George Herbert Bio - Francesca

George Herbert Biography

(3 April 1593 – 1 March 1633)

Born in Wales, George Herbert is recognised as ‘one of the foremost British devotional lyricists’ as well as being an Anglican priest. He received a good education that led to his holding prominent positions at Cambridge University and Parliament. As a student at Trinity College, Cambridge, Herbert excelled in languages and music. He went to college with the intention of becoming a priest, but his scholarship attracted the attention of King James I. Herbert then served in Parliament for two years. After the death of King James and at the urging of a friend, Herbert's interest in the divine was renewed.

In his late thirties he gave up his secular ambitions and took holy orders in the Church of England for the rest of his life. His background in the church had a huge impact on the themes of his metaphysical poetry as he wrote religious poems characterized by a precision of language, a metrical versatility, and an ingenious use of imagery and conceits that were so key to the metaphysical school of poets. Many of his poems have intricate rhyme schemes, and variations of lines within stanzas described as 'a cascade of form floats through the temple'. He explores the architecture of faith and his complex relationship with God through his poems and shares a tone of desperation similar to Donne’s, but instead of striving for a physical unification with a lover, pursues unification with the Divine despite his imperfect physical. Herbert himself, in a letter to Nicholas Ferrar, said of his writings, "they are a picture of spiritual conflicts between God and my soul before I could subject my will to Jesus, my Master".

Herbert's poetry has also been set to music by several composers, one of them being Ralph Vaughan Williams.

 

The Altar

A broken ALTAR, Lord thy servant rears,
Made of a heart, and cemented with teares:
Whose parts are as thy hand did frame;
No workmans tool hath touch'd the same
A HEART alone
Is such a stone,
As nothing but
Thy pow'r doth cut.
Wherefore each part
Of my hard heart
Meets in this frame,
To praise thy Name:
That if I chance to hold my peace,
These stones to praise thee may not cease.
O let thy blessed SACRIFICE be mine,
And sanctifie this ALTAR to be thine.

This poem is what’s called a ‘pattern poem’ in which the words of the poem itself form a shape suggesting an altar, and this altar becomes his conceit for how one should offer himself as a sacrifice to the Lord. As mentioned earlier, it can be said that Herbert's poems are actually a record of his own devotional life. Thus the altar metaphor should provide insight to his personal relationship with God.

Some of George Herbert’s other works:

The Church Porch

The Sacrifice

The Windows

Easter Wings

Paradise

John Donne Biography by Jess

John Donne Biography

22 January 1572 – 31 March 1631

Donne was born in London in 1572 into a Catholic family at a time when Catholicism was illegal. He studied at both Oxford and Cambridge but could not graduate because of his faith. After university he became a soldier and fought on the continent and then returned to a promising civil service career. But Donne effectively stalled his own career when he secretly married his employer's teenage niece, Anne More. Her uncle was furious and had him arrested. Though he was later released from prison, he found it hard to find employment, and over the coming years he would be unable to support his increasingly large family without charitable help.

When King James I came to power, Donne converted to Church of England and moved towards religious poetry, writing prose attacking the Catholic faith. In 1615, in a final change of fortune, Donne took holy orders and rose quickly in his profession to become the Dean of St Paul's Cathedral in London. Towards the end of his life he wrote the famous Holy Sonnet X (Death). He died in 1631, and his work was never published in his lifetime.

He is considered the fulcrum of the metaphysical poets and poetry. His works are noted for their strong, sensual style and include sonnets, love poems, religious poems, Latin translations, epigrams, elegies, songs, satires and sermons. Donne's style is characterised by abrupt openings and various paradoxes, ironies and dislocations. These features, along with his frequent dramatic or everyday speech rhythms are a reaction against the smoothness of conventional Elizabethan poetry and an adaptation into English of European baroque and mannerist techniques. He wrote secular poems as well as erotic and love poems. He is particularly famous for his mastery of metaphysical conceits.

