grammar School, and Trinity College, Cambridge
and remained until 1640 when his father died in a
boating accident whilst crossing the River Humber.

When Marvell was three, the family moved to Hull as his

father took-up the post of Master of the Charterhouse and
Lecturer at Holy Trinity Church. He was educated at the
Hull Grammar School

Marvell's poetry was overlooked for over 200 years until

the mid nineteenth century when it began to be appreciated
more widely. "To his Coy Mistress" is probably the best
known of Marvell's poems.

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To His Coy Mistress
Launch Audio in a New Window
BY ANDREW MARVEL L

Had we but world enough and time,

This coyness, lady, were no crime.
We would sit down, and think which way
To walk, and pass our long love’s day.
Thou by the Indian Ganges’ side
Shouldst rubies find; I by the tide
Of Humber would complain. I would
Love you ten years before the flood,
And you should, if you please, refuse
Till the conversion of the Jews.
My vegetable love should grow
Vaster than empires and more slow;
An hundred years should go to praise
Thine eyes, and on thy forehead gaze;
Two hundred to adore each breast,
But thirty thousand to the rest;
An age at least to every part,
And the last age should show your heart.
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For, lady, you deserve this state,
Nor would I love at lower rate.
But at my back I always hear
Time’s wingèd chariot hurrying near;
And yonder all before us lie
Deserts of vast eternity.
Thy beauty shall no more be found;
Nor, in thy marble vault, shall sound
My echoing song; then worms shall try
That long-preserved virginity,
And your quaint honour turn to dust,
And into ashes all my lust;
The grave’s a fine and private place,
But none, I think, do there embrace.
Now therefore, while the youthful hue
Sits on thy skin like morning dew,
And while thy willing soul transpires
At every pore with instant fires,
Now let us sport us while we may,
And now, like amorous birds of prey,
Rather at once our time devour
Than languish in his slow-chapped power.
Let us roll all our strength and all
Our sweetness up into one ball,
And tear our pleasures with rough strife
Through the iron gates of life:
Thus, though we cannot make our sun
Stand still, yet we will make him run.

100
Summary of To His Coy Mistress
• Popularity of “To His Coy Mistress”: The poem is
a famous dramatic monologue written by Andrew
Marvell, a great metaphysical poet. It was first
published in 1681. The poem comprises the attempts
of the speaker to convince his beloved, a mistress, to
be ready to make love with him. It also talks about
the transience of life and the transient nature of time.
However, the popularity of the poem lies in the fact
that it deals with the subject of love and immortality
of life.
• “To His Coy Mistress” As a Representative of
Destructive Time: As the poem is about a shy
mistress, the speaker says that life is not endless and
that she should not be shy or hesitant. He asks her to
spend all the days of their life together. He talks
about her physical beauty and says if time allows
him, he will admire every feature of her body before
reaching her heart. He also comments on the
destructive nature of time and suggests that they
should make love before her beauty decays in death.
• Major Themes in “To His Coy Mistress”: Love,
and mortality are some of the major themes
incorporated in this poem. The speaker, with
his argument, tries to persuade his shy mistress to
sleep with him. To him, the mistress should not say
101
no to him as the shadow of approaching death will
take all these joys of their lives. Therefore, they
should seize the present moments of life and enjoy
life to the fullest.

SPEAKER

The speaker in the poem “To his Coy Mistress” is an

anonymous person that can be any man.

RHYMING SCHEME

The poem “To his Coy Mistress” is the form of couplets,

having a rhyming scheme aabbccdd….

STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS

The poem is in the form of iambic tetrameter. This meter

corresponds to four sets of two syllables in every line, i.e.,
eight syllables in each line. The opening of the poem has
two “closed couplets,” demonstrating a complete sentence.

SETTING

In the poem, “To his Coy Mistress,” two types of settings

are involved. First is the setting that the readers imagine,
while the second is that of the speaker’s imagination.
However, the poet mentions some scenery in the poet that
appeals to the reader’s imagination. These include:

1. Ganges River in India and Humber River in

England
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2. Deserts of vast eternityS
3. The grave
4. The morning dew

FIGURES OF SPEECH

Following are the figures of speech in the poem “To his

Coy Mistress”:

METAPHOR

The implicit implied and hidden comparison between two

objects is called a metaphor. A metaphor used in this poem
is:

1. My vegetable love should grow

Vaster than empires and more slow

Here the speaker compares his love with vegetables on the

basis of the shared quality of slow and gradual growth. It
implies that just like the growth of vegetables which is not
detectable when it is happening, the love of the speaker will
increase slowly with time.

