Choose 1 from
the following questions and answer it with 200-250 words.
- In “The Good-Morrow,” John Donne writes: “Where can we find two better hemispheres,/Without sharp north, without declining west?” Explain the meaning of the sentences. What does “sharp north” represent here? What’s the implication of “declining west”?
- What is the theme of W. B. Yeats’s “Leda and the Swan”? What does it mean when the poet wonders whether Leda, "being so caught up" in her brief encounter with God, gained "knowledge" of the meaning of history?
- What is the “metaphysical conceit”? How is it used by John Donne in his poetry (e.g. “The Flea” or “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning”) in which striking parallels are established between two very dissimilar things?
- In Claude McKay’s “The Tropics in New York,” what does “the tropics” stand for him as a symbol?
- Describe the conflict in Antigone and its embodiment in the two principal figures.
34 comments:
49703049 Hannah
In “The Good-Morrow”, John Donne uses two better hemispheres to describe that we can be a perfect world. John Donne uses the world imagery to demonstrate the power of this their relationship. Throughout her eyes, the speaker can see his appearance reflect and their sincere love can put two hemispheres together to be a whole world. The meaning of sharp north describes the quarrels between the two lovers. Sharp north in literal meaning symbolizes the tight and cold weather. The poet uses it to represent the argument between the couple is like the cold and tight weather in the north. The “declining west” implies the decay of western civilization. Also, "declining" can means for the gradual decay of love because of time. Their love will not decay and fade away. Moreover, their immortal love makes the lovers immortal. John Donne is stating that not only do the two lovers make up one complete world, but that world is perfect without any problems.
3.
In “The Flea”, John Donne uses a flea to symbolize the act of sex. He claims that two people’s blood combine in the flea and it would have baby. He preaches that it is not denying to love that profanes. He claims that if you kill the flea, which implies that if you don’t love me, you kill three, you and me, and the baby. He transfers the traditional concept that virginity is sin yet love is not by transfer stay virgin is actually the act of killing the flea.
In “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning”, John Donne takes compass as the symbol of love. He claims that the woman should not be mournful and stay firmness at the same place, like one of the legs of the compass. One leg still and stiff, and then the other leg of compass can make a big circle, which implies the influence of their love, as big as it can reach. In the poem, John Donne also claims that people get sad because of the physically apart. However, their love is refined, even if their bodies are apart, like the two legs of the compass break, they are still in a circle. It is the metaphysical love, so John Donne tells his wife that no need to be mournful, their love is superior to ordinary people whose love is elemental.
1. Hemisphere is half of a sphere, only when two hemisphere fit together will it become a complete and perfect sphere. Round and full like their love. Smooth on the outside as if there's no "bumps" in their life. They need each other to become wholesome. Since the Greek times, sphere shapes are equivalent to perfection. Donne was familiar with cordiform maps, which were world maps shaped like a heart. Maybe this is the reason why he used this metaphor. 2. The words "sharp north" may represent the iciness of the lovers when they are in a cold war. The pointy sharpness also makes me think of getting hurt when one quarrels with another. Another reason Donne chose to use "north" and not "south" may be because he lived in the northern hemisphere and the more to the north you go the colder it gets while it gets warmer the more you move to the south. 3. The declining of the west may mean that their love will decay as time pass. I think that the reason Donne used "west" instead of "east" was because he lived in the Age of Discovery and to him the west lays America while Asia is in the east. During his time, people in America were not "civilized", that's why he uses "declining" to describe the western hemisphere.
Phoenix:
1. Hemisphere is half of a sphere, only when two hemisphere fit together will it become a complete and perfect sphere. Round and full like their love. Smooth on the outside as if there's no "bumps" in their life. They need each other to become wholesome. Since the Greek times, sphere shapes are equivalent to perfection. Donne was familiar with cordiform maps, which were world maps shaped like a heart. Maybe this is the reason why he used this metaphor. 2. The words "sharp north" may represent the iciness of the lovers when they are in a cold war. The pointy sharpness also makes me think of getting hurt when one quarrels with another. Another reason Donne chose to use "north" and not "south" may be because he lived in the northern hemisphere and the more to the north you go the colder it gets while it gets warmer the more you move to the south. 3. The declining of the west may mean that their love will decay as time pass. I think that the reason Donne used "west" instead of "east" was because he lived in the Age of Discovery and to him the west lays America while Asia is in the east. During his time, people in America were not "civilized", that's why he uses "declining" to describe the western hemisphere.