A range of John Donne’s poetry are:

The Flea (shown below) 

Death

Good Morrow

A Vediction: Forbidding Mourning  

La Corona

Nativity

Fall Of A Wall  

The Flea 
by John Donne

 MARK but this flea, and mark in this,
How little that which thou deniest me is;
It suck'd me first, and now sucks thee, 
And in this flea our two bloods mingled be.
Thou know'st that this cannot be said
A sin, nor shame, nor loss of maidenhead;
Yet this enjoys before it woo,
And pamper'd swells with one blood made of two;
And this, alas ! is more than we would do.

O stay, three lives in one flea spare,
Where we almost, yea, more than married are.
This flea is you and I, and this
Our marriage bed, and marriage temple is.
Though parents grudge, and you, we're met,
And cloister'd in these living walls of jet.
Though use make you apt to kill me,
Let not to that self-murder added be,
And sacrilege, three sins in killing three.

Cruel and sudden, hast thou since
Purpled thy nail in blood of innocence?
Wherein could this flea guilty be,
Except in that drop which it suck'd from thee?
Yet thou triumph'st, and say'st that thou
Find'st not thyself nor me the weaker now.
'Tis true ; then learn how false fears be;
Just so much honour, when thou yield'st to me,
Will waste, as this flea's death took life from thee.

Hello Lit Lasses,
Link to the podcast can be found below. Your biography of a Metaphysical poet, including one of their poems and a brief examination of how it demonstrates the characteristics of the movement, is due next Tuesday.

Remember, the earlier you do it, the more smug you will feel. But don't get too conceited (get it? Conceit(ed). No? Maybe I won't go into stand up)😊

Miss R

http://lol.lynx.net.ru/index.php?q=uuggc%3A%2F%2Fjjj.oop.pb.hx%2Fcebtenzzrf%2Fo00podud%23cynl

Comparative Analysis: Introduction - Nneka

Sonnet 116 and sonnet 130 are similar in exploring the themes of romantic love and that they are written in the same form; that being the English sonnet that was innovated from the traditional Petrarchan sonnet by William Shakespeare but they still have many differences. Sonnet 116 describes a more idealistic love, a true one even; one that "alters not" with time and age whereas sonnet 130 is a more realistic love that can almost seem nonchalant, without passion and even lacking love itself but with closer inspection that interpretation can be changed.



Sonnet 116 is an idealistic love poem which uses personification illustrating that love is viewed as timeless and beautiful. The line 'Love's not Time's fool' portrays how love will continue on no matter how old the couple gets, it is endless and will forever be in existence. By capitalizing the abstract nouns 'Love' and 'Time' displays an importance and identity as if it is looked upon as godly because God is also capitalized and extremely important to those who believe in him. This portrays how Shakespeare perceives love as a truly important thing in life to have, but also describing it in such an idealistic way as it is timeless and can never end.


However, in Sonnet 130, Shakespeare takes a more realistic perspective on love as he criticizes his partner. He introduces his sonnet with 'My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun', portraying that she isn't too special and he doesn't view her as 'rosy lipped' or goddess-like as he does in his other sonnets. This infers that he may have noticed that the idyllic love isn't realistic, so he desired to be different from other poets who wrote about the idealistic love such as Henry Howard.  -JESS


As well as using personification in Sonnet 116, Shakespeare uses the central extended metaphor of comparing love to a 'star'. The 'star' he refers to could probably be the North Star which never changes place, symbolising love's timelessness and everlasting strength which perfectly coincides with 116's entire theme of this idyllic love. The North Star was key to the navigator's of the Elizabethan era, the prime time of exploration, as that is what sailors would have searched for when calculating their location at sea. Thus, his description of love being a 'star to every wandering bark' takes on a whole new level of meaning; that for every 'wandering bark', representing man, there has to be his lover acting as a guide for him to identify himself and reassure him. The sonnet uses more nautical imagery to reiterate his perspective of love such as alluding to love being an 'ever-fixed mark', the North Star, and how it 'looks on tempests'. This creates the image of being on a ship at sea during a violent storm, but then continues to say how their love still 'is never shaken'.

