A Nietzschean Approach To John Donne's Thoughts

John Donne is the most eminent representative among the English metaphysical poets in the 17th century. With talented wit, clever conception and strict logical thinking, he is good at showing his attitude towards life and society expressing sincere and big-hearted feelings. He is good at using obscure imagery, and the exaggeration and contrast methods of rich philosophical thinking to blend reason and emotion into an organic whole, and to reveal its unique charm of poetry. Donne's contradictions and conflicts of his inner world, his struggle and confused thoughts showed his extreme disappointment with the British society. Donne's outlook on life and values reflect Nietzsche's philosophical thoughts, through his complicated philosophical speculation, Donne shows the social reality and offers negation and criticism to it.Nietzsche's main thoughts are mainly reflected in the following aspects: (1) Dionysian spirit, namely an irrational philosophy of life and art, by singing drunk songs and overdrinking themselves, the god of wine comforts the sorrow of real life with a mood of indulgence. The tipsy of the god of wine has various forms: sexual impulse tipsy, the destructive tipsy, spring tipsy, a tipsy with a rising and accumulative will. (2). Tragic philosophy, which says that pain is the root of life, which is inevitable for people to face death after their experiencing pain. (3). Will of power. Nietzsche thinks that it is the motivation of man's various recognitions and actions, the motivation decides everything that happens in life, either the physical process or the highest spiritual activities are all the manifestation of will of power. (4). Superman Philosophy. The most typical thought is that life is constant abandonment of the dying things from oneself, this abandonment is the source of joy, human beings should constantly transcend themselves. Their transcendence over themselves is mainly embodied as their self struggle, self improvement and self creation. Nietzsche's worship of aristocratic life and his negative attitude towards women are vividly penetrated in Donne's philosophical thoughts.This paper aims to explore the thoughts of Nietzsche's philosophy embodied in Donne's works from the literary meaning of Nietzsche's philosophy, and to embody the interconnectedness among literature, history and philosophy. From the perspective of artistic creation, Dionysian spirit, will of superman, and tragic sense are reflection and revelation of all the characteristics and laws in the activities of artistic creation, the research of Nietzsche's philosophy provides a totally new angle of view for the research of Donne's other works and other literary artists'works, this kind of research has an inspiring role and profound theoretical significance.This paper is divided into three chapters. The first chapter is the analysis of Nietzsche and Donne's similar outlook on life, Donne's intoxication, noble complex, negative attitude towards women and the tragic consciousness of life that are demonstrated in Donne's works. The second chapter is the analysis of the poet's will of power, Cupid's will of power and God's will of power of his poems. The third chapter focuses on the superman thoughts of the poems to analyze his transcendence over love, secular society, religious theology and death.