Metaphysical poets, selected poems Contents
- Social / political context
- Religious / philosophical context
- Literary context: ideas and innovations
- Aire and Angels
- A Hymn to God the Father
- A Hymn to God, my God, in my Sicknesse
- A Nocturnall upon St. Lucies day
- At the Round Earth's Imagin'd Corners
- A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning
- Synopsis of Valediction: Forbidding Mourning
- Commentary on Valediction: Forbidding Mourning
- Language and tone in Valediction: Forbidding Mourning
- Structure and versification in Valediction: Forbidding Mourning
- Imagery and symbolism in Valediction: Forbidding Mourning
- Themes in Valediction: Forbidding Mourning
- A Valediction: of Weeping
- Batter my heart
- Death be not Proud
- Elegie XIX: Going to Bed
- Elegie XVI: On his Mistris
- Good Friday, 1613. Riding Westward
- Lovers' Infiniteness
- Oh my blacke Soule!
- Satyre III: 'On Religion'
- Show me Deare Christ
- Since She Whom I Lov'd
- Song: Goe, and catche a falling starre
- The Anniversarie
- The Dreame
- The Extasie
- The Flea
- The Good-morrow
- The Sunne Rising
- This is my playes last scene
- Twicknam Garden
- What if this present
- Aaron
- Affliction I
- Death
- Discipline
- Easter Wings
- Jordan I
- Jordan II
- Life
- Love II
- Man
- Prayer I
- Redemption
- The Church-floore
- The Collar
- Vertue
- Hymn in Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament
- Hymn to St Teresa
- St Mary Magdalene, or the Weeper
- To the Countesse of Denbigh
- Ascension - Hymn
- Man
- Regeneration
- The Night
- The Retreate
- The Water-fall
- A Dialogue between Soul and Body
- On a Drop of Dew
- The Coronet
- The Definition of Love
- The Garden
- The Mower Against Gardens
- The Mower to the Glo-Worms
- The Mower's Song
- The Nymph Complaining for the Death of her Faun
- The Picture of Little T.C. in a Prospect of Flowers
- To his Coy Mistress
- Upon Appleton House, to my Lord Fairfax
- An Elegie upon the Death of the Deane of Paul's Dr John Donne
- To a Lady that Desired I would Love her
Structure and versification in The Good-morrow
Stanza form
The stanza form is regular, each stanza consisting of seven lines, and rhyming ababccc. The c-rhyme is a little suspect at times- ‘gone', ‘showne', ‘one' are more eye rhymes than sound ones. English pronunciation has changed somewhat since Donne's day, so that a final ‘-ly' did actually rhyme with ‘I'.
Metre
- The last line of each stanza is an alexandrine, i.e. it has twelve syllables
- The remaining lines are all pentameters, having ten syllables.
- Donne frequently avoids any smoothly flowing rhythm: the ‘I' voice is too changeable to allow that. Even though a line like:
Let Maps to other, worlds on worlds have shown,
is technically an iambic pentameter, the number of monosyllables and the consonant clusters make it a clumsy line to read, but that is deliberate: the world outside is a clumsy place, in contrast to a smooth world
Without sharpe North, without declining West?
which is perfectly balanced in the middle by the comma.
Investigating The Good-morrow
- Consider Donne's use of stanza form and metre in The Good-morrow:
- What is the effect of the longer last line in each stanza?
- A seven line stanza is not usual; six is more common. What does Donne achieve by having seven lines? Or twenty-one lines in all?
A pair of words or final syllables that are spelled similarly but which are in fact pronounced differently.
A line of verse containing twelve syllables.
A line containing five stressed syllables or feet.
The smallest sound fragment of a word, consisting of one vowel sound, with attached consonants if any.
A term used of speech rhythms in blank verse; an iambic rhythm is an unstressed, or weak, beat followed by a stressed, or strong, beat. It is a rising metre.
A word containing only one syllable; this may be contrasted with a polysyllabic word ' that is, a word containing several syllables.
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