SIMILE

A simile is the explicit open comparison between two

things or objects. It compares the two object with the help
of words “like” and “as” The similes used in this poem are:

1. Now, therefore, while the youthful hue

Sits on thy skin like morning dew.

2. Now let us sport us while we may

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And now, like amorous bird of prey.

HYPERBOLE

When a writer or poet exaggerates his/her feelings or any

other scene in his work, it is called hyperbole. Following
are the examples of hyperbole in this poem:

1. “vaster than empires”

The speaker claims that his love will grow vaster than any
of the great empires. This is an exaggeration to emphasize
the worth of his love.

2. An hundred years should go to praise Thine eyes

The speaker claims that he will praise his beloved’s eyes

for one hundred years. This exaggeration serves the
function of propagating the illustrious claims made by the
speaker about his love.

3. An age at least to every part

The speaker says that he will take an age to praise every

part of his body. Here, the speaker clearly exaggerates his
fondness of the beloved’s body as it is not humanly
possible.

PERSONIFICATION

Personification is the attribution of human qualities to

nonhuman things. The personifications used in this poem
are as follows:

1. Time’s winged chariot hurrying near.

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Time is personified as sitting in a winged chariot and
closing in on them.

2. Youthful hue/ Sits on thy skin like morning dew.

Here, “youthful hue” is personified.

ALLUSIONS

1. “The flood” is a biblical allusion and refers to

Noah’s flood.

2. “Conversion of Jews” is another biblical allusion.

Christians believe that all the Jews will convert to
Christianity near the doomsday. So, this allusion refers to
the doomsday.

105
WORK ON THE POEM

“To His Coy Mistress” Questions and Answers

1. What does the speaker entreat of his love?
Answer: The speaker is asking his mistress to make the
most of their time together and to “devour” and “tear” each
other.
2. What justifications or reasoning does the speaker
employ to persuade his mistress?
Answer: Examples: time stops when he and his mistress
are together, she deserves him, he loves her, time is moving
quickly so they ought to act now, she is still young enough
to enjoy him, and the sun, or happiness, cannot be fully
enjoyed until they enjoy each other.
3. Identify the allusion in line eight.
Answer: The speaker says he would love his mistress for
“ten years before the Flood.” This alludes to the Great
Flood in Christian history, which killed all but Noah and
those on his ark.
4. Identify an instance of hyperbole in this poem.
Answer: Examples: the reference to the conversion of the
Jews; his love growing as vast as empires; needing a
hundred years to praise her forehead; two hundred years to
adore each breast; thirty thousand years to adore the rest of
her body.
5. How would you describe his tone? Do the tone and
message remain constant throughout, or is there a shift in
106
the poem?
Answer: The poem’s tone is one of excitement and
attempts at persuasion. The speaker is trying to woo his
mistress to act on her feelings. The tone shifts throughout
the poem from one of detached observer to needy
persuader. As the poem progresses, the speaker’s attempts
at winning over his mistress come more frequently and
remain more pointed.
6. How is time presented in this work?
Answer: Time is presented through a series of allusions
and metaphors: the Ganges river, biblical floods, chariot
races, marble-temples, and predatory birds.
7. What is the rhyme scheme of the poem? Are there any
lines that do not follow this scheme? Why?
Answer: The poem is written in rhyming couplets. The
lines that do not follow the scheme are lines 7-8, 23-24, and
27-28. These lines are examples of half-rhyme, lines whose
rhymes are forced to ‘fit’ because of the poem’s rhyme
scheme.