Dora:
As far as I am concerned, Claude McKay was extremely homesick and within the first and second paragraph, I can imagine the beautiful scene of tropics. Especially the first paragraph, we can see the colorful fruits which represented the richness and the abundance of the tropical world. But, in the second paragraph, I can start to feel a sense of melancholy, though we can imagine the harmonious atmosphere, which is calm with blessing. However, till the third paragraph, I was affected by the extreme sorrow of Claude McKay. Maybe it is because through memories that stroke him a chord of those sceneries in his hometown, the fact is that he wasn’t in Jamaica, he was in “New York”. He could only sigh and weep. Hence, I think “the tropics” here represent as memories of his hometown, Jamaica. He moved from Jamaica to New York, a place so dull and gray, unlike his hometown. In this poem, I could see that he described many tropical fruits, rivers, and landscape of natural homeland. I also feel that the colorfulness of the tropical fruits means the happiness and the imagination that fade away when one is too submerged in work. Though these elements have strong and a sense of grieving, they give us a new feeling, making the poem seem changeable and different.
In the play “Antigone”, the conflict exists between Antigone, the daughter of Oedipus, and her uncle Creon, now serving as King of Thebes. To summarize it, it’s the war between conscience/family and the state law.
To start with Princess Antigone’s side: She shows respects toward the body of her died brother Polyneices, and claims that he deserves a proper burial because of the divine law and her conscience. This show Antigone’s personal loyalty and pride to her family and the integrity of the individual human soul. In the play, we can see the determination of Antigone, she strongly belief in what she sees as an ethical, moral, and civic commitment. Antigone is supported in obedience to divine law and Prince Haemon, Teiresias, and the Thebans.
On the other hand, King Creon has issued an official announcement forbidding a proper burial of the traitor (Polyneices) because in his viewpoint, Polyneices was an enemy of the country and deserves punishment even in his death. This act is the revengeful arrogance of the king, and the impersonal, authoritarian representative of the State. At first, King Creon is supported by the chorus, the guards and Princess Ismene; but till the end of the play, Creon regretted his decision because all lot of people died including his own son Prince Haemon and the story end tragically.
They are both absolute and determined about what they think it is right regardless of what will happen next. Both of them are being portrayed as stubborn. I think there are no right and wrong towards this situation, it’s just the question of which side you support. Do you support the divine law, emphasize on the kinship, or do you believe that state law is more important.
Metaphysical conceit is a metaphor that uses a special thing to describe a complicated thing. In the metaphysical conceit, metaphors have a much more purely conceptual, and thus tenuous, relationship between the things being compared.
In “The Flea”, John Donne uses the result which is after the flea sucks two people to symbolize the sexual behavior. He claims that the mingling of two bloods represents the sex. He says that the flea sucks you and me and our bloods are mingling. The flea is already having our baby. If you kill the flea, at the same time, you kill me and our baby. You won’t lose your life from the flea’s death, either will you lose your virtue after you sleep with me. John Donne tries to use the metaphor to persuade the girl to sleep with him. He uses the metaphor that not sleeping with him is actually a way to kill the flea, himself and their baby.
“A Valediction : Forbidding Mourning” uses the compass to talk about love. John Donne claims that two people apart but their love to each other is still alive. It’s just like the two needles of the compass. No matter how they’re going, they are still in their love.
Metaphysical conceit is a metaphor that uses a special thing to describe a complicated thing. In the metaphysical conceit, metaphors have a much more purely conceptual, and thus tenuous, relationship between the things being compared.
In “The Flea”, John Donne uses the result which is after the flea sucks two people to symbolize the sexual behavior. He claims that the mingling of two bloods represents the sex. He says that the flea sucks you and me and our bloods are mingling. The flea is already having our baby. If you kill the flea, at the same time, you kill me and our baby. You won’t lose your life from the flea’s death, either will you lose your virtue after you sleep with me. John Donne tries to use the metaphor to persuade the girl to sleep with him. He uses the metaphor that not sleeping with him is actually a way to kill the flea, himself and their baby.
