Paradox In John Donne's The Songs And Sonets

Being endowed with a strong individual personality and wit, John Donne distinguishes himself as a master voicing paradoxical feelings. Based on the theory of paradox proposed by Cleanth Brooks, this thesis endeavors to make a study of Donne's paradox in The Songs and Sonets.The thesis consists of three chapters.Chapter One, consisting of two sections, studies the reasons for the perpetual attachment of paradox to Donne. The first section throws light on how Cleanth Brooks examined Donne's paradox in "The Canonization" and further explores how other new critics contributed to this discovery. The next section, with three parts, gives a rough introduction of historical, literary and personal factors respectively for an explanation of Donne's craze for paradox.Chapter Two is a research on Donne's paradox in imagery, focusing on how Donne employs image for rendering contradictory moments of feeling. In light of Ptolemic cosmography, this chapter investigates three points: 1. immortality and mortality; 2. unification and diversification; 3. divinity and profanity. And this part also stresses the generative feature of paradox in Donne's poetry.Chapter Three is devoted to a study of Donne's paradox in theme. The first section explores Donne's paradoxical feeling towards love. On the two sides of this paradox are affirmation and negation of love. Paralleled to the paradox in love is his paradoxical attitude towards woman, namely the praise and blame of woman, which forms the motif of the second section.The Conclusion undertakes a revaluation of Cleanth Brooks' assertion and an assessment of the paradox in Donne's The Songs and Sonets.