Imagery and symbolism in Elegie
Classical allusions
There is a certain irony about the imagery in An Elegie, in that Carew uses many classical allusions, the very thing he praises Donne for not doing! References to Orpheus, however slighting, and to Apollo, God of Poetry and the Arts, suppose a classical knowledge, as do literary allusions to Pindar and Anacreon, Greek poets; ‘the Delphique quire' and ‘Promethean breath'; and the Metamorphoses, a series of narrative poems by the Roman poet, Ovid.
Donne-like imagery
On the other hand, some of the imagery is quite Donne-like: ‘Committed holy Rapes upon our Will' (l.17) echoes Donne's Holy Sonnet Batter my heart. Other imagery is just forceful: ‘the jugling feat/Of two-edg'd words' (instead of ‘two-edged swords') and ‘The universall Monarchy of wit'. The image of Donne's language as ‘a line/Of masculine expression' was taken up in later critical discussion.
Investigating Elegie
- Read the comments on Carew's ‘Donne-like images'
- Can you find any other expressions or images that were inspired by Donne?
- How did Donne ‘pay/ The debts of our penurious bankrupt age'?
- Work out the extended metaphor of the ‘rifled fields' (ll.53-60)
Where the surface appearance of something is shown to be not the case, but quite the opposite. Often done for moral or comic purpose. An ironic style is when the writer makes fun of naive or self-deceived characters.
Figure of speech in which a person or object or happening is described in terms of some other person, object or action, either by saying X is Y (metaphor); or X is like Y (simile). In each case, X is the original, Y is the image.
A passing reference to a text or historical fact.
Possibly Apollo's son, Orpheus was a skilled musician and singer who loved his wife so much that he tried to fetch her back from the Underworld when she died.
God of prophecy, music, the arts, medicine and archery.
43Bc- AD17. Latin poet born in Italy. His major works are Ars amatoria (Art of Love) and Metamorphoses.
Set apart, sacred.
A sonnet is a poem with a special structure. It has fourteen lines, which are organised in a particular manner, usually characterised by the pattern of rhyming, which changes as the ideas in the poem evolve.
1. Imitation, copy, likeness, statue, picture in literature, art or imagination.
2. A figure of speech in which a person or object or happening is described in terms of some other person, object or action (i.e. as a metaphor or simile)
An image or form of comparison where one thing is said actually to be another - e.g. 'fleecy clouds'.