“A Valediction : Forbidding Mourning” uses the compass to talk about love. John Donne claims that two people apart but their love to each other is still alive. It’s just like the two needles of the compass. No matter how they’re going, they are still in their love.
Answer to Question NO.3.
Metaphysical conceit associated with the Metaphysical poets of the 17th century, and metaphysical poets used this method to write poems to have a reaction to Petrarchan Sonnet, and Metaphysical conceit usually uses objects in physical world to have a metaphor to things, and things is usually about spirit.
The metaphysical conceit is the metaphor from "The Flea". A flea that bites both the speaker and his lover, so whatever they have sex or not, their blood are mixed in belly of the flea, and the belly just like a place they hold a wedding secretly. And the flea’s bulgy belly likes a pregnant, and this means that they just like to have a baby, so speaker says to his lover if she kills the flea that is to sin: suicide, murder and to destroy the sanctuary of marriage. However, his lover finally kills the flea, and this behavior also gives him a excuse to explain that she has a sex with him that doesn’t have too much lost.
1.“Where can we find two better hemispheres,/Without sharp north, without declining west?” This sentence means Donne thinks his world won’t be completed without his lover. He mentioned this kind of idea in line 14-15. Now the idea is rounded off; they are not worlds, they are "hemispheres". This adds three notions to the previous idea. First, the lovers aren't complete by themselves, they need each other. A hemisphere is a perfect metaphor for any incomplete thing. Second, once the lovers are together, they form not only a complete body, but a whole world (the word "hemisphere" suggests half of the world) So, when they become together, the two hemisphere will become a complete world. Third, the being they form when they are together is perfect: perfection has been associated with the spherical shape since Greek times. So the world they form will have no imperfections, no sharp north or declining west.
2."Sharp" may stand for quarrels between the lovers, and "declining" for the gradual decay of love because of time. This last metaphor opens the way for the final conceit, which states the idea in a bolder way: immortal love makes the lovers immortal.
1.In my opinion, there are some ideas in the sentences. First, the lovers aren't complete by themselves, they need each other. A hemisphere is a metaphor for an imcomplete thing. Next, the lovers make an integrity when they are together. Then, it talks about sharp north and declining west. Sharp north represents the quarrels between the lovers. When the two people becomes complete, there are no more quarrels and fights. And declining west means the decays of time. The last sentence shows the importance of the complete love.
In “The Good-Morrow,” John Donne uses hemispheres to stand for himself and his lover. Sphere is composed of two hemispheres then it will be perfect just like their love is perfect because they can’t find much better hemispheres except themselves. And “sharp north” represents fighting, because sharp north is like you feel bitter when you are in cold weather such as North Pole. Lovers always feel this kind of emotion when they are fighting each other. Besides, “declining west” represents the decay of western civilization. Declining west is also associated with the fading love, because love will fade away along with passing time like decay of western civilization. So this sentence means that the speaker and his lover is the most appropriate people in the world and they can’t find another one who is better than each other. In addition, they don’t have difficult in communication between each other because they don’t have fighting in their life. So they don’t also experience the feeling that the emotion is still and just feel bleak like you are in a freezing cold place. Furthermore, their love are eternal, they don’t meet the situation that love fades away as the decay of civilization after time pass.
In “Good-Morrow”, we can see John Donne was very confident of his love, because he wrote that “Where can we find two better hemispheres.” Two better hemispheres which were no defects only could make a perfect sphere. The hemispheres mean two lovers and how could the hemispheres, that is, the lovers combine together without flaws? They didn’t have fights and even they had different opinions, they tolerated each other. “Without sharp North, without declining west” meant that the lovers loved each other. And their love didn’t have the sharp North, and was not liked the declining west. Using the word “sharp North”, I think it is because that “North” gave most of us the image of severe weather and the difficulties, and most people could not overcome or endure it. Moreover, the use of declining west is that “west” means the sunset and the sunset means the latter part of one’s life. In short, “west” means mortal. “Declining” means fade away. However, John Donne wrote that their love was “without declining west” means that their love would be last forever, immortal and would not fade away. That is, their love is perfect like a sphere and they would not separate into two. They were completed.