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"To His Coy Mistress" Quizes

quiz 1
•

Q. Who wrote To His Coy Mistress?

answer choices
a. William Shakespeare
b. Sir Walter Raleigh
c. Christopher Marlowe
d. Andrew Marvell
• Question 2
Q. Where in England was Marvell born?
answer choices
a. Winstead
b. London
c. Kent
d. Lancashire
• Question 3
• Question 4
Q. Along with being a poet Marvell was something else.
What was he?
answer choices
a. dentist
b. politician
c. doctor
d. teacher
• Question 5
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Q. True or False: Marvell died a very expected death so
no one was surprised.
answer choices
True
False
• Question 6
Q. What is the speaker trying to tell his mistress about
time?
answer choices
a. It's unavoidable
b. It's unlimited
c. It's limited
d. It should be wasted
• Question 8
Q. Does the speaker have a name?
answer choices
yes
no
• Question 9
Q. What does the word coy mean?
answer choices
a. outgoing
b. a large fish
c. shyness or modesty
d. loud and annoying
• Question 10
Q. What does the word amorous mean?
answer choices
a. lustful
b. uninterested
c. bored
d. tired
• Question 11
Q. What is the theme?
answer choices
109
a. Don't judge a person by their looks
b. Time is unlimited
c. Love has no expiration
d. Make the most of time because it is limited
• Question 12
Q. What is this figurative language "I would love you
ten years before the flood..."
answer choices
a. hyperbole
b. biblical allusion
c. metaphor
d. personification
• Question 13

Q. What was our image?

answer choices
a. a little girl skydiving
b. a man sailing in the sea
c. an old man skydiving
d. there was no picture

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Quiz 2
1. The key theme(s) of the poem is/are

a. carpe diem
b. memento mori
c. holy matrimony
d. both a and b

2. Which of the following do you learn about the

speaker of this poem?

a. He is well educated
b. He is Jewish
c. He is savvy about fine wines
d. He is violent

3. The most prominent thematic motif(s) of the poem

is/are

a. the sky and the dark cloud

b. the Wars of the Roses and King
William's War
c. the space/time metaphors and sexuality
d. both a and b

4. In the lines "Rather at once our time devour / Than

languish in his slow-chapped power," "his" refers to
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a. the speaker
b. the king
c. time
d. a bird of prey

5. The structure of the poem is

a. novelistic
b. a syllogism
c. free verse
d. 14-line stanzas

6. Who wrote "To His Coy Mistress"?

a. Andrew Marvell
b. William Shakespeare
c. Alexander Pope
d. Lord Byron

7. "Time's wingèd chariot" is an allusion to

a. Apollo
b. Ares
c. Zeus
d. Hermes

8. At the end of the poem, the speaker says that he and

his lover cannot make Time stand still, but they can

a. "enjoy the current day"

b. "outlast his cruel effects"
c. "make him run"
d. "run forward hand in hand"
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9. In the lines "Thou by the Indian Ganges' side /
Shouldst rubies find; I by the tide / Of Humber
would complain," what is the "Humber"?

a. The Indian Ocean

b. The English Channel
c. Lake Victoria
d. a river in England

10.In the title "To His Coy Mistress," "coy" means she
is

a. already his lover

b. young and inexperienced
c. unwilling
d. married

11.In the lines "Thy beauty shall no more be found, /

Nor, in thy marble vault, shall sound / My echoing
Song. . . .," the "marble vault" is a reference to

a. the grave and the Mistress's body

b. the Mistress's perfume
c. the Mistress's willingness to have sex
d. the speaker's home

12.In the lines "But at my back I always hear / Time's

wingèd chariot hurrying near; / And yonder all
before us lie / Deserts of vast eternity," the "chariot"
and the "deserts" are examples of

a. similes
b. feminine symbols
113
c. metaphors
d. understatement

13.Death seems a preoccupation of the speaker most

likely because

a. he mourns his mother's death

b. he wants to seem sensitive to his
"mistress"
c. during his time the plague accounted for
thousands of deaths
d. both a and b

14.What does the speaker offer in the third stanza as the

logical conclusion to be drawn from the ideas
presented in the first two stanzas?

a. one must preserve one's honor forever

b. love is too painful to be endured
c. they should love now because there is no
tomorrow
d. they should repent of their sins

114
The Neo-

classical Poetry

115
Neoclassicism: An Introduction

The English Neoclassical movement, predicated upon and

derived from both classical and contemporary French

models, embodied a group of attitudes 24 toward art and

human existence — ideals of order, logic, restraint,

accuracy and so on. Neoclassicism dominated25 English

literature from the Restoration26 in 1660 until the end of the

eighteenth century, when the publication of Lyrical Ballads

(1798) by Wordsworth and Coleridge marked the full

emergence of Romanticism.

