A Study Of Blended Use Of Conceits In John Donne’s Poetry From The Perspective Of Cognitive Poetics

As one of the most important representative poets of English metaphysical poetry, John Donne experienced an eventful life. His poetry deviates from the traditions of Petrarchan poetry by innovating in meter, diction and use of image. The conceits serve as an important tool for his individualized way of poetic expression that mainly attributed from his personal life experience. In Donne’s poetry, he tends to blend the conceits of different categories into his poems, which calls for special attention and research.Cognitive poetics studies literature from a perspective that combines linguistics and psychology. Two theories like the conceptual metaphor theory and conceptual blending theory that specialize in analyzing metaphors can dissect the conceits by interpreting the underlying cognitive mechanism that ultimately account for the poet’s creativeness and psychological thoughts.This thesis studies three major categories of conceits: conceits of love, conceits of religion and conceits of death, which has been blended respectively into Donne’s love and religious poems. On such basis, the thesis consists of three chapters:Chapter One studies the conceits of religion in love poetry. Donne wrote most of his love poems before marriage. In these poems, he frequently touched upon the issue of women’s constancy by using religious conceits which can be interpreted as the projection of his anxiety resulted from his doubt in religion. At the same time, he also longed for true love. According to him, his notion of ideal love is the perfect union of body and soul that he uses religious conceits to bring a divine quality to love.Chapter Two analyzes the conceits of love in religious poetry. As a pious Christian, Donne has never ceased to repent of his sins in order to seek salvation. He approached God in a very personal manner that he addressed to God in amorous language. Donne’s conversion from Catholic Church to the Anglican Church has caused him much uneasiness, that his searching for true religion was often characterized as the pursuit of a women.Chapter Three explores the conceits of death in love and religious poetry. Donne has abundantly used death conceits, but his opinions on death varied significantly. In his love poetry, he viewed death as a way of transcending love into eternity, thus he eulogized the everlasting love. In religious poems, he saw death as God’s punishment for his mortal sins, so he embraced the idea of afterlife in order to triumph over death.The conclusion summarizes the whole thesis and indicates that religion is the root that shaped Donne’s state of mind. The doubt in religion has caused his apostasy which brought his mind in many conflicts that gave rise to the creation of brilliant poetry.