(1) “The Good-Morrow,” published in poet John Donne's 1633 collection entitled “Songs and Sonnets,” speaks from the viewpoint of a lover as he arises in the morning and sees the face of his partner next to him. In "The Good-Morrow", the lovers were called "world" in line 14.The idea is transformed in the following line; they are not worlds, they are "hemispheres". This adds three notions to the previous idea, First, the lover aren't complete by themselves, they need each other. A hemisphere is a perfect metaphor for any incomplete thing. Second, once the lovers are together, they form not only a complete body, but a whole world. Third, the being they form when they are together is perfect: perfection has been associated with the spheric shape since Greek times. So the world they form will have no imperfections, no sharp north or declining west. "Sharp" may stand for quarrels between the lovers, and "declining" for the gradual decay of love because of time. The poem illustrates the different phases in which love goes through, from the passion seen early in a relationship to its growth to a spiritual and intimate bond. The timelessness of Donne’s words in this poem shows that it is normal for love to change, with each phase being vital.
In ‘’ The Good-Morrow, ’’ John Donne writes: ‘’ where can we find two better hemispheres’’ because he describes he and his lover just like two hemispheres. Their combination is the best relationship on the world. Nowhere, there are two better ones just like them. ‘’ Sharp north’’ means the North Pole. North Pole is a cold and tough place. So, he writes ‘’ without sharp north’’ means that their love will be beautiful and warm. ‘’Declining west’’ means the sunset because sun represents warm, good and wonderful live. Besides, sun disappears on the west every day so that their love will not disappear. ‘’ Without declining west’’ means their love will continue forever ever. The whole sentence’’ without sharp north, without declining west’’ shows their love will not be decay. He tries to persuade his lover that their love affair will resist until the end of the world. Their hearts are very closer to each other. So, their love is without darkness and decay.
My answer to question 2:
Seeing the history on the view of the victim, Leda, Yeats wants to express the theme that history is composed of tragedies. No matter the tragedies are caused by gods or by ourselves, everything seems to be dramatic and out of control. In line 5 to 6, “how can those terrified vague fingers push the feathered glory from her loosening thighs?” we know there are so many suddenness we can’t escape from or we can’t change in our daily lives, just like Leda is not capable of pushing the white rush away. Yeats depicts western culture as filled with deceit, treachery and violence. In line 10, “the broken wall, the burning roof and tower” means archetypes of wars in our history. Meanwhile, it reveals our sanguine instincts and barbarism. The “knowledge” is that realizing her daughter, Helen, will destroy Trojan civilization. Because Leda doesn’t know what is going to happen, we can comprehend the meaning Yeats wants to emphasize. That is human beings cannot control history, not to mention divinity, knowledge and fate. We are victims of act of God, but at the same time, we are parts of the barbarism history for causing wars. Yeats predicts history by imagining the beginning of the preceding cycle. However, he is pessimistic about our history.
A "metaphysical conceit" is an extended metaphor with a complex logic that governs a poetic passage or entire poem. It usually sets up an analogy between one entity’s spiritual qualities and an object in the physical world and sometimes controls the whole structure of the poem. In “The Flea”, the flea bites the speaker then bites the woman, inside the flea, their bloods mingled. The flea biting means having sex. The flea is their marriage bed and marriage temple mixed into one. And in line 8, the swelling flea means pregnant. John Donne uses these conceits to persuade his beloved having sex with him. In “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning”, the speaker compares his soul and the soul of his beloved to a twin compass. He is the moveable leg and his beloved is the fixed leg. The speaker trusts that his beloved won’t betray him, so when he is apart from her, everything will be OK like two legs eventually press together again. Although the speaker goes far from his beloved, they will be together forever, while their distance extends, his lover leans to him more. Her steadiness is the power of his motivation, letting him back to the original point and her, like a perfect circle the compass draw.