For the sake of convenience the Neoclassic period

can be divided into three relatively coherent27 parts: the

Restoration Age (1660-1700), in which Milton, Bunyan,

and Dryden were the dominant influences; the Augustan

Age (1700-1750), in which Pope was the central poetic

24
Attitude: approach/ position ‫موقف‬
25
Dominated: ruled / lasted ‫سيطر‬
26
Restoration: repair ‫عصر االصالح‬
27
Coherent: logical/ rational
116
figure, while Defoe, Richardson, Fielding, and Smollett

were presiding over the sophistication of the novel; and the

Age of Johnson(1750-1798), which, while it was

dominated and characterized by the mind and personality of

the inimitable Dr. Samuel Johnson.

Their themes revolve around28 the development of

Nature, the influence of German romantic thought,

religious tendencies29 like the rise of Methodism, and

political events like the American and French revolutions

— established the intellectual and emotional foundations of

English Romanticism. They maintained that man himself

was the most appropriate subject of art. In poetry, the

favorite verse form was the rhymed couplet, which reached

its greatest sophistication in heroic couplet of Pope.

28
Revolve around: circle around
29
Tendency: trend ‫اتجاه‬
117
"Sound And Sense"
Alexander Pope

True ease in writing comes from art, not chance,

As those move easiest who have learned to dance.
'Tis not enough no harshness gives offense,
The sound must seem an echo to the sense:
Soft is the strain when Zephyr gently blows,
And the smooth stream in smoother numbers flows;
But when loud surges lash the sounding shore,
The hoarse, rough verse should like the torrent roar;
When Ajax strives some rock's vast weight to throw,
The line too labors, and the words move slow;
Not so, when swift Camilla scours the plain,
Flies o'er the unbending corn, and skims along the
main.
Hear how Timotheus' varied lays surprise,
And bid alternate passions fall and rise!

"Sound and Sense” is a portion of the 'Essay on Criticism'

by Alexander Pope. You will learn more about the meter,

rhythm, figurative language, and purpose of 'Sound and

Sense' from this lesson. Then take the quiz to test your

knowledge!
118
Introduction to Sound and Sense

What makes a good poem? Should writing poems be

natural and include whatever sounds good to the author? Or

should writing poems mean applying the rules of poetry to

make it the best? This is what Alexander Pope addressed in

his poem Sound and Sense. In this poem, Pope talks about

what makes a good poem ... a poem about poems!

Sound and Sense is a poem within a larger poem

called Essay on Criticism. Pope wrote Essay on

Criticism in the early 1700s in England, during a movement

in literature and thinking called the Enlightenment. The

Enlightenment was an intellectual movement which

focused on reasoning and rationalism. Pope uses

rationalism and reason to explain what makes a good poem

in Sound and Sense.

The purpose of the poem Sound and Sense is to

explain why poetry should not be written in whatever way

119
the author thinks sounds good, but should be written as an

art where the author follows the rules of poetry. This is

clear from the very first line:

Meter of Sound and Sense

Sound and Sense is written in heroic couplets. A heroic

couplet is a pair of lines that rhyme and that are written in

the rhythm of iambic pentameter. Iambic pentameter

means 'five iambs' (penta means 'five', like in the word

pentagon to describe a five sided shape). An iamb is a pair

of two syllables that has one unstressed syllable and then

one stressed syllable. Put five iambs together and you have

one line of the heroic couplet.

Rhyme of Sound and Sense

When we describe rhyme scheme, or rhyming pattern, we

use letters to show that the end of certain lines rhyme with

others. So if both the first and third lines are marked with
120
an 'a', then we know that the last word of the first line

rhymes with the last word of the third line.

