British Lit

Donne 's use of conceit

The word conceit as a literary term can be defined is a fairly elaborate figurative device . The pleasure drawn form conceit is intellectual rather than sensual . John Donne has made abundant use of conceits in his love and religious poems to convey his message in a beautiful and intellectual way to his readers . He has made abundant use of metaphors , imagery and similes in his poems in to pregnant them with aesthetic pleasure of first water

His poem `A Valediction : Forbidding Mourning ' presents a glorious example

of the use of metaphorical conceits in the love poems . In this poem he discusses and compares the intricate web of relationship between love , soul and body with the drawing compasses . The basic them of the poem is that love is a strong and powerful passion and it has the power of keeping the lovers linked together no matter how vast the physical differences are between them they will eventually meet and live together just like when one arm of compass started its journey and get separated from its other half . At the completion of the circle the separated half comes back and becomes joined together with its partner . That is the case which John Donne wanted to make with respect to the pair of the lovers in his poem `A Valediction : Forbidding Mourning ' in which the lover says to his beloved , Yet , when the other far doth roam / It leans , and hearkens after it / And grows erect , as that comes home This basically implies that she must not fear the separation as the power of her love will guard him and bring him back to her at last

John Donne also makes a very good and meaningful use of conceit in his spiritual poems . For instance in his holy poem `A Nocturnal Upon Saint Lucy 's Day ' the use of summer solastics is made to convey in a marvelous way the hopes of the poet . He says in the poem that 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 real meaning of the poet is to present himself as an empty self which will be rejuvenated by love

Rape of the Lock ' and the satirical portrait of Belinda

The mock-heroic is defined as a style of writing in which a heroic manner is adopted to make a trivial subject seem grand in such a way as to satirize the style , and it is therefore commonly used in burlesque and parody

Alexander pope use this style in his long poem entitled Rape of the Lock ' to satirize the manners and life style of the fashionable society of eighteenth century England . The most important incident in the poem is the cutting of a lock of hair that resulted in the development of fight between two families , as he says What dire Offence...