A NOCTURNAL UPON ST. LUCY'S DAY,BEING THE SHORTEST DAY.(by John Donne)

'TIS the year's midnight, and it is the day's,
Lucy's, who scarce seven hours herself unmasks ;
The sun is spent, and now his flasks
Send forth light squibs, no constant rays ;
The world's whole sap is sunk ;
The general balm th' hydroptic earth hath drunk,
Whither, as to the bed's-feet, life is shrunk,
Dead and interr'd ; yet all these seem to laugh,
Compared with me, who am their epitaph.

Study me then, you who shall lovers be
At the next world, that is, at the next spring ;
For I am every dead thing,
In whom Love wrought new alchemy.
For his art did express
A quintessence even from nothingness,
From dull privations, and lean emptiness ;
He ruin'd me, and I am re-begot
Of absence, darkness, death—things which are not.

All others, from all things, draw all that's good,
Life, soul, form, spirit, whence they being have ;
I, by Love's limbec, am the grave
Of all, that's nothing. Oft a flood
Have we two wept, and so
Drown'd the whole world, us two ; oft did we grow,
To be two chaoses, when we did show
Care to aught else ; and often absences
Withdrew our souls, and made us carcasses.

But I am by her death—which word wrongs her—
Of the first nothing the elixir grown ;
Were I a man, that I were one
I needs must know ; I should prefer,
If I were any beast,
Some ends, some means ; yea plants, yea stones detest,
And love ; all, all some properties invest.
If I an ordinary nothing were,
As shadow, a light, and body must be here.

But I am none ; nor will my sun renew.
You lovers, for whose sake the lesser sun
At this time to the Goat is run
To fetch new lust, and give it you,
Enjoy your summer all,
Since she enjoys her long night's festival.
Let me prepare towards her, and let me call
This hour her vigil, and her eve, since this
Both the year's and the day's deep midnight is.


By general consent, John Donne is considered the most famous of the metaphysical poets. His poetry reflects the characteristics of the metaphysical school of poetry. Thus, it is complicated, the language is twisted and there are sudden turns of thoughts. Moreover, it reflects the scientific approach which was dominated at his time. Like other metaphysical poets, Donne depended on conceits and concentrated images. His works can be divided into two kinds; love and religious. He also applied the lyric as means to write about love and religion. In most of his poems, we find a conflict between love and religion.
The poem is among the most famous of John Donne’s poetry. In this poem, he laments the death of his beloved. He chooses the time to be the day of St. Lucy who is the goddess of cold and winter. It is the 13th of December, and is known to be the shortest day of the year.
He begins by saying that Lucy, which he means day time, exposes her face seven hours. The sun has set, and the stars send a dim-light. His beloved is dead, and that’s why the poet sees every thing around him black and sad. There is no happiness, at least for the poet, nature for him seems dead. He thinks that life has shrunk as a dying man shrinks towards feet of his bed. Yet other things around him epitaph on the tomb of nature.
Then, he directs his speech to future lovers. He advises them to study his condition well. By doing so they would understand how love can create life out of nothing. He tells them that he is now dead; he is a moving picture, without life. He is devoid of which has destroyed him and filled his life with darkness and death. Any how he thinks that he is resurrected by the power of love. He has been reduced to nothing. When his beloved was alive, they used to spend happy times together. When they were angry with each others they use to weep a lot of tears, which seemed to drown the world, and the time they couldn’t enjoy sitting together, their bodies were like dead bodies. So, there was only life in there bodies when they were together.
This was in the past, but now every thing is different. Now, he is nothing, he isn’t a man, because man has the ability to know. He isn’t an animal, because each animal has a function while he has none. He is not a plant or a stone, because even this thing can love or hate. He isn’t even anything or a shadow, because even a shadow indicates the presence of light and body.
His beloved will never live again, that’s why there is no help of changing his conditions, but other lovers are luckier. For them, the sun has risen, spreading energy and vitality and renewing the power of love for them. Any how the poet prepares himself to go to his beloved, may be in the tomb. He would be waiting for her resurrection may be to meet her. His beloved is in darkness now, he want to pray for her through fasting. He wants to meet her when she is resurrected.
As we see the poem is a typical metaphysical poem, any how the rhyme and the rhythm are not fixed.

See you later, all my love to you.