The rhyme scheme for Sound and Sense is ABAB CDCD

EFEF GG. This means that lines 1 and 3 rhyme, lines 2 and

4 rhyme, lines 5 and 7 rhyme, lines 6 and 8 rhyme, lines 9

and 11 rhyme, lines 10 and 12 rhyme, and lines 13 and 14

rhyme. This rhyme scheme is the rhyming pattern of an

English sonnet, also called a Shakespearean sonnet because

this was the kind of sonnet that William Shakespeare wrote.

121
The Pre-

Romantic

Poetry

122
Pre- Romantic poetry:

The Pre- Romantic poetry:

Romanticism is a complex artistic, literary, and intellectual

movement that originated in the second half of the 18th

century in Western Europe, and gained strength during the

Industrial Revolution.[ It was partly a revolt against

aristocratic30 social and political norms of the Age of

Enlightenment and a reaction against the scientific

rationalization of nature, and was embodied most strongly

in the visual arts, music, and literature.

Pre- Romantic poetry is the poetry that came just

before this period, it was almost romantic poetry. It was

like a prelude31 of the complete Romantic poetry. In

traditional forms, they wrote about many themes such as

30
Aristocratic: noble/ upper-class
31
Prelude: introduction ‫تمهيد‬
123
nature, innocent love, and family and society criticism,

social problems and about religion, but light religion.

124
125
126
"The Lamb"

"The Tyger"

By

William Blake

127
William Blake (1757 –1827)

William Blake was an English poet, painter, and a

journalist. He Blake is now considered a seminal figure in
the history of both the poetry and visual arts of the
Romantic Age.

William Blake was a transitional figure in British

literature. He was the one of the first writers of the
"Romantic Period." Before this period, most writers, such
as Alexander Pope, wrote more for form instead of for
content. Blake, on the other hand, turned back to
Elizabethan and early seventeenth-century poets, and other
eighteenth- century poets outside the tradition of Pope.

Blake was not always a poet. In fact, his only formal

training was in art. At the age of ten, he entered a drawing
school. He later studied at the Royal Academy of Arts.

His paintings and poetry have been characterized as part of

both the Romantic movement and "Pre-Romantic", for its
large appearance in the 18th century. Reverent of the Bible
but hostile to the Church of England, Blake was influenced
by the ideals and ambitions of the French and American
revolutions.32

Songs of Innocence" and "Songs of Experience

Blake is very known as the writer of the masterpiece, Songs

of Innocence and Experience

1. Songs of Innocence" and "Songs of Experience" are

groups of poems published by William Blake in his book,
Songs of Innocence and Experience, so your question

32
Revolution: rebellion uprising ‫ثورة‬
128
really concerns a collection of many poems. What makes
these poems really interesting is that they show the
contrasts in human nature, in life, and in the very nature of
God. In other words, they are poems of "opposites."

129
"The Lamb" and 'The Tyger"

Perhaps the most famous of the Songs of Innocence is "The

Lamb" which presents God as a gentle and loving
presence. The opposite poem in Songs of Experience is
"The Tyger," in which God is presented as a cruel and
fearsome force. The contrast between these two animals:
the tiger I fierce, active, while the lamb is week, meek,
harmless.

T. Taken together, "The Lamb" and "The Tyger"

both examine the nature of God, but each poem arrives at a
different truth. God is a mystery 33 to us. The Songs of
Innocence are positive, affirming, and hopeful; the Songs
of Experience are dark and gloomy

Innocence is associated with childhood, while

Experience is associated with adulthood. It's companion
poem in "Songs of Experience", "The Tyger," on the other
hand, contains a different perspective of human life. The
tyger could be compared to an "experienced" human. The
tyger is described as an animal that basically has to kill
everyday in order to live.

33
secret
130
"The Lamb":

From Songs of Innocence

Little lamb, who made thee?

Does thou know who made thee,

Gave thee life, and bid34 thee feed

By the stream35 and o'er36 the mead;37

Gave thee clothing of delight, 38

Softest clothing, woolly, bright;

Gave thee such a tender voice,

Making all the vales39 rejoice40?

Little lamb, who made thee?

Does thou know who made thee?

34
give/ offer
35
small rivers
36
over
37
wine of milk and honey
38
happiness and pleasure
39
valleys
40
be happy, celebrate.
131
Little lamb, I'll tell thee;

Little lamb, I'll tell thee:

He is called by thy name,

For He calls Himself a Lamb.