On the other hand, Sonnet 130 takes a much more comedic stand on love by using more imagery as a whole in an attempt to mock his 'mistress' and constantly comparing between the two. An example of this being how his 'mistress'... breasts are dun' but 'snow be white', which on first look most would infer as being disrespectful. However on closer inspection of the sonnet, the text could be perceived as more endearing to the reader. Such as when he admits to his revelling more in 'some perfumes' than the 'breath that... my mistress reeks'; his use of sibilance in these short phrases soften the sound of the line and take the harsh first impression away. This comedic comparison makes the text more light-hearted and becomes less of an act of contempt. - Fran


In addition to nautical imagery being used to express the theme of timeless love in Sonnet 116, Shakespeare focuses on the significance of marriage and religion to convey his true love in its purest form. This idealistic concept of love is embodied in lines 1 and 2, with Shakespeare’s declaration beginning “Let me not to the marriage of true minds / Admit impediments.”, stressing the importance of love without tribulations and that true love should be without fault. Another example of religious imagery occurs in line 11, referencing “the edge of doom”, an allusion to judgement day within Christianity as an event that will not alter the course of idealistic love. During the Elizabethan era, marriages were often arranged, regardless of the woman’s opinion or emotions, and the act was viewed as a mere legal bond, rather than an act of true love. This sonnet juxtaposes the entire perception of marriage of the era, and instead offers an idealistic, transcendent viewpoint which emphasizes the constant love he holds for his partner.


To contrast, Sonnet 130 provides a much more realistic, yet derogatory portrayal of love through the use of colour and object comparison. Various negative similarities to natural objects are drawn, such as how his mistress’ eyes are “nothing like the sun” and the colour of her lips and breasts are dull when compared to the red in coral and the whiteness of snow. These comparisons could possibly be a method of demeaning his mistress due to her appearance being perceived as unattractive, thus the disparaging remarks diminishing his mistress’ worth to nothing more than “perfumes” or “roses”.  - Kenzee


Using sonnet 116 Shakespeare is conveying the nature of love and what he expects of his lover, to love him unconditionally, which is shown by 'love is not times fool,' the idyllic love Shakespeare is portraying to the reader is timeless and will forever stay the same through 'his brief hours and weeks' this shows that no matter how long his days seem when he sees his lover everything gets better. The enjambment used shows Shakespeare's wish to have no obstacles in the way of his love he wants it to flow forever. The beautiful imagery about the ocean show how he sees his lover.

Sonnet 130 contradicts how Shakespeare sees his love as he no longer uses the beautiful imagery he wrote in Sonnet 116, as you can infer that he has returned to reality and seen that not all love is everlasting and beautiful. The message throughout the Sonnet is that even though this lover is not physically the most beautiful with her 'dun' body parts contrasting the lover in Sonnet 116 'rosy lips', he loves her anyway because you don't have to be physically appealing to be loved. Sonnet 130 takes a more unrequited love tone as it can be taken as she loves him a lot more then he loves her. -Evie.

Sonnet Poems - Nneka

There are two different types of sonnets: the Petrarchan ( original ) sonnet and the Shakespearean ( altered / modern ) sonnet which have slightly different conventions but are very similar. It ( can be ) a lyric poem comprising 14 rhyming lines of equal length: iambic pentameters ( 5 stressed and unstressed syllables ) in English, alexandrines in French, hendecasyllables in Italian. 

Conventions of a sonnet:

A Italian sonnet ( Petrarchan ) has:

• has an 8-line 'octave' of two quatrains
• followed by a 6-line 'sestet'
• ryhmed abbaabba then cdcdcd or cdecde
• has a volta or turning point in between the quatrains and sestet
• composed of 14 lines

A English sonnet ( Shakespearean ) has:

• rhyming ababcdcdefefgg
• three quatrains and a rhyming couplet
• a variant of this is the Spenserian sonnet (introduced by the Elizabethan poet Edmund Spenser), which links the three quatrains by rhyme, in the sequence ababbabccdcdee
• the volta or turn comes in between the quatrains and rhyming couplet
• composed of 14 lines

Examples of sonnets:

• William Shakespeare – Sonnet 29
• John Donne – Death, be not proud
• William Wordsworth – Composed upon Westminster bridge
• Christina Rossetti – Remember
• Sir Thomas Wyatt – Whoso List to Hunt

Sonnet 29 -

When, in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes,

I all alone beweep my outcast state,

And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,

And look upon myself and curse my fate,

Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,

Featured like him, like him with friends possessed,

Desiring this man’s art and that man’s scope,

With what I most enjoy contented least;

Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising,

Haply I think on thee, and then my state,

Like to the lark at break of day arising

From sullen earth sings hymns at heaven’s gate;

For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings

That then I scorn to change my state with kings.

