As-salamu alaykum and good day everyone. Welcome
back and let's continue our lesson on our friend
John Donne. As we saw last time we examined some
texts by John Donne himself and by George Herbert
who is also a follower of John Donne. We realized
that during the Elizabethan and the Jacobian ages
there were poets, major poets following the rules
of decorum. They were writing according to a set
of rules they had to follow in a way or another.
But despite that, despite the strong current, the
many people who were writing this kind of
literature, there were some poets who were writing
something different, totally different. In a way,
they were experimenting on new forms, new
language, new themes. They were breaking the rules
of decorum. They were challenging the authority
itself, the mainstream opinion of what it is to
write poetry and literature. Today, I'll continue
talking about John Donne. and examine the features
of his poetry and that of the metaphysical poetry.
In general, last time I summed up the class and I
concluded saying that because John Donne did this,
because he wrote different poetry, he was not
welcomed in a way. He was not received well. He
was negatively framed, remember? As a bad poet, as
a difficult poet, A person who doesn't write
poetry but writes verse. So his poetry is not
poetry because it breaks the rules. For about 200
years, John Donne and his followers were outside
the English canon. Remember the English canon when
we said it's not objective? Because the people who
determine the canon are the people who benefit
from the canon, who are closer to the king
probably or the queen. And it was T.S. Eliot. And
we already know who T.S. Eliot is. He's a famous
20th century poet and critic. T.S. Eliot brought
those poets back to life. He resurrected them. He
opened their graves and brought them back to life
and made them famous again. He showed how
important their poetry was. And as a matter of
fact, many poets in the 20th century were
following the example of John Donne and his poets.
And a very important example how John Donne and
his followers were negatively framed is the fact
that they were described as metaphysical poets.
The term meta and physical, what does it have to
do with pottery? Physical and metaphysical, beyond
nature and supernatural and beyond the physical.
Many people try to explain the term, what it
means. But personally, I believe it doesn't mean
much. Because it was used as a negative word, as
TSE let's say, as a term of abuse. As an insult,
thank you. Metaphysical. Seriously, when you see,
when I tell you, OK, here is a romantic poem, and
here is a metaphysical poem, which one would you
choose before reading? Probably the romantic,
because it's a romantic poem. Something you might
find good, you think would be good. But
metaphysical poetry. So early in the 20th century,
TS Eliot again
showed how important Don and his followers were at
Marvel and at George Herbert. And many poets
started, in a way, imitating them, following them,
using them as examples. And they become, nowadays,
John Donne and his followers are more important
than Johnson and even probably Dryden and other
poets. And this is how funny life can be and
literature can be. When you are alive, nobody
cares about you. 100 years later, nobody cares
about you. 100 years, even 200 years later, nobody
cares about you. But later on, something happens
and you become the most important poet around.
John Donne, in my opinion, is one of the most
famous poets. Not only for his good poetry,
wonderful poetry, that still even today talks to
us like Shakespeare. But because he brought new
things, new themes, new forms to English poetry
early in the 17th century. So let's study more
about John Donne.
Remember this? Did we study this already before?
Can someone read? Please. Come live with me and be
my love and we will have some new pleasures as
well. Very good. Come live with me and be my love
and we will have some new pleasures as well.
Pleasures as well. Did we study this before
already? Yes. Who is the poet here? Did we study
this? Haven't we studied this before? Oh, we
studied something by Marlowe, remember? Are you
sure? Are you sure this is Marlowe? Remember the
passionate Chiba to his love? How does it begin?
Does anybody memorize the lines, the first
couplet? The passionate Chiba to his love. What
does he say? He says, What is this Marlowe? The
first line is Marlowe. What is the second one
Marlowe? All. This is Marlowe. Come live with me
and be my love and we will all the pleasures grow.