He is meek41, and He is mild,42

He became a little child.

I a child, and thou a lamb,

We are called by His name.

Little lamb, God bless thee!

Little lamb, God bless thee!

41
gentle
42
kind and soft.
132
Theme:

'The Lamb' is a theme poem of the section dealing

with Innocence, whereas 'The Tyger'43 is a theme poem of
the section dealing with Experience.

In 'The Lamb', a child speaks to a little lamb,

questions if the lamb knows who its maker is. The child
speaker then proceeds to answer the question: 'Little lamb
I'll tell thee'. In his answer, the child and the lamb cease to
be different entities and merge together into the holy nature
of Christ: he is kind, patient, and nice.

The child's question is both naive and profound. The

question ("who made thee?") is a simple one, and yet the
child is also tapping44 into the deep and timeless questions
that all human beings have, about their own origins and the
nature of creation.

Explanation:

The first stanza begins with the question, "Little Lamb,

who made thee?" The speaker, a child, asks the lamb
about its origins: how it came into being, how it acquired
its particular manner of feeding, its "clothing" of wool, its
"tender voice."
In the next stanza, the speaker attempts a riddling 45
answer to his own question: the lamb was made by one
who "calls himself a Lamb," one who resembles in his

43
old English of "tiger"
44
tricking
45
questioning
133
gentleness both the child and the lamb. The poem ends
with the child bestowing a blessing on the lamb.
A child talking to an animal is a believable one, and
not simply a literary contrivance. Yet by answering his own
question, the child converts it into a rhetorical one.
The answer is presented as a puzzle or riddle. The
child's answer, however, reveals his confidence in his
simple Christian faith and his innocent acceptance of its
teachings. It presents the positive aspects of conventional
Christian belief.
Techniques:
The techniques come in three levels:
I- Sound Techniques
II- Imagery Techniques
III- Language Techniques

I-Sound Techniques

1-Form: The poem is a child's song, in the form of a

question and answer. The first stanza is rural 46 and
descriptive, while the second focuses on abstract
spiritual matters and contains explanation.
The poem, "the Lamb" consists of two stanzas, each
stanza has ten lines.

46
Countryside, belong to villages and farms.
134
2-The Rhyme Scheme:
The rhyming in this poem comes in couplets47: aa bb
cc dd aa, and it begins and ends with a
refrain :(aa……………………aa) and this helps to
48

give the poem its song-like quality.

3-The rhythm and meter:

The rhythm in "The Lamb" is suitable for its childish
style, it is trochaic:
Little lamb, who made thee?

4-Alliteration: an example of alliteration is found in the

first stanza first line, "Little" "Lamb… ."

5-Assonance in stanza 1, line 4: 'stream" and in the same

line "mead," the same vowel sound /i:/
6- And we have also an extra sound technique in the
flowing l's and soft vowel sounds /i:/ contribute to this
effect, and also suggest the bleating 49 of a lamb or the
lisping50 character of a child's chant.
II- Imagery Techniques:
1-Images: two clear basic images of the child and the
lamb. The traditional image of Jesus as a lamb underscores

47
(such repeating of the same rhyme in the two following lines is called a couplet.)

48(Repetition in the first and last couplet of each stanza makes

these lines into a refrain)

49
The voice of the lamb
50
Problems in children talking ‫تلعثم‬
135
the Christian values of gentleness, meekness, and peace.
The image of the child is also associated with Jesus like in
the Bible's depiction of Jesus in his childhood.

2-Symbols: The lamb of course symbolizes Jesus. And the

child symbolizes God. These are also the characteristics
from which the child-speaker approaches the ideas of
nature and of God. The Lamb" from "Songs of Innocence"
is a very symbolic poem. The lamb in the poem can
symbolize innocence, calmness, a child, Jesus, or sacrifice.

3-Metaphors: stanza 1, line5: /Gave thee clothing of

delight,/
The poet's use of "clothing" that is used for people to refer
to the natural wool of the lamb.

III-Language Techniques:

1-The Persona:

the speaker here is the poet in the voice of a little child.

2-Dramatic Monologue:
The child her is addressing the lamb, we hear one voice
with no reply.