About the Sonnet:

A sonnet is a poem that expresses a single, complete thought, idea, or sentiment. Originating in Italy, the sonnet was established by Petrarch in the 14th century as a major form of love poetry. It came to be adopted in Spain, France and England in the 16^th century; and in Germany in the 17th. Sir Thomas Wyatt was one of the poets that introduced the sonnet form to England and produced one of the worlds first sonnets.

Pastoral poetry - Kenzee

The pastoral tradition refers to a lineage of creative works that idealize rural life and landscapes, while the term “pastoral” refers to the individual poems within the genre. It is a very ancient form of poetry, and can be linked back to 750 and 650 BCE through a Greek oral poet named Hesiod. During the Italian Renaissance, several poets attempted to imitate another famous pastoral poet, Virgil, and some of these newer poets wrote examples of a pastoral lyric, which is a shorter poem describing beautiful rural landscapes. Another subgenre of pastoral poetry is the pastoral elegy, where a poet in the form of a shepherd is mourning the death of a friend, with one of the most famous examples being John Milton’s Lycidas. A typical theme of pastoral poetry is the corruption of city life, and through this theme, political statements are sometimes made. Pastoral poems are mostly simple and the poetic expression uses conventions that have changed very little over centuries.

Pastoral, in the classical sense, died out in the eighteenth century, with the last notable example being Pope's Pastorals of 1709. In more recent usage, the term 'pastoral' has gained an extended definition: poet William Empson has described it as "the process of putting the complex into the simple", and further explained that "in pastoral, you take a limited life and pretend it is the full and normal one", referring to the idolization of country life.

One of the most famous pastoral poems is 'The Passionate Shepherd to His Love' by Christopher Marlowe:

:Come live with me and be my love,

And we will all the pleasures prove
That valleys, groves, hills, and fields,
Woods, or steepy mountain yields.

And we will sit upon the rocks, 
Seeing the shepherds feed their flocks, 
By shallow rivers to whose falls 
Melodious birds sing madrigals.

And I will make thee beds of roses
And a thousand fragrant posies, 
A cap of flowers, and a kirtle
Embroidered all with leaves of myrtle;

A gown made of the finest wool
Which from our pretty lambs we pull;
Fair lined slippers for the cold, 
With buckles of the purest gold;

A belt of straw and ivy buds,
With coral clasps and amber studs:
And if these pleasures may thee move,
Come live with me, and be my love.

The shepherds’ swains shall dance and sing
For thy delight each May morning:
If these delights thy mind may move,
Then live with me and be my love.

Epigram - Evie

An Epigram is a short poem usually with a twist at the end. It is most commonly found written in a verse form, also written as a couplet or quatrain or can be just a one lined phrase. The subject of an Epigram is usually singular. The word Epigram comes from the Greek word ‘Epigraphien’ meaning ‘to write on, inscribe’. An Epigram was originally formed as a reference to the inscriptions on the stone monuments in ancient Greece. The Epigram was very popular in the sixteenth and seventeenth century England due to many poets like John Donne, Robert Herrick and Ben Jonson. Epigrams were used as mainly as expressions of social criticism or political satire. Jane Wilde, an Irish poet, believed that Epigrams were much better than an argumentative speech.

 

 

Candy

Is dandy,

But liquor

Is quicker

An Epigram by Ogden Nash called ‘ice breaking’.

 

Bent and battered, the live oaks have through ages survived

until developed senses of modern man ripped them up still alive.

 

Time rolls out down wide grassy lawns

yet within these suburbs a dearth of it is spawned.

 

Such volunteers are said to advocate

but to the law, they instead frustrate.