In "The Good-morrow" ,there is constant geographical imagery running throughout the poem, and Donne uses the world imagery to demonstrate the power of this new relationship over all his other "worldly" ambitions. The lovers are compared to worlds earlier in the poem in line 14, and now they are being referred to as hemispheres. Typically, a hemisphere is something that is half of a whole, which therefore would mean that they are not inclusive or full unless they are together. They need each other in a way that is so intense that they are not whole without the other person. By saying 'without sharp North, without declining West' Donne is stating that not only do the two lovers make up one complete world, but that world is perfect without any problems. He sees his relationship as warm and loving, without coldness or fighting. The word sharp could refer to fighting or disagreements between the couple and declining would seem to refer to the loss of their relationship as time goes on. This line can be related to the other geographical references such as the references to maps and sea-discoverers. Furthermore, the love relationship seems to become more intense as the poem goes on, because earlier in the poem he discusses their love being restricted to a little room, and then we see him compare it to worlds, which is a much larger scale
Antigone is written by Sophocles and it’s a typical female play. It also shows family issue and country issue. In Greek mythology, Antigone is a strong character, and she fights against the patriarchal society which is defines as a society is controlled and run by men and women are unable to take any action themselves even though they have their own options. In that society, most women had to submit man and had limited options; on the other hand, they were subservient to male characters like their husbands, fathers, and even their sons. Women lived for men and their aspects of their lives are controlled by men. And women were seen as fragile creatures that had to rely on men completely. However, Antigone is not a typical female who is in the patriarchal society. She disobeys Creon’s command which is banned to bury her brother, Polynices, since he is a traitor. Antigone thinks family is more important than the law of the country, and she insists that burying her brother corpse is necessary. In conclusion, Antigone’s insistence of burying Polynices symbolizes family and Creon’s command is a symbol of the law of the country. Therefore, as for Antigone, most people may find that the conflict in Antigone is family and the law of the country since Antigone fights against the law for her family.
In line three, we can see Leda’s nape so caught up in the Swan’s bill, and her “helpless” breast were held upon his breast; Yeats’ describe is sculpturing Leda’s sort of reluctant but can’t repudiate. The swan we are saying is the mighty Zeus; he got all rights to do what he wants. Leda was also so “mastered”, which she was in a passive role, or overpowered by “brute”, or beastliness of animal nature. On the other hand, all human beings, like Leda, can also be caught up moment by moment in the “white rush” of experience.
The first possible meaning of “knowledge” is: Zeus has the omniscient “knowledge” of god as well as the incredible power of a giant bird; she already knows about the power part, but she may not know she was dealing with a god whose knowledge extended far beyond a mere mortal's. The fact is, Zeus’ “knowledge” might extend to the future – he knows that their daughter Helen will cause the Trojan War, leads to the murder of Agamemnon by Clytemnestra (the latter being the daughter of Leda). But Leda may not sense the consequence of his act.
The second possible meaning is: Did she gain or "put on" Zeus's all-seeing knowledge or did she gain power in the fate of the world history, she may become, in some sense, a goddess herself, owing to her coming descendants.
1. There are some reasons that John Donne uses “hemispheres” to describe him and his lover. First, he indicates that he and his lover can’t live without each other, just like the hemispheres should be together to be complete. Second, John Donne thinks that he and his lover is not only an individual, but the whole world. So he uses hemispheres. Third, he thinks that their love is very perfect just like the spheric shape that has been appreciated since Greek times. Without “sharp north” means without “quarrel”, and without “declining west” means without “the decay of love”. John Donne thinks that their love is strong and will last forever. It also indicates that their love is immortal, and it makes them immortal, too.
Firstly, “Where can we find better…without…without…” means “we can’t find the other relationship that is as perfect as we are.”
Next, “Two hemispheres” refers to him and her, the two valentines. It also implies that the era John Donne had lived in was an era when the geographical knowledge had increased. That’s why he used the word “sphere” since the world had been proved to be a great circle. He used this exaggeration in here to describe how great their love was. For them, this intimate relationship is the whole world, and in here they become one, a great circle.
Then he used two phenomenon of the nature. One is “sharp north” that may represents “quarrels”. Bitter words that are said against each other are as severe as freezing cold winds of the most northern part of the world will hurts feelings of both sides. Another is “Declining west” that represents the action of “fading away” because the sun always sets in the west and slowly disappears below the horizon. Or it can be said that the love won’t be stronger anymore and will slacken when aging. Without these two bad situations, the love will never decay, or we can say this is an eternal love.
