Unity Of Contraries: John Donne's Poetry

John Donne is highly reputed as the forefather of the seventeenth century metaphysical school in England. His poetry abounds with original and grotesque images, multiple and diversified poetic forms, flexible and mutative poetic rhyme and rhythm, and complex and profound themes, all of which possess high value of study. However, Donne's poetry has been dissociated from the mainstream of English poetry for a long time which, to some extent, was due to his "anti-traditional" idiosyncrasy. Such an idiosyncracy, as it seems to the author of this thesis, manifests itself in the contradiction in his poetry. Previous scholars in this field have pointed out that contrary was the feature of Donne's poetry, but this view-point was unilateral nowadays. According to the dialectical materialism, as derived by Karl Marx from Hegelianism, contradiction is composed of two parts, opposites and identity. In given conditions, opposites possess identity, that is to say, both of them can coexist in a single entity and transform themselves into each other. Therefore, this thesis attempts to analyze Donne's poetry in the light of the dialectical materialism contradiction, with more emphasis placed on the unity of contraries.Except for the introduction and conclusion, this thesis is composed of three parts, "An Anatomie of the World", "Of the Progresse of the Soule" and "The Phoenix Ridle", trying to probe into Donne's poems comprehensively.Firstly, "An Anatomie of the World" is also the caption of Donne's famous poem An Anatomie of the World:the First Anniversary. Such a caption, however, is quoted to anatomize Donne's world. The world in Donne's poetry is divided into two parts, his inner world and outer world. This chapter first analyzes Donne's distraction and concentration, and his conflicting selves in his inner world, and then compares Donne's flirtation with his entanglement, and his loyalty towards love with the double fixation in his outer world. The last part of this chapter anatomizes how these contraries are united in Donne's poetry. Secondly, "Of the Progresse of the Soule" is quoted from the caption of the poem Of the Progresse of the Soule:the Second Anniversary. This chapter focuses on the analysis of Donne's religious faith. Through analyzing Donne's conversion from Catholicism to Anglicanism and his inclination of Catholicism after the conversion, and comparing his passion towards religion with that towards science, this chapter shows how these contraries in Donne's religious faith are united.Thirdly, "The Phoenix Ridle" originates from the line in Donne's poem "Canonization". The thesis compares Donne's poems to "the Phoenix Ridle" because, according to Egyptian myth, a phoenix collects cinnamon, spikenard and myrrh, of which it builds a nest to incinerate itself. From the body of the parent bird, a young Phoenix issues forth. Besides, the phoenix is hermaphrodite. Though it is the unity of masculine gender and feminine gender, both of the genders keep their traits at the same time. Therefore, this chapter attempts to reveal the riddle of Donne's poetry from two aspects:Donne's viewpoint of death and resurrection, and the "androgynous" narrative perspectives, and concludes that Donne's poetic art is full of the unity of contraries.To conclude, Donne's poetry is full of the unity of contraries. The employment of contrary broadens the room of interpretation, while the unity of contraries reflects Donne's outstanding poetic art, and the combination of both enables the immortality of his poetry.