John Donne’s Poetic Cycle of Holy Sonnets Research Paper

Introduction

The Sonnet I from John Donne’s poetic cycle of Holy Sonnets represents author’s interpreting of ideas concerning inevitability of death, as well as overcoming of its fear and finding of spiritual eternity. Reading the sonnet, one may clearly feel a strong subjective connection between the main character of the Sonnet I and the author; the speaker, if not entirely represents the author, is still very close to Donne’s inner monologue; the whole sonnet is a kind of appeal to the Creator. The first two lines which introduce the basic mood of the sonnet also present a strong metaphoric image where one can also find parallels between physical and spiritual forms of a human: “Thou has made me, and shall thy work decay? Repair me now, for now mine end doth haste” (Greenblatt). The word decay apparently means the destruction of a soul, not body; thereby, the sonnet expresses the fear of not physical death, but spiritual one which is burdened with sins. Thereby, such images as “me”, and “thy work” mean only a soul of the speaker, and the request “repair” appeals for saving speaker’s tumbledown spirit.

The mock epic poem The Rape of the Lock by Alexander Pope presents us the story of two families which quarreled with each other on the reasons of a rapped Lock which was snipped off by a young lord from his sweetheart’s head. Pope tells about routine and everyday events in an elevated and epic style mocking at pretentiousness of dandies and women of fashion. Epos usually presupposes two lines of narration, on heavens and earth at the same time. Thereby, The Rape of the Lock presents us either boudoir of a fine lady or reception in a palace where assemblies of spirits and fairies soar. The style comically intensifies events as long as it does not eliminate their insignificance but, on the contrary, accentuates it.

The Oroonoko: or, the Royal Slave is one of the novels written by Aphra Behn. It is a story which depicts love of people: an African prince, Oroonoko, and Imoinda. It is interesting to know that the author depicted physical appearance of Oroonoko, she did not described him as an African man, on the contrary, dignity and honor wipe off the ethnic origin of the man. “Oroonoko, who was more civilized, according to the European mode, than any other had been, and took more, than delight in the white nations, and, above all, men of parts and wit” (Greenblatt). The main character is presented in the text as a hero. And there are several reasons for it. Firstly, he organizes a revolt among those African men who were to become slaves: “my dear friends and fellow-sufferers, should we be slaves to an unknown people” (Greenblatt). Secondly, Oroonoko take the execution with an honor, with dignity: he is not a slave; he is a soldier who struggles for his woman, and for his people.

The Gulliver’s Travels were meant as a parody to the work Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe. Unlike Defoe who depicted a human being as a supreme creature who is capable of everything, Swift demonstrate in his metaphoric novel degradation and incapability of a human being. The fourth journey of Gulliver described Jonathan Swift is considered the highest place of the author’s satire expression. The forth part depicts not only satire towards the acts of government, but also the common life itself. The journey is a metaphoric description of degradation process, it reveals lots of cracks. “My horror and astonishment are not to be described, when I observed in this abdominal animal a perfect human figure” (Greenblatt). In other words, description of Yahoos is the representation of people and their sin. Meanwhile, animals, Houyhnhnms, are creatures which represent mind and high level of culture.

Work Cited

Greenblatt, Stephen. The Norton Anthology of English Literature, the Major Authors. Vol. 1. 8^th ed. New York: W. W. Norton, 2006. Print.