And this is done. Done says some, new. Here all,
old. Here some, but this some is new it's
interesting so let's try to compare between these
couplets so again this is مانو but this is دانس
what do you notice what is the major difference
here same number of feet same rhyme scheme same
almost everything same first line but the second
line we have here all the definite article, and
here we have some, but this some is new. And this
is the metaphysical poetry, this is John Donne. He
knew, he was conscious that he was writing new
poetry, that he was writing something different.
that he was changing the history of English poetry
in a way or another, that he was breaking the
rule. Many people, critics say that Jonathan was
just a digression. He just was writing poetry the
way he liked. That's true, but There's also strong
evidence in his poetry that John Donne knew that
he was contradicting, swimming against the
current, like some of you said last time, that he
was breaking the rules of decorum of the
Elizabethan poetry writing process. So here,
remember we said this represents the Elizabethan
English poetry. Rules, decorum, everything counts,
and the poet is idealistic. Remember the courtly
love? Come live with me and be like, because I own
all the pleasures, the idealism. Idealized love.
And in John Donne, we said John Donne is
realistic. He's an individual. He's more
realistic. He knows he can't own all. But when he
is doing this, he's contradicting. So he's saying
some in other ways. He's telling us, no one can
own all things. And at the same time, he tells us,
I have new kinds of pleasure, exactly like his
poetry, new kinds of poetry, poems in a way that
he is giving us new forms. We saw, for example,
the new rhyme scheme for the sonnet and we saw the
new themes he introduced to the sonnet. Turn the
sonnet from a love poem into a religious poem.
Remember, the sonnet is the most sacred form of
all poetry. 14 lines, love, Italian,
Shakespearean. For Don, he broke this. He mixed
both forms, and he had his own form, the John
Donne form of sonnets. Is it about love? It's
about religion, about God, batter my heart, three
persons, God, death, be not proud, et cetera. In
this context here, I need to talk about something
called parody and something else called
intertextuality.
Listen. We spoke probably briefly about parody
before. Parody is to parody something to imitate,
to copy. You do something, I do something similar
to it. But I change a little bit. So parody in
Arabic is some kind of like muhaka, something like
this. When someone writes a text, you write a text
similar to it. We studied this probably in Arabic,
Jareer, Al-Farazdaq, and how they were writing,
using the same meter and the same rhyme to write
about the same thing, but it's the opposite. Now,
parody is a very important literary device.
Generally, it means when you imitate another
literary work. When you imitate another literal in
a comic way, okay? In a comic way, just to make
fun of it. However, for John Donne, comedy is also
serious.
It's not only comic, ha ha ha, let's laugh at
Marlow, let's make fun of Marlow. It's also
serious. Why is it serious? Because in his parody,
when we study the whole poem, we see how, for
example, Marlow is idealistic, is dreamy. Dreamy,
you know? He dreams of owning all the pleasures.
And we saw, for example, how he represents the
woman as silent and weak. He's just, she doesn't
reply, she doesn't act. She is not there in the
text. She's just listening to him. Assuming that
she is there. Probably he sent her a letter. So
come live with me and be my love. In a way, he's
very persuasive. He's tricking her. He doesn't
think highly of the woman. He thinks the woman is
not smart as he is. Because any smart woman would
say, come on, you're just a shepherd. I can't come
with you. You don't have one pleasure, let alone
all the pleasures. And instead of wasting your
time, go take care of the sheep you're supposed to
be taken care of. So the woman here is weak. It's
not weak, actually. It's presented as weak. And in
Dan, when you read the whole poem, you will
realize that he presents us with a smart woman, an
intellectual.
An intellectual, a woman who thinks for herself, a
woman who understands poetry and understands
debate and understands what the poet is trying to
do. So when Jonathan is doing this, he's
criticizing not only Marlowe, but criticizing
Marlowe's society. Thank you very much. He's
criticizing the society in which women are
negatively portrayed. as objects for men to own
and control. But in John Donne, the woman is
strong, is powerful, is independent. You know
independent? Yes. Not dependent on man. So that's
why parody for John Donne is very serious. Serious
because it criticizes not only other poets, but
also the society itself. He's telling, why are you
treating women this badly? Why? Why? Women are as
smart as men and maybe smarter. We see this
constantly in Joan Dunn's portrait. The other
thing is intertextuality. So again, how does Joan
Dunn criticize the society? By parodying it, by
making fun, by mocking. You know mock? Make fun of
something in a serious way. Intertextuality, in a
way it's similar to this. Text, you know text?