3-The Rhetorical Language:

The child's question is both naive and profound. The
question ("who made thee?") is a simple one, but it is
rhetorical because the answer is very clear, he is God.

4-Irony:

136
The question ("who made thee?") gives also a sense of
irony as if he is saying: "of course you know the answer"

5-Tone:
words like: 'life," "delight," "stream," "bright," "rejoice,"
"vales" give us an idea about the happy, pleasing, joyful,
and light tone of the poem.

Finally, we can say that "The Lamb" represents the essence

of childhood in William Blake's Songs of Innocence and
Songs of Experience.

137
“The Tyger”

Tyger Tyger, burning bright,

In the forests of the night;
What immortal hand or eye,
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies.

Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand, dare seize the fire?

And what shoulder, & what art,

Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand? & what dread feet?

What the hammer? what the chain,

In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp,
Dare its deadly terrors clasp!

When the stars threw down their spears

And water’d heaven with their tears:
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the Lamb make thee?

Tyger Tyger burning bright,

In the forests of the night:
What immortal hand or eye,
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

138
Summary
The poem begins with the speaker asking a fearsome tiger
what kind of divine being could have created it: “What
immortal hand or eye/ Could frame they fearful
symmetry?” Each subsequent stanza contains further
questions, all of which refine this first one. From what part
of the cosmos could the tiger’s fiery eyes have come, and
who would have dared to handle that fire? What sort of
physical presence, and what kind of dark craftsmanship,
would have been required to “twist the sinews” of the
tiger’s heart? The speaker wonders how, once that horrible
heart “began to beat,” its creator would have had the
courage to continue the job. Comparing the creator to a
blacksmith, he ponders about the anvil and the furnace that
the project would have required and the smith who could
have wielded them. And when the job was done, the
speaker wonders, how would the creator have felt? “Did he
smile his work to see?” Could this possibly be the same
being who made the lamb?

139
Technical Analysis of the poem

The poem is comprised of six quatrains in rhymed couplets.

The meter is regular and rhythmic, its hammering beat
suggestive of the smithy that is the poem’s central image.
The simplicity and neat proportions of the poems form
perfectly suit its regular structure, in which a string of
questions all contribute to the articulation of a single,
central idea.

The tiger, of course, is symbolic. It could stand for

evil, in general, or it could allude to the powerful forces of
Nature. For example, a tiger is beautiful, powerful, and
agile, but at the same time, it is a terrifying animal capable
of creating profound fear and death. Nature itself shares
similar characteristics. Water is a natural element, required
for sustaining life, but when water is uncontrolled, it can
cause devastating floods. We can say the same about fire
and wind.

The most likely symbolic meaning of Blake's tiger,

however, is the nature of mankind and his capacity for evil.
Blake was probably alluding to the spirit of revolution that
was sweeping the western world. America had just earned
140
her independence in a bloody revolution, and even more
recently to Blake, the French Revolution had just unfolded
across the Channel. Many romantic poets and writers
viewed the French Revolution as a positive change - the
common man overthrowing the yoke of the tyrannical
aristocracy. When the rebels developed a voracious appetite
for blood, however, as in the September Massacre, when
hundreds of innocent priests, aristocrats, and prisoners,
including women and children, were murdered and
mutilated, the idealistic romanticists became dissolusioned.
The tiger symbolizes the mob mentality - humans out of
control, bent on death and destruction.

141
Work on the poems
“The Lamb” and “The Tyger”

1.) Compare and contrast the speaker of each poem

(Remember that they are the same person, one in a state of
innocence, the other in a state of experience).

2.) What is the effect of the rhetorical questioning in each

poem?

3.) How do these poems reflect the theme of the awe and
mystery of creation and the creator?

4.) How do these poems reflect the Romantic concern with

the nature of good and evil?

“Infant Sorrow” and “Infant Joy”

5.) Describe the key differences in the poems.

6.) Discuss the parents’ response to the child? Are they

similar or different?

