Circle Images in Three Poems by John Donne

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2014-01-15
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Mathison, Virginia
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English
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University of Hawaii at Manoa
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John Donne was a firm believer in the circle and the circular world around him. Circle images are pervasive in his poetry, such as the compass image in "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning, " and the lovers as a world in "The Sunne Rising." Donne used circle imagery to express a variety of relationships, man to woman, man to God, man to himself, and man to nature. I have picked three poems which best show Donne's complex and intense use of the circle. All three involve a journey, a circular journey. It is through each of these circular journeys that the particular relationship is clarified, felt, and understood. The first poem is "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning," which deals with the man to woman relationship. The second poem, "Good Friday, 1613. Riding Westward," is concerned with the man to God relationship, which also involves the man to self relationship. The third poem, "The First Anniversarie," is more complicated in both its imagery and its tone than the first two poems. Unlike the other two poems, it is concerned not with one relationship, but several, encompassing man to God, man to himself, man to nature and man to man.
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37 pages
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