Chenying Bai

Divinity in John Donne's Love Poetry Chenying Bai

John Donne enjoys great fame in the literary circle for his variety and complexity. However, most of the study on him ignores the integrity in his literary composition. Thus, Donne?s poetry is often neatly divided into the halves of early profane love poetry and late saintly religious poetry which have nothing in common on type or subject. This is a simplification of Donne?s poetry. Furthermore, since the exact time of Donne?s poetic composition remains controversial, how can we assert the early or late period? Having consulted the modern study on Donne, the author of this dissertation believes that Donne?s love poetry and religious poetry share the same period and relevant subject though they are of different types. The secular and the divine intermingle in both of them. This book aims to explore the divinity in Donne?s love poetry from two perspectives: the permeation of religious images and allusions, the metaphor between the secular love and divine love. Then, it goes on to search the cause of divinity and realizes that the divinity is the embodiment of Donne?s agony in religious conversion, so as for offering a comparatively different perspective for the study on John Donne.