Understanding John Donne's Poetry

Most of us will take the literary canon for granted and never explore the cause of its formation. Bourdieu, a modern French philosopher, once points out: True value of Art is never created by artists themselves but by art systems, which fabricate the worship and belief to the artists. His remarks cast light on my long-period perplexed questions: why does the metaphysical poetry revive after two centuries' ignorance and why is it canonized in the context of Modernism? Is it a coincidence or necessity? Inspired by these thoughts, my present paper tries to explore the reason of its revival and canonization in the context of Modernism.This paper focuses on the three prepositions of Modernism— "Subversion of Tradition", "Pursuit of New Forms" and "Yearning for Eternity", trying to probe into John Donne's (founder of the metaphysical poetry) poetry deeply. Besides an introduction and a conclusion, it is divided three chapters, followed by an epilogue.Chapter one "All that is solid melts into air"It's Karl Marx who made the judgment to modern time in his masterpiece Communist Manifesto. In fact, this judgment summarizes a prominent characteristic of Modernism—Subversion to Tradition. To our surprise, the subversive ideas can be...