4. In Claude McKay’s “The Tropics in New York, he used “tropic” as a symbol of his hometown. In the poem, he describes a lot of things belonged to his tropical hometown－Jamaica. Such as bananas, ginger-root, cocoa, tangerine, mango and grape are all crops produced in tropical area instead of in New York. In the second stanza, he also describes the scene in Jamaica. “Laden fruit trees by low-singing rills” portrays that his tropical hometown has abundant fruit just like he mentioned in the first stanza. In the third stanza, he strongly expressed that how homesick he is! His eyes grew dim and he could no more gaze because of the teardrops in his eyes. He really longs for the familiar place rather than the one he is staying at. He wept because of the recollection of the familiar scene in Jamaica. In this poem, we can clearly know that how hard the black tried to find their own identity. They never feel ashamed of their own culture and their origin. Take this poem for example, Claude McKay consider Jamaica as the source of the pride. He is proud of everything and every scene which are specially belong to his hometown. The most important is that he is proud of his tropical hometown.
The Tropics in New York”was written by Claude McKay in 1920. McKay was born in Jamaica in 1890 and immigrated to the United States in 1912. The poem includes masterful imagery. "The Tropics" stand for him as a symbol as a Jamaican. The climate in Jamaica is tropical, with hot and humid weather, supporting diverse ecosystems with a wealth of plants and animals. Therefore, he usd tropics to describe himself as a Jamaican. He used cheerful description of luscious tropical fruits to tell us that he is reminiscing and longing for a time and a place in his past that the time he lived in Jamaica, a place that seemed unattainable to him now. He lived in Jamaica from 1890-1912 and wrote the poem while he lived in the United States. He missed his native country. The theme for this poem was sadness. McKay did a masterful job of using the first two stanzas to help the reader understand the wonderful memories that he had etched into his mind of his homeland. It allowed the reader to fully comprehend the depth and scope of the grief and longing he felt in the last stanza.
My answer to question 3
In “The Flea”, this poem uses the image of a flea that has just bitten the speaker and his beloved to sketch an amusing conflict over whether the two will engage in premarital sex. The speaker wants to, the beloved does not, and so the speaker, highly clever but grasping at straws, uses the flea, in whose body his blood mingles with his beloved’s, to show how innocuous such mingling can be—he reasons that if mingling in the flea is so innocuous, sexual mingling would be equally innocuous, for they are really the same thing.
In “A Valediction: forbidding Mourning”, here, anticipating a physical separation from his beloved, he invokes the nature of that spiritual love to ward off the “tear-floods” and “sigh-tempests” that might otherwise attend on their farewell. The poem is essentially a sequence of metaphors and comparisons, each describing a way of looking at their separation that will help them to avoid the mourning forbidden by the poem’s title.
2. The theme was: Zues raped Leda who knowing nothing and caused the wars. Leda was a queen in mythology. Zues lured her and had sex with her. He became a swan and pretended as escaped by eagle to fly to Leda. There was no description about Leda’s feeling in ancient mythology. But in this poem, poet describe as Leda was not willing to have a sex with Zues. Using like “helpless, shudder” this kind of negative words. She didn’t know that when they had sex, their babies would have caused the wars. One of her babies was Helen, the reason of was Trojan War.
Swan has big wings. The poet describe details of how he offense her. In line three, the poet had described the swan’s wing which was big and black. Leda was like a helpless chicken, caught by the Zues for his sex appetite sake. Another reason of Leda was so weak is that Zues was a seer. Zues knows that when he have a sex with Leda, there will cause a serious war in human’s world. And he still did it. Humans are weakness, so as Leda. She was caught by Zues, with knowing nothing. She didn’t know how to refuse the god, even scared of his power.