Intertext. Intertext, where texts are
interconnected, linked. Intertextuality in Arabic
is attanas.
When a critic, sorry, a poet quotes, uses poetry
from another poet, from another person. When a
writer uses a quote, a quotation, or an extract
from another text. This is called intertextuality.
Marlow says, come live with me and be my love. Don
says, come live with me and So this text has
intertextuality. Why? Because originally it was
said by Marlowe. But is John Donne criticizing,
copying Marlowe 100%, copy-paste, photocopying
him? No, he changed. But why does he do this? He
could have written the whole poem without this
couplet and it would be a totally different poem.
But he's telling us, wait, my whole poem here is
mainly to criticize Marlow and the society. So I'm
beginning from Marlow. You would say, hey, Dan is
using Marlow. I know many people confuse this,
confused between these couplets. He is using
Marlow not as, you know, to imitate him in a way
where he is following his steps. Oh, I want to be
like Marlow. I want to do like Marlow. He's doing
this to criticize him and criticize his portrait.
The idealism of the Elizabethan age, the way that
women were negatively portrayed as silent and
weak, and other things are mocked. criticized and
attacked in John Donne. He does this constantly in
an amazing way. That's why many women, by the way,
love John Donne's poetry. Because it gives them a
voice. It gives them a presence. And sometimes the
woman is smarter than the man himself. She can't
be tricked by, come live with me and be my love.
OK? So if in the exam I ask you to contextualize
this, In exam, there will be a question asking you
to contextualize extracts from poetry we studied.
Here, you should say, this is a text by Marlow
from a passionate shepherd or a passionate
shepherd to his love. In this couplet, the poet is
inviting his mistress or beloved and promising her
all the pleasures. Here, we have what we call
courtly love. or idealized love. What is idealized
love about idealism? Not realistic. Okay, so
Marlow, the passionate shepherd promising all,
however, the imperfect rhyme here might expose the
poet as fake, as ungenuine. Not truthful, because
we realize that he is a shepherd. He doesn't own
anything. If you need to comment on this, you
should say, this is by John Donne from a poem
called The Bait. You know what a bait is? Remember
Shylock? I'll bait with it. Bait. Shylock. When
they said, what do you want to do with a pound of
flesh? I will bait. Bait, to'am al-samaka. When
you want to fish, you use some kind of food for
strange name for a love poem. So this is by John
Donne from The Bait. In this poem, John Donne is
parodying Marlow.
It's important to use the word parody. Parodying
Marlow because he's criticizing Oh, and the
society. In this couplet, John Donne is more
realistic because he says some, not all, and at
the same time, he clearly tells us that he's
bringing new themes, new issues, new forms to
poetry. Again, John Donne criticizes Malo by
parodying him.
Criticizes the way he represents women. Criticizes
his idealized love. He's more realistic because he
uses the word son. And at the same time, John
Donne clearly and consciously tells us that he is
bringing new themes, new issues, and new forms to
poetry.
It's interesting what parody can do.
So this is again the summary I said last time.
Okay, for next class we can probably examine two
extracts from Andrew Marvel and Herbert. What are
the features of John Donne's portrait?
Someone.
Tell me, what are the features of John Donne's
poetry? What are the characteristics? I remember
we had the characteristics of Old English, Middle
English, Shakespeare, Marlow.
If you have to mention three or four features
about John Donne, what is special? What is
different about his poetry? Can you tell me,
please? His poetry,
thank you, is more realistic than the Elizabethan
poetry, which is generally idealistic. He's more
realistic.
His poetry is about a man's problems, a woman's
problems, about individual issues, things we face
probably on a daily basis, not idealized love.
In the sonnet, thank you. So this is an example,
but generally he introduced us to new poetic forms
where the meaning is more important than the rule.
For example, in the sonnet, He changes the rhyme
scheme, the form, and changes the theme itself of
the sonnet. Very good. More.
More.
