Monday, Nov. 21 – King Lear and Introduction to John Donne

King Lear

Shakespeare fashioned it out of actual legend (King Leir of Britain, mythological, pre-Roman Celtic King)

Division of the Kingdom between three daughters:, Goneril married to Duke of Albany, Regan married to Duke of Cornwall, and Cordelia who is being wooed by Burgundy and France.

Goneril and Regan suck up to their father, telling him how much they love him, but doing asides to show us that they are lying. Each gets 1/3 of the kingdom.

Cordelia refuses to suck upInstead, she is honest (bottom

of 1145-46)Cordelia is given nothing.Burgundy loves her and

marries her anyway.

Meanwhile, Gloucester has two sons, Edgar

and the bastard Edmund

Edmund pretends to read a paper from Edgar urging him to conspire to get rid of Gloucester. Gloucester therefore disinherits his beloved son, Edgar, who goes out on the moors and strips naked and acts crazy.

King Lear becomes homeless: scene with Kim, Steven, and

PriscillaFirst, he and his Fool stay with Goneril but they get mad at how they are treated and leave and go to Regan’s castle

Then, Regan won’t have them either, so they are homeless out on the moors

After the sceneThe storm itself is sort of an objective correlative – how?

Is King Lear “a man more sinned against than sinning”?

Then, because of his sympathy for Lear, Regan has Gloucester’s eyes ripped out. Meaning?

Now last scene: Grace and Nevin

How do you think King Lear ends?

Lear’s last lines: And my poor fool is hanged! No, no, no life!Why should a dog, a horse, a rat, have life,And thou no breath at all? Thou’lt come no more,Never, never, never, never, never!

Shakespeare 1564-1616:

John Donne 1572-1631

Metaphysical poetry or not?

Possibly just John Donne’sThe group idea came from Samuel Johnson: Their style

was characterized by wit and metaphysical conceits—far-fetched or unusual similes or metaphors. Johnson said: "...a kind of discordia concours; a combination of dissimilar images, or discovery of occult resemblances in things apparently unlike." [

few references to nature or to Greek or Roman mythology

Metaphysical Poetry- a type of poetry that stresses the intellectual over the emotional; it is marked by irony, paradox, and striking comparisons of dissimilar things, the latter frequently being far-fetched to the point of eccentricity. (“Metaphysical Poetry”)

Michel Foucault, T. S. Eliot, and Cleanth

Brooks“Literary analysis . . . Now takes as its unity, not the spirit or sensibility of a period, nor ‘groups,’ ‘schools,’’ generations,’ or ‘movements,’ . . . But . . . The particular structure of a given oeuvre, book or text.”

T. S. Eliot and Cleanth Brooks made it fashionable to study Donne, Herbert, Marvell, and Cowley as a group and in studying it they thought they were doing the essence of what they were inventing, “New Criticism,” but New Criticism actually says that groups of poets are irrelevant – what matters is one text and what is happening in that text.

Weirdness of John Donne

Very, very Catholic which was illegal. Because he couldn’t take the Oath of