142
POETRY QUIZ

• Q. What does the lamb symbolize in "The

Lamb?"
answer choices
a. Death
b. Mystery
c. Peace
d. Christ
• Question 2
Q. What is the tone of "The Tyger?"
answer choices
a. Gentle
b. Questioning
c. Destructive
d. Playful
• Question 3
Q. Which author wrote The Lamb?
answer choices
a. William Blake
b. William Wordsworth
c. Robert Burns
d. Samuel Coleridge
• Question 4

Q. What is the purpose of the industrial immagery in

"The Tyger"?
answer choices
a. To glorify industrialization
b. To make the tyger scary
c. As a reference to the industrial revolution and the
effect society has on the individual
d. To promote the harmony between the industrial and
nature
143
• Question 5
Q. What is a significant difference between "The
Lamb" and "The Tyger?"
answer choices
a. "The Lamb" offers answers to questions.
b. "The Tyger" uses symbolism.
c. "The Lamb" does not use repetition.
d. "The Tyger" answers questions.
• Question 6

Q. Which kind of imagery is used in "The Tyger?"

answer choices
a. Blacksmithing
b. Farming
c. Meadows
d. Machinery
• Question 7
Q. "When the stars threw down their spears/and
watered heaven with their tears" is an allusion to what?
answer choices
a. Evil
b. The Bible
c. The Bible and Paradise Lost
d. Greek Mythology
• Question 8
Q. Descriptive words and imagery in “The Lamb”
suggests that the lamb is a symbol of
answer choices
a. Youth
b. Summer
c. Romance
d. Innocence
• Question 9
Q. In “The Tyger”, Blake creates a metaphor that
compares the stars to
144
answer choices
a. Warriors
b. Blacksmiths
c. Fears and terrors
d. Hammers and anvils
• Question 10
Q. In “The Tyger”, the speaker questions
answer choices
a. If the Tyger should be chained up
b. Why the Tyger was made
c. Whether the Lamb and Tyger had the same creator
d. What the Tyger will do when free
Question 11
Q. Which author wrote The Songs of Innocence and
The Songs of Experience?
answer choices
a. William Blake
b. William Wordsworth
c. Robert Burns
d. Samuel Coleridge

145
Compare and Contrast
The Lamb and The Tyger
by Blake

146
A Comparative Study of The Lamb and
The Tyger

“The Lamb” and “The Tyger” are both representative

poems of William Blake. They celebrate two contrary
states of human soul – innocence and experience. “The
Lamb” celebrates the divinity and innocence not merely of
the child but also of the least harmless of creatures on earth,
the lamb. The child asks the lamb if it knows who has
created it, given it its beautiful and sweet voice. He does
not wait for the answers, but answers the questions himself.
He refers to the meekness and gentleness of God, the
lamb's creator. His descent to the earth as a child (i.e. his
incarnation) and his own is the lamb's divinity. He
concludes wishing the lamb God's blessing.

“The Tyger” shows how experience destroys the state of

childlike innocence and puts destructive forces in its place.
It beaks the free life of imagination, and substitutes a dark,
cold, imprisoning four, and the result is a deadly blow to
blithe human spirit. The fear and denial of life which come
with experience breed hypocrisy which is as grave a sin as
cruelty. When innocence is destroyed by experience, God
creates the tiger (i.e. fierce forces) to restore mind to
innocence.

147
Both ‘the lamb’ and ‘the tiger’ are created by God. “The
lamb” represents the milder and gentler aspects of human
nature, the tiger its harsher and fiercer aspect. The lamb
represents the calm and pleasant beauty of creation, the
tiger its fearful beauty. The gross contrariety between the
nature of the lamb and tiger makes the poet ask

148
A Comparative Study of The Lamb and The Tyger

ALIKE
Compare/ THE LAMB THE TYGER or
Contrast DIFFERENT
item
Title

Theme

……………

……………
149
150
Key Terminology
Language Structure Form
Simile Enjambment Ballad
Dramatic
Metaphor Repetition
monologue
Extended
Refrain First person
metaphor
Personification Meter Quatrains
Synecdoche Listing Rhyming couplets
Metonymy Rhyme Rhyme scheme
Rhetorical
Rhythm Poetic persona
question
Symbolism Blank verse
Imagery Epic poem
Alliteration Lyric
Assonance
Consonance
Repetition
Dialect
Tone

Oxymoron
Juxtaposition

151