In A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning we can discover how conceited John Donne was. By using the highly intellectual conceits to describe the valediction between husband and wife even saying their marital affection didn’t as elemental as laity’s. First, he used the earthquake to symbolize the ordinary love which does cause a lot of harms. However he described his and his wife love as trepidation of the sphere which is far away from earth and cause nothings. Second, he used sublunary lovers’ love to signify that the ordinary people loves are fickle, mutable and inconstant. Third, he said their love just like gold to airy thinness beat which can be really wide. Final, his used the stiff twin compasses to describe their marital affection. Their love is stiff and firm. Although sometimes their body may leave apart, they heart still connect together and impact on each one. Wife stand still and steadfast does give the great support to him. They accomplish things together and get things perfect done. By those symbols which Donne used can let us understand what metaphysical conceit is. And realize that how Donne attached importance to he and his wife love and cherish it. He was really a romantic poet.
1. The speaker wants to know where he can find the two hemispheres without sharp north and declining west. I think that a hemisphere represents the speaker himself and another one is his lover. Only when he finds another one and combines two hemispheres into a sphere, they would finally be together forever.
Because the shape of hemisphere is that the northern side and southern side are sharp, and the western or the eastern side is a straight line and the other is round. I think “sharp north” represents the “quarrel”, “fight”, or every situation that makes the lovers angry at each other. “Declining west” is like the end of life. “Declining” means something is going down, and “west” is a direction where the sun sets. As a result, if he combines two hemispheres together, he will have a happy and forever long love.
In “The Good-Morrow”, John Donne conveys message to us that love is above all and nothing can surpass it. Love is intense and an absolute experience. They both cannot find any better ones to be their lovers. In Greek time, round shape is often used as a symbol of perfection. I think that’s why John Donne uses sphere to describe their love. Only two hemispheres which fit perfectly can be a complete sphere. A half of sphere is he, and another is his lover. Possessing each other is equal to own the whole world. When it comes to north, the first thing we might think of is coldness because northern area is often associated with cold weather, which makes people quiver and shiver. Sharp north means the quarrels between lovers. They are having cold war. Just like the cold winter in the north, quarrel and cold war make people tremble. However, John Donne claims that their love know no boundaries and no harsh quarrels. Declining west means the decay of love. As time passes by, love will also disappear. Nevertheless, John Donne also claims that their love will not decay. Unlike the declining sun, there is no need to bid farewell to their love, which is eternal, immortal and will last forever.
In “The Good-Morrow”, John Donne conveys message to us that love is above all and nothing can surpass it. Love is intense and an absolute experience. They both cannot find any better ones to be their lovers. In Greek time, round shape is often used as a symbol of perfection. I think that’s why John Donne uses sphere to describe their love. Only two hemispheres which fit perfectly can be a complete sphere. A half of sphere is he, and another is his lover. Possessing each other is equal to own the whole world. When it comes to north, the first thing we might think of is coldness because northern area is often associated with cold weather, which makes people quiver and shiver. Sharp north means the quarrels between lovers. They are having cold war. Just like the cold winter in the north, quarrel and cold war make people tremble. However, John Donne claims that their love know no boundaries and no harsh quarrels. Declining west means the decay of love. As time passes by, love will also disappear. Nevertheless, John Donne also claims that their love will not decay. Unlike the declining sun, there is no need to bid farewell to their love, which is eternal, immortal and will last forever.
1. “Where can we find two better hemispheres,/ without sharp north, without declining west?’ Donne uses two hemispheres to represent two lovers. Hemisphere is not a complete shape. But two hemispheres can be a whole sphere. Before we fall in love that we are not complete. But when we meet the person who can let our life complete. It is like two hemispheres need each other to become wholesome. Each lover needs each other to let their life better. We all know that sharp north is cold. Donne uses “sharp north” to represent the argument between couple. When couple has argument, they may not want to talk to each other. The situation between them may like a cold weather. Donne uses “harp north” to represent the cold situation between couple. We all know that sun falls in the west not east. So Donne use “declining west” to represent love may decay like sun falls through the time pass.
3.
Metaphysical conceit is a literary term that refers to a poet’s use of somewhat unorthodox language and language construct to describe the quality of an everyday concept.
In John Donne's poems, metaphysical conceit is made use of colloquialism, intellectual analysis, and unique imagery. It aimed to portray the ordinary conflicts and contradictions of life. For instance, in "The Flea", he uses the composing skills to make the connection between a flea and the act of sex, which ordinary people would even think about these two things together. I think Metaphysical conceit is an interesting skill in composing, for the author have to brain storm to figure out two dissimilar things together.
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