The seventeenth century was an era of beautiful poetry

Categories: John Donne

The seventeenth century was an era of beautiful poetry by important poets such as John Donne, Marvell, George Herbert, Sir John Supling etc... Just like on the other periods Love was one main theme on their poems. But on 17th century there were also religious themes that it was a bit more important than the other periods. I'll now have a look at the life's of important writers of the period so briefly to have an idea about how their religious backgrounds and writing styles affected the period.

George Herbert (1593 - 1633) was one of the most important religious poets of the period. He himself was a priest and we can see some parts of his own life in some of his poems. He rebuilt a church out of his own pocket. He was known as the "Holy Mr. Herbert" after his efforts for his religion and his poor people. So George Herbert was a man so close to his religion and this surely reflected his poetry.

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He wrote many religious poems. "Affliction" and "The Collar" are my favorites for this famous poet of 17th century.

Another poet who is so close to the religious writing is Richard Crashaw (1613 - 1649). He is a phenomenon unique in Anglo-Saxon taste. He was much different than the other poets of all times. He was a follower of George Herbert and he also strongly effected by a school of Jesuit writers of sacred Latin epigrams. One of his most important works "Flaming Heart - Teresa" clearly shows us how a religious point of view and writing style he has.

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In the story of Teresa, there is a woman who gives all her life to her religion, Christianity; and all the difficulties that she has during her life just because of her Christianity love.

Andrew Marvell (1621 - 1678) was a quite man, educated in Cambridge. It is thought that he wrote most of his poems in Nun Appleton house in Yorkshire while he was the tutor of Sir Thomas Fairfax's daughter. Marvell wants to offer his poems to Christ & religion. He says that while writing a poem he has "fame" in his mind.

Now we'll look to the Robert Herrick (1591 - 1674), who was a follower of Ben Jonson and even Jonson was his hero. Herrick wrote many poems without making any effort to publish them. On one of his top poems "Corinna's Going A-Maying" he produced a truly major lyric on the central theme of his life. On Corinna's Going A-Maying it's understood that Herrick is bringing all religious things to nature worship. He's partly serious and partly not about it.

In this paper, we I won't going to say much about John Donne and Ben Jonson, maybe the most important 2 writer of the period. But as they're the most important 2 writers of the period I'd like to tell also a bit about them. John was born into an Old Catholic family in 1572. He was educated in both Cambridge and Oxford University as well as in Lincoln's Inn. He became an Anglican priest in 1615 and his released his first poem in 1633, just after he died in 1631. Became one of the most important writers of the period as well as the English literature.

Ben Jonson is also a very important writer in English literature, which was born in the same year as Donne, 1572. He is known as the man made very different things in the literary world in the 17th century. Jonson himself was not just a poet, also an actor, a playwright, scholar, critic and a translator. Jonson's first play published was the Every Man in his Humor (1598). Shakespeare was acting a leading role in this play. He wrote many texts, poems, play etc. and become a giant name in 17th century and in whole of the English literature.

After having a quick look to some important writers of the time, now I'll finally examine 3 works from 2 different poets of 17th century. I've tried to choose the ones that I loved most.

To His Coy Mistress is a nice poem, not religious much, but that shows us how love poem is important at 17th century. The speaker in Andrew Marvell's "To His Coy Mistress" is a man who is addressing a silent listener, who happens to be his mistress. In the poem the speaker tries to explain his feelings to his mistress. The speaker uses many allusions to empires and other objects, events and ideas that are not directly related to his feelings, in order to explain how he feels. He uses these allusions to exaggerate his feelings to clearly show them. After reading over the poem once, you get a sense of what the speaker is feeling. Then after examining it closely you realize that the allusions used in the poem, are in fact, what makes this poem so interesting.

The speaker begins the poem by explaining to his mistress that if they had the time and place to discuss there feelings, then it would be no crime to complain and the modesty and reluctance among them would also be ok. However because the situation does not permit them to have such a discussion, he attempts to explain how he feels, in a poem.

He begins his explanation by saying "I would love you ten years before the flood" which to me means that he would love her from the beginning of time. He then continues by saying, "and you should if you please refuse, till the conversion of the Jews". If the reader has any knowledge of the strength of the belief of Jewish people in their faith, then the reader would get the idea that the speaker meant to say that he will lover till the end of time, even if she was to refuse his love.

