Impersonality Of Tension In John Donne's Poetry

John Donne, the forefather of Metaphysical poetry, is recognized as unique in the literature of Renaissance England mainly for his imaginative but "startling" images, and strong sense of reality in poetry. His delicate conceits, colloquial language and profound studies of man's inner world have greatly influenced the later writers, especially the modem poets of 20th century with T. S. Eliot as the top figure.This thesis just attempts to study the tension in John Donne's poetry in terms of T. S. Eliot's "Theory of Impersonality", and to draw a conclusion that Donne's tension in poetry mainly comes from the catalysis of his mind, his fusion of intellect and emotion, and his assimilation of tradition in a critical way.This thesis consists of three chapters.Chapter One explores how Donne makes his thinking a course of catalysis. According to T. S. Eliot's "Theory of Impersonality", the mind of a mature poet is a medium, in which varied feelings can form new combination, instead of showing his personality. Thus this chapter is going to discuss how Donne makes his mind a catalyst, by which a unique Donnean poetry is produced. The impersonal tension in his modes of thinking is discussed mainly by his perfect interweaving of the secular and divine world.Chapter Two adopts another aspect of T. S. Eliot's "Theory ofImpersonality"-----poetry is not a turning loose, but an esacpe ofemotion and personality, a fidelity to thought and feeling. It firstly decodes a universal voice that Donne distils from his personal experience: the tension in his sense of fear, which is a mirror of the common feeling of human being; and secondly focuses on Donne's tension between intellect and emotion in his poetry.Chapter Three is devoted to study the tension of Donne's originality within the Elizabethan literary tradition. Because Eliot contains in his theory that poetry is a living whole of all the poetry that has ever been written, thus it is necessary to take a look at the relation between Donne's poems and others', which is also a convincing proof of his impersonality. Donne's critical assimilation of tradition and his influences on the modem poets will be discussed mainly on his poetic form, content and language.