I just, by the way, mentioned most of them right
now. OK, again, please. His poetry is a mixture
between love religion and daily life issues. OK,
so generally, his poetry mixes between secular and
religious. There are many love poems by John Donne
and many religious poems by John Donne, but
sometimes the same poem could have a mixture of
both. We discussed this when we spoke about battle
my heart three person God. There is this strong
love intimate relationship between him and the
person and the person in the poem is God. More.
Please. He uses parody.
Thank you very much. He was critical of his
community. In his poetry, he shows his opinion
about not only poetry, but also the society
itself. So he uses parody and intertextuality to
criticize. To criticize his society and poetry
itself. What else? Please. He had great knowledge
about the classical literature. Yeah, but it
doesn't show much in his portrait, because he
doesn't follow the rules of neoclassicism. He
breaks these rules. But again, you don't break
something unless you are well read into it. Yeah?
More? He wanted to say the same thing. He broke
the rules of Decorum. We've seen his poem,
remember, The Sun Rising? Some lines are five
feet, some two, some three. So he, simply
speaking, he breaks the rules of Decorum. What
else?
Okay, so let's go through the list and speak about
two or three features that I didn't mention
before. So number one, he introduces us to new
poetic forms, for example, the sonnet. Sorry, this
should be the sonnet, okay? And he didn't create
the sonnet, it was already there, but he changed
the theme and the form. He uses parody and
intertextuality sometimes. to make fun of, to
criticize the existing rules of decorum and social
rules. Mainly here, the status of women. In Donne,
the woman is equal to man. If not, sometimes
smarter and more intellectual than him. This is
new. This is like Shakespeare, like Portia in The
Magic of Venice. He uses the conceit. Listen, the
conceit is a very important
literary device in the metaphysical photo. A
conceit is generally a metaphor.
Remember a metaphor when you liken something to
something? But here a conceit is a literal device
where the relationship between the two things
you're talking about is unlikely. So you liken a
woman to a rose, right? You liken a woman to what?
To a tree, to the moon. Beautiful thing. But these
are conventional images. For Jonathan, he uses
totally different imagery. He uses what we call
the conceit. The conceit is a long metaphor.
a long metaphor. Sometimes the whole poem is one
metaphor, one conceit, in which the relationship
between A and B, when you say A is like B,
sometimes there is a similarity. When you say she
is like a rose, she is like a dove, you want to
say that she's peaceful like the dove. She's
beautiful as the rose, right? But here, for Joan
Dunn, the vehicle and the tenor do not usually
have an apparent relationship. Take this example.
When he talks to his wife, he tells her, we are
like stiff twin compasses. Do you know what a
compass is? Yeah, the compass is the device that
shows us north. But that's the compass. Here, this
is different. This is, in geometry, when you're
doing mathematics and draw shapes in geometry, you
know, you need to use this device to make circles.
You know? What do you call this? Yeah.
So Jonathan is telling his wife that you and I are
like a stiff twin compasses.
What? Weird, strange. We're not used to this. This
is new. How? It's like you and I are like this,
like we're part of the same thing. We are one.
It's like you and I are like this notebook. How?
Weird, strange. But when you think of it, oh, we
are connected, we come together, even if we are
sometimes far away from each other, we're still
connected in the center here. Oh, that's genius.
That's new at the same time. So the stiff twin
compasses, he tells his wife lesson, we are one
because sometimes it's like this, the stiff twin
compasses. Sometimes I go away, but when I am
away, we are still connected. And he tells the
woman, his wife, you are the fixed foot. You are
here. So again, it's the woman who controls this
relationship. She is fixed here. She is the core
of the relationship. So no matter how long I am
far away, when I go around, at the end of the day,
I'm going to go back as long as you are fixed in
the middle. This is called a conceit. In another
poem called The Flea, this is another example. You
know what the flea is? What's the flea? A tiny
insect? Barghout? Barghout? You know? Barghout?
Insect? The flea. So a flea bites him, sucks his
blood, and bites the woman and sucks her blood.