Next, the speaker compares his growing love for her to the expansion of great empires. In lines 11 and 12 the speaker says, "and my vegetables love should grow, vaster than empires and more slow." Once again the speaker is alluding to something not directly related to love. This comparison has great meaning when you consider the size and rate of growth of empires and also the fact that love is something that builds and grows with time, as do great empires.

At this point in the poem, the speaker takes a moment to explain that, beauty and the ability to enjoy life to the fullest fades with time, and that the two of them should show off or "sport" their love and beauty before time passes by and they loose there chance.

Finally, the poem ends with the couplet:

Thus, though we cannot make our sun

Stand still, yet we will make him run.

I find these to lines the most interesting because they give the poem a see of closure. The speaker says that although he would like to make time stop, so that he would be able to spend more time with his lover, he will instead use his time that he has, to the fullest extent.

The allusions used in this poem, are what make this poem. With out these clever allusions, this poem would be a basic plea to ones lover, to have a little bit more excitement and fun in what time two people have together. It is the allusions that make us feel the strength of the speaker's feelings.

Again from the same writer, Andrew Marvell "A Dialogue Between The Body and Soul" is a bit different from the To His Coy Mistress. Because it's a religious poem. As we can see guess from the header of the poem, there is a dialogue going on between body and the soul. In the beginning of the poem, the soul part, Marvell is pointing to the body that he tries to show it just like a dungeon. He describes all the parts of a body in the first stanza and shows every part as if it is a dungeon. Then in the second stanza (Body), body also feels it is in prison. Differences between human and animals are described.

"That mine own precipice I go;

and warms and moves this needles frame"

In these lines he's trying to get attention to the differences between human and animals. We walk on 2 legs while most of the animals walk on 4 legs. So it's easier for us to loose our control and fall down. Then in the last lines of the stanza, soul threats the body with dead. Because if the soul dies, body will have no function anymore.

And in the third stanza (Soul) we see that soul can feel all physical problems. Body here has a problem and this soul can feel and understand it. It's telling that it's trying to look after the body but it's destroying him. It's been mentioned that being ill is a terrible thing. Then in the last stanza of the poem (Body), It's told that the illnesses of soul are always worse than the illnesses of the body. For example a love pain is much more badly than any body illnesses. Body illnesses have always medicines but soul illnesses does not. For example in Parkinson illness our hands will dither. The same thing will happen if we get so angry. And poet finalizes the poem by saying Sins comes from the soul.

A Dialogue Between the Soul and Body is a nice poem from Marvell, which can be categorized as a religious poem. Tells us to control our feelings and maybe forces us to be close to the religion. This theme is nicely expressed by creating a dialogue between a body and the soul by Marvell.

"To the Virgins" is representative of many of Herrick's best poetry. It uses imagery, especially with flowers. It is believed that "To the Virgins" is written in ballad form and it's told that most of Herrick's poetry is in musical form. "To the Virgins" is a small poem. This is a typical characteristic o Herrick's style. Most of his poems are small in size but strong enough to show the feelings with using powerful words and imageries. In the poem Herrick says the best age is youth when women are young. Midlife or middle age is worse, and old age is the worst because death will overtake them. He believes that once young women become old nobody will care about them, and they will have to die alone. Therefore, women must make the most of their day by engaging in matrimony. Herrick talks about how the Sun once it slowly goes up and reaches the top it rapidly starts to decline, that shows that human life is the same way. When we get slowly older but before knowing they are quickly old, so they should says Herrick make best use of the time and get married.

He also uses a nice imagery of a flower. He expresses a woman like a flower which born and gives good colors etc. after a while. Then some time later it starts to wither. Then it dies. A woman also grows up, matures and becomes beautiful. Then, she slowly grows old and looses her beauty and dies.

Updated: Nov 01, 2022
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The seventeenth century was an era of beautiful poetry. (2020, Jun 02). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/seventeenth-century-era-beautiful-poetry-new-essay

The seventeenth century was an era of beautiful poetry essay
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