Assignment 7
1. Song by John Donne
The narrator of Song has been disappointed so many times by women he loved that he has concluded that no woman in the world is sincere. To make his point, he names impossible tasks that no one could complete before finding a woman who is “true”. Write quotations of the poem that describe 3 of the tasks and explain why they are impossible to achieve.
1. “Go and catch a falling star”…..you can’t catch a star, it’s bigger than the whole world.
2.”Teach me to hear mermaids singing”….. there’s no mermaids existing, and if there is they don’t sing as to we can hear them.
3.”Or to keep off envy’s stinging”………you can’t prevent people from envying you.
2. A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning by John Donne
The speaker compares hismelf and his beloved to a compass. Write at least three different ways that the speaker describes the compass.
1. Our two souls therefore, which are one,
Though I must go, endure not yet
A breach, but an expansion,
Like gold to aery thinness beat.
As stiff twin compasses are two ;
Thy soul, the fix’d foot, makes no show
To move, but doth, if th’ other do. 3. And though it in the centre sit,
Yet, when the other far doth roam,
It leans, and hearkens after it,
And grows erect, as that comes home.
3. Meditation 17 by John Donne
This essay presents the idea that “no man is an island” and reinforces this idea by listing many events that illustrate the interconnectedness of human lives. Write 5 events that Donne believes are universal experiences.
Death, sermons, life, baptism, the church.
4. Death Be Not Proud by John Donne
Do you think that the narrator is as fearless as he claims, or is he driven by fear? Explain your answer.
I believe that he is fearless, he has found a way not to be afraid of death and he wants to make it clear to the world.
5. On My First Son and Song: To Celia by Ben Jonson
In each of these poems the speaker makes clear his love for someone. Then, in both poems, the bond is broken or damaged. Identify the person to whom the speaker feels bonded in each poem, describe what happens, and describe the speaker’s tribute. Explain how the ending of each poem would be different if the narrator had not felt so strongly bonded to the subject of each poem.
In the first it is about his son, he tells and describes his son’s death, it is a tribute to his song, tellign him all of the things that he would have wanted to make different during his son’s life.
In the seconde, it is about his mistress, he truly loves her and he expresses it in his poem.
6. Why So Pale and Wan, Fond Lover? by Sir John Suckling
The speaker reveals his version of the “rules” of romantic love. Write characteristics that Suckling thinks a young suitor must have, and for a woman being courted. Do the characters in the poem live up to the speaker’s standards? Why or why not?
Suitor: singer, talkative, bravery not shame. courage.
Woman: lover, appreciative, and understanding.
The characters do not live up to the speaker’s standards, since he is telling them how to do it and at the end he expresses his insatisfaction for both of them for not doing it.
7. To Lucasta, on Going to the Wars and To Althea, From Prison by Richard Lovelace
In Lovelace’s poems, love conquers a great deal, but not all. Briefly summarize each poem’s presentation of how love can triumph and how it can be defeated.Then give examples of images from each poem that support that belief.
1. song by John Donne
“Go and catch a falling star”
The narrator uses this expression because it is imposible for a human being to catch a falling star.
“Tell me where all past years are”
No one can tell where the past years are, you can miss them and remember them, but they arent here anymore.
“Teach me to hear mermaids singing”
Starting because mermaids doesn’t exist. The narrator is explaing with examples how difficult or imposible it is to achieve this tasks, as if to find the perfect woman.
2. A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning by John Donne
- Compares their soul to the compass’s fixed foot.
- Stiff twin compasses.
- The author describes the compass as firm.
3. Meditation 17
- All men die.
- No man chooses his or her death.
- All men suffer.
- Personal suffering has no use to men
-All men are affected by other people’s actions
4. Death be not Proud
I think that the author is driven by fear, not by faith, because faithfulness is a positive attitude and what he is expressing in this poem is definitely negative. If he weren’t afraid to die, then he wouldn’t have the need to fight against death.
5.On my first Son and Song to Celia
Song to Celia is about a man who is sad about the rejection of his loved one. On my first son is about a man whose 7 year old son has died. The tribute the author makes on “On my first Son”, is the last piece of poetry he is dedicating to his dead son. In “ Song to Celia” the author’s tribute to Celia is a rosy wreath. If both authors had not been to emotionally attached to both poems, they wouldn’t have achieved the level of connection with the readers, as well as the empathy they create in them.
6. Why so Pale and Wan, Fond Lover? by Sir John Suckling
A young suitor must be:
- A fond lover
- Masculine
- Good speaker
- Good looking
- Pale
- Wan
Rules for a Woman being courted:
- Self-loving
- Sociable
- Confident
- Correspondent
- Interactive
- Entertaining
In the poem, the man gets frustrated because in his attempt to court a girl, he doesn’t find the qualities he is looking for. This makes him decide to give up on her.
7. To Lucasta, on Going to the Wars and To Althea, From Prison, by Richard Lovelace
Love triumphs in the first poem, because the author is chasing a new woman. Afterwards, love is defeated because both lovers are brought apart because of war.
“The first foe in the field; and with a stronger faith embrace. A sword, a horse, a shield”.
Love triumphs in the second poem because of the way Athea makes the author feel, which includes the freedom they both share due to the existence of their relationship. Love can’t be defeated even if it has to face obstacles, which in this case include the imprisonment of the author.
“Stone walls do not a prison make,…”