The 17th Century Poetry (Metaphysical Poetry)

The Medieval age was an age of conflicts between the old and the new, Renaissance and Reformation, religion and love and finally science and religion. Before Christianity prevailed religion dominate people’s life and attitude, so we can say that it wad an age of intellectual complexity. Metaphysical poetry is considered the outcome of intellectual complexity. Beside Humanism, three elements dominate this age; Platonism, Stoicism and Protestantism which had now taken its place as a strongly formed Christian sect.
Science was another feature of the age, it had the powerful influence on people’s thinking. Modern science had refuted what had been thought, so it led to the appearance of doubt as feature of the age. People doubted every thing around them. Another influence of science was apparent in poetry, instead of simplicity and straight forwardness of the Elizabethan poetry we find complexity and ambiguity. Science became the rival of religion. Science had affected the metaphysical poets in their interest on the subtle analysis of the mind. People became interested in revolution rather than total submission to the church. In the preceding age the people were religious even scientific thinkers, looking at things from a religious point of view.
Dr Johnson comments on the metaphysical poets, saying that they were men of learning who tried hard to show their learning in their poetry. He denied them the name poet, but this seems a cruel judgment, it is the least fitted of the description given to metaphysical poets formed a school of poetry which had its own independent qualities.
John Dryden says that metaphysical poets aim at confusing the readers by expressing complexity in their poems. He says that they have false wit, but again this is quite unacceptable judgment of the quality of the metaphysical poets.
Really, the metaphysical poets seem so interested in the scientific influence on people. We can say that they were intellectual poets who were fond of the subtle analysis of the mind. They analyzed emotions rather than expressing them. A poetry of this kind needed special characteristics and using different style and idioms were necessary, so it was different from the Elizabethan poetry which was characterized by simplicity and straight forwardness.
The metaphysical poets were men of learning, but they didn’t show of their learning, what they want to do was to show the influence of science on people’s life.
T.S. Eliot says that before the age of the metaphysical poetry, the mind and the heart were strangers, and the metaphysical poetry is deep and profound. He says that they were the first to combine or unite the mind and the heart or in other words reason and emotion, he called this unification of sensibility.

See you later, all my love to you.

William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) is considered the most important literary figure in the English literary history as a whole. He was born in stradford-on-avon. His father was prominent, but he went through financial trouble. Shakespeare was forced to go to a grammar school, and attended no university. Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway. He began his life as an actor then he became a playwright and a poet, but we aren’t sure with which company Shakespeare worked. He wasn’t confined to the theatre but he also wrote poetry.
Shakespeare differed greatly from his predecessors in writing the sonnet form. He didn’t follow the Petrarchan convention, and because he mastered the English sonnet, it was named after him.

He was different in many points.

-Theme.

His themes were different from the themes treated in the sonnets before him. He treated the theme of the beauty of young man and this was something totally new. He also dealt with the urge to marry. Other sonnets were addressed to a black lady, he also treated the triangle of love in which two men love only one woman. He also dealt with the destructive power of time and some other were about rival poets.

-Style.

Shakespeare’s style was really a perfect one. He depended on simple vocabulary which had no complication in it. His language was full of rich metaphors, and his style was greatly elevated.

-Structure.

He didn’t follow the Petrarchan division of the sonnet in which the sonnet was divided into an octave followed by a sestet and the rhyme scheme was “abba abba cde cde“. He followed the English division, in which the sonnet was divided into three quatrain which successively lead to the final couplet, that may either re-inforce or refutes what has been set. He felt that this division gave him more freedom to elaborate his ideas. The rhyme scheme was “abab cdcd efef gg”.

-The beginning of the sonnet.

Shakespeare used to begin his sonnets either with imperatives or with statements.

-Imagery.

Shakespeare sonnets are rich in imagery that was taken from almost every field in life. You may find imagery from gardening, navigation, law, business, astrology and domestic affairs.

-Mood.

Shakespeare’s sonnets are expressed in various moods; they may express delight, melancholy, shame, disgust or fear.

From this, we see that Shakespeare’s sonnets differed from other sonnets before him, there was controversy over publication of the sonnets and there were attempts to re-arrange them. Some critics say that Shakespeare’s sonnets are totally personal, because they are an outlet for Shakespeare’s feelings and passions. Any how the sonnets vary in quality.

See you later, all my love to you.

The Importance of Studying Literature

As we all know, the study of literature is of great importance. It helps any person to understand the true nature of a certain society. Literature as we know is an imitation of life. It acts as a mirror that reflects life. Literature gives us a new way of thinking about the world. The study of literature allows people to develop new ideas and moral points of view. Literature is an art form, it is able to bring different emotions and a general feeling of "spiritual" well-being. literature allows us to understand the philosophical movements and ideas that prevailed in a particular culture at a particular time. Reading new words and new phrases can increase person's lexicon. There is some satisfaction in the understanding of literature and be able to spot the references in contemporary culture. Literature is also essential to the learning style conventions and artistic communication and writing. You can know about the special customs and traditions of the individual's living in a certain society by studying its literature. The progress or decline of literature may be an indication of the progress or decline in other fields of life.

See you later, all my love to you.