A Metaphysical Interpretation Of Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions

John Donne is reputed as the founder and major representative of the metaphysical school in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. He prefers paradoxical intellectual thinking based on ethics and is talented at perfectly combining conceits full of emotion with argumentations full of reason in his works. Thus, his writings are full of the application of wit, conceit and intellect as well as the unification of sensibility, representing the highest achievements of the Metaphysical school.The Devotions upon Emergent Occasions that we try to analyze is a prose collection written by Donne at his old age in 1623, when he was stuck in bed and convinced that his death was approaching. Therefore, it can be seen as the last words spoken by Donne and the last legacy he intended to give to the whole world. It truly reflects Donne's thoughts, and is the only meditation available. As a result, it is the best material for us to have a profound understanding of Donne. Since no research has ever made a thorough analysis of the whole book at home and abroad, the thesis undoubtedly will enrich the present research into John Donne to some extent.As a prose collection full of spiritual confessions, the book carries on the main features of Metaphysical works. The artistic form and the content are blended harmoniously. The Metaphysical features in form have great expansion and innovation. As to the content, Donne's meditation turns from the secular life to the meaning of life and the home of soul. His meditative course greatly surpasses the depth of his previous works.The Metaphysical style is a complex concept. As a result, the thesis endeavors to make a study of the Metaphysical features displayed in the book from three aspects: form, theme and self-consciousness. The exploration of the Metaphysical style in form puts the emphasis on two most prominent techniques in metaphysical works:paradox and conceit. The exploration of the Metaphysical style in theme is intended to show the matters that Donne's metaphysical thoughts concern. Feeling the approaching of death, Donne muses on the place and value of man, especially his relationship with God, relationship among mankind and the meaning of life and death. Those matters are not simply individual, but of communal nature and involve the whole mankind. The exploration of the Metaphysical style in self-consciousness tries to provide a deeper understanding of Donne's progress of self-salvation after we have entered the poet's heart through the form and the theme. His self-conscious moving from self-concentration, to self-negation and finally reaches self-transcendence, is a process from finity to infinity. Such a spiritual progress from deep understanding of human nature, the abandoning of negative self to self purification and improvement renders Donne the identity of explorer or pilgrim.We choose the book as a text for analysis in connection with research into Donne, the most prominent poet in Renaissance for many reasons. Not only can the thesis enrich and deepen the current research findings, it also enables us to stand in a closer position to have a more reasonable and objective knowledge of Donne, which can supply scholars with some valuable references in future researches. Moreover, Donne's experience on the sick bed, is not only an individual event, but also represents the epitome of the whole mankind's fate. The research of literature itself shall bear social responsibility. Donne's remark that "No man is an island" also provides valuable meditation in the aspect of morality in modern society.