John Donne 1572- 1631

- He was a rake when he was young and became religious when he got older

- He came from a high class

- He was all about Contraries [Opposites e.g. Spiritual and Sensual]

- Metaphysical Conceit which uses parts of comparisons to show his idea. E.g. compass and love. [An image which shows a relation between two things that don’t really have a connection between them.

- He wrote

          1- A valediction: Forbidding Mourning [A farewell poem]

-          His lover leaving him

-          His comparison is simple, he used similes

-          He compared love to religion. He thinks that religion is erotic like love and that love is like religion

-          Donne uses a lot of science in his poems

-          He uses Sublunary [everything below the moon is evil]

-          He loves both spiritual and physical love [paradox]

-          Uses Microcosm and Macrocosm in his poems. [lover’s world] [everything else]

-          He used the 4 Elements in medieval and made it into love [fire, water, air, and earth]

          2- The Flea

          3- Canonization

          4- Air and Angles

          5- The Apparition

Ben Jonson 1572- 1637   

-          his father was a priest and his grandfather was a bricklayer

-          He wanted to be famous and a Noble

-          He ended his days as Court Poet for James the First

-          He was simple, straight and constant [Never changes, is always the same]

-          He published his poems in book form on 1616

-          He’s objective and moralistic and celebrates a world of friendship and community

-          He gave the classical value

1-     Simplicity

2-     Restrain

3-     Economical – shouldn’t use many words if one word is sufficient. {from Horace}

4-     Decorum- using the right style and the right words at he right times (polite and careful)

5-     Craft- skill [a poem has to learn to do meter]

6-     Art- not science

-          It should be Modeled on nature like the Neo-Classical way of thinking.

-          It should have wit and good judgment

-          We should imitate the ancient styles and the methods.

-          Things he wrote about

1-     the four humors

2-     epigrams

3-     famous song

4-     3 collections of poems, forest/epigram/ Underwood.