By Nat, Pippa, Jodie, Emma and Zak

John Donne – Metaphysical Poetry English Metaphysical poetry was a very new kind of poetry for the Elizabethans. Much of what John Donne first wrote was in reaction to earlier Elizabethan verse, and was intended: to shock his audience if they were traditional and to delight it with his brand-new poetic style

John Donne – Metaphysical Poetry Most famous of all metaphysical poets The imagery used by John Donne is his various poems comprises of far-fetched images. For example, in his poem "Good Morrow", he compares himself and his beloved with seven sleepers. John Donne is very interested in defining and understanding what is real, and what exists and what does not. Donne's poems reveal the same characteristics that typified the work of the metaphysical poets: dazzling wordplay, often explicitly sexual; paradox; subtle argumentation; surprising contrasts; intricate psychological analysis; and striking imagery selected from non traditional areas such as law, physiology, scholastic philosophy, and mathematics

John Donne Metaphysical Poetry

Metaphysical poetry is concerned with the whole experience of man. The intelligence, learning and seriousness of the poets means that the poetry is about the profound areas of experience especially - about love, romantic and sensual; about man's relationship with God - the eternal perspective, and, to a less extent, about pleasure, learning and art.

Metaphysical poems are lyric poems. They are brief but intense meditations, characterised by the use of wit, irony and wordplay. Beneath the formal structure (of rhyme, metre and stanza) is the underlying structure of the poem's argument.

Revenge TRAGEDY

The basic model of conventions is taken from the Roman playwright Seneca, although never followed strictly: -Secret Murder(often a benign ruler) due to ambition -Ghostly visitation of victim -Slow rising body count as whilst two sides scheme against each other. -Descent into real of feigned madness -Eruption of violence at the end The Renaissance tragedies used this form to explore ideas of absolute power, corruption in court and social order. Many revenge tragedies are set in Rome or Italy as the similarities allowed them to still explore themes of corruption without danger of angering the English rulers. Most tragedies tend to be concerned with the problem of pain and its different forms.

This is classed as a revenge tragedy, although unorthodox. This could be partly due to its loose basis on events in Italian court. The revenger is unclear throughout the play until the Duchess death at which point it becomes Bosola. Also the moral division between the characters is clearer than in most and the protagonist dies before the climactic end.

The Duchess death is the pivotal point in the play and indicates the duchess lower physical status in comparison to the men of the play. However in relation to other female characters in revenge tragedies she is shown as a more powerful figure. In many of shakespierres revenge tragedies such as hamlet of Titus Andronicus the women are either shown as passive, such as lavinia or hamlets mother, or if they are in a position of power they are shown to be evil and manipulative such as the queen of the goths or lady Macbeth. The Duchess dominant status could possibly be attributed to that of queen elizabeth and her reign could have made it possible for webster to use a dominant female character. However the Duchess is killed for her independence, which possibly could be an acknowledgement of the difficulties women faced at the time, as well as a comment on corruption in court.