On Paradoxical Images In John Donne’s Love Poetry

John Donne(1572--1631) is the representative of Metaphysical Poetry in the 17 th Century in England. During his profuse poems, love poetry is famous for more exquisite images and unique artistic charm.Images in John Donne’s love poetry are very contradictory: these images are used not only to praise faithful love but also to condemn betrayed love; and in his love poetry there are not only lots of pure and spiritual love images but also many indulgent and physical love images; and there is not only a long-term vision and yearning for the eternal love, but also a suspicion of love’s eternity. These paradoxical images form his poetry’s unique artistic charm. The causes of paradoxical images in John Donne’s love poetry are closely linked with his religious identity: the pain of betrayal in belief, the scar of religious persecution and the yearning for religious salvation are the main reasons of paradoxical images of love poetry. These paradoxical images in John Donne’s love poetry have three distinctive features. First is its novelty which forms images’ novelty of his love poetry. The second is its depth and rich philosophy which forms images’ depth of his love poetry. The third is that these images are against each other and blended with each other, which forms images’ diversity of his love poetry. In short, images’ features in John Donne’s love poetry make his poetry form a unique style and have art charm beyond time and space. The paradoxical images in John Donne’s love poetry reflect the poet’s life experience and the journey, and show the poet’s struggle in religious beliefs. And the emergence of quantities of paradoxical images makes his love poetry have unique philosophic theory, and form a distinctive artistic effect.All in all, with the exquisite and real writing style, by these paradoxical images,John Donne makes his love poetry show new aesthetic implication. This unique artistic writing not only forms artistic tension of John Donne’s love poetry, but also reflects specific historical and cultural context and has a unique artistic charm.