And he tells her, listen, we are you, I, the flea
are one. Because our blood is inside one. And at
the beginning, it's like, this is strange in a
way. But when you come to think of it, it's also
genius. And imagine they, remember we spoke about
three persons, God, Trinity. Here, there's the
idea of Trinity again. Because the flea, you, and
I are like a religious triangle. We form it here.
His imagery and conceit sometimes might sound
strange. But when you analyze them, when you
understand them in their context, they are new and
innovative and genius and smart. They always make
you laugh. Really interesting. Because for John
Donne, he was fit up with, shall I compare the
blossoms of the day or the trees or the flowers or
the moon or the sun. Okay, realism against
Elizabethan idealism, display of wit. He was
educated and also wit, he was smart. He uses his
argumentative style. He tells you an idea and
you're like, you're crazy, this can't be possible.
At the end of the poem, interesting, that could be
possible in a way.
Yeah, and then he's convincing, you know, he's
argumentative. But when he does this, he's not
controlling the other person. Because in the flea,
when he tells the woman, oh, this flea is sacred.
It has our blood. What does she do? She kills the
flea. Yeah. Because she can't be deceived. She's
powerful. She's smart. Come on. And she kills the
flea to show that she can't be tricked by him. And
the dramatic, remember the poem last time, The Sun
Rising? How does it begin? Busy old fool unruly
sun. This is drama. This is dramatic. He
dramatizes his experience. He's sitting here. His
beloved is sitting there. A flea bites her, and a
flea bites him. And it's a whole poetic
experience. He dramatizes this in a beautiful way.
He wants to talk about his relationship to God,
with God. And then, butter my heart, three-person
God. It's like every poem is either an inner
personal dialogue, a soliloquy, or a public
speech. And that's the drama here. Again, he lived
during the golden age of drama, during the time of
Shakespeare. And he must have seen some of
Shakespeare's plays and other dramatists. So the
dramatic style is also there. Each poem is like a
sketch. When you go home today, try to read, for
example, or watch or listen to The Sun Rising on
YouTube. You'll see a lot of drama. Even if you
look at the poem, remember? I think I still have
it here.
okay okay okay do i have it i don't okay if you
look here everyone there's
also curtain what's curtain It's like there's a
stage here, and the curtain opens, and people are,
in a way, performing this act. This is what is
meant by drama. Drama that the singular experience
he lives comes out to life as a play, as a short
sketch that can easily be performed. He dramatizes
the experience, the way he speaks, the way he
portrays it.
And don't forget this, there is a lot of criticism
of mainstream established rules of decorum. Simply
speaking, John Donne breaks the rules. And
thematically speaking, Metaphysical poetry
empowers women. You know what empower means? Gives
them power. Gives them a voice and gives them
space in their... When you compare women in
Marlow, for example, sometimes Shakespeare, and
women in John Donne, you'll find that they have a
strong presence. Even if sometimes they don't
speak, they act. In The Flea, the woman doesn't
speak. But what does she do? She does the most
important thing. She acts. She kills the flame. He
gives her voice. That's why many women critics,
they love John Donne. And they praise him for the
way he depicts a powerful, strong woman. Even
Virginia Woolf. We'll talk about Virginia Woolf
probably in two months. She's a very famous
feminist of the 20th century. She praises John
Donne as a poet who depicts women as powerful as
the man is. And we have many personal experiences
rather than a poet who talks about the fairy queen
or the queen of England or the battles and the...
We have someone who speaks about, who conveys the
inner feelings of an individual, of a man. How he
feels when he's sad, when he's in love, when he's
not, etc. In brief, Metaphysical poetry is full of
modern ideas, modern ideas that we still feel
today and can internalize and externalize. There
are scientific geographical explorations, there is
original imagery there, and sometimes the inner
conflict in the soliloquies like the ones we had
in Shakespeare. The whole poem could be an
internal monologue in a way. Finally, they
experimented with language and verse forms with
great originality. Originality means new things.
They experimented with poetic forms like we saw in
the sonnet and the other texts, The Sun Rising.
Now, to conclude this, remember I said John Donne
was not well-received during his time and after.
Many critics of that time were not happy with John
Donne. And they said many horrible things about
him. So horrible that it influenced the way we see
John Donne even today. Many people nowadays, not
many, but some people who don't like John Donne
Generally, it's not because they don't like John
Donne, but because they read John Donne through
these critics. When you read what Ben Jonson, John
Dryden, Alexander Poe, Osama Johnson, what they
say about John Donne, you think, oh my God, this
is a horrible poet. And this is how serious and
dangerous framing is, remember? Framing when
critics make us think in a particular way. So I
tell you, don't read Shakespeare. Shakespeare is
difficult. So what do you think of Shakespeare?
He's difficult. Have you read Shakespeare? No. Ben
Jonson told me this, or somebody else told me.
That's why it's always good to read the text
itself for yourself. Go for the text. Try to
understand it. Read it once and twice and see how
it relates to you. So to summarize, the whole
reception thing, the framing, reception and
framing of John Donne, generally by mainstream
critics, the official critics, he was received
negatively. See, for example, Ben Johnson said he
would perish. Hanging. And he deserved hanging.
Oh, my God. When someone commits a crime, kills
somebody, maybe he deserves hanging, right? Why
would you hang someone because he breaks the rules
of poetry? This is how extreme. But in my opinion,
those people viewed John Donne as a threat. Oh,
someone writing different poetry. Maybe he's going
to steal all the patrons, all the money from us,
maybe. But many people love the rules of Decorum.
If you don't follow the rules, you're not a good
person. John Dryden said, John Donne affects the
metaphysics and he perplexes the mind of the first
six. The first six, women. You know what perplex
means? Confused. John Donne confuses women. This
is what Dryden says. Who the hell are you to speak
for women? Seriously. Who are you to speak for
women? Why do you appoint yourself as the
spokesperson for women?
His idea here, he says, in other words, he says
John Donne is anti-feminist. But I think he is
anti-feminist, because he assumes that women will
not understand John Donne's poetry. He thinks
women are less intellectual, are, I don't know,
maybe stupid. And that's how anti-feminist Dryden
is himself. So this guy says he would perish, he
deserves hanging. Dryden said he perplexes, he
confuses the mind of the fair sex, the women. And
then Samuel Johnson, another critic, said John
Donne uses a combination of dissimilar images and
heterogeneous ideas linked with violence.
Yeah, there is some dissimilarity when you read
some imagery by John Donne, some poetry, but later
on, upon second reading and a third reading and
more analysis and more interpretation, you can see
the connection. But if you don't want to see the
connection, you're not going to see the
connection. But again, I'll go back to framing.
When you study John Donne, and the first thing you
read about John Donne is what Johnson says here,
that he uses dissimilar ideas. And oh, yeah, he
uses dissimilar ideas. Bye bye, Donne. That's why
it's dangerous to read poets through what critics
say about him. Read the poet. Read the writer face
to face. Come face to face with his poetry. And
finally, many people said, OK, even Dryden. And
Johnson said, John Donne is not a poet, but they
said he is an intelligent person. He is a wit. He
has a strong sharp wit. He's smart. He's genius.
Even this Alexander Pope says no. John Donne
doesn't have imagination. This is how much they
disliked him. But believe me, it was much for his
breaking the rules, for him criticizing their way
of writing, the way poetry was written, than
anything else. It wasn't because his poetry was
bad. The evidence is that people like T.S. Eliot
nowadays, in the 20th century, 21st century,
studied him, loved him, and quoted him, and used
his poetry as praised him in a way or another. So
Ben Jonson was a contemporary of Shakespeare, but
Dryden and Johnson and Alexander Pope came later
after Shakespeare. But they played a very
important role in negatively framing John Donne
and kicking him out. But because John Donne is a
beautiful poet, strong genius, he came back to
life 200 years later. I'll stop here. And if you
have a question, please do ask.
No, no, no, you don't. But just that those people
criticized John Donne, it's probably too much for
you. Just I want you to know that at least Ben
Jensen said he deserved hanging. If you know this,
maybe one other thing that perplexes the minds of
the first six, that's enough. You don't have to
memorize everything. And you don't have to
memorize word for word. Thank you very much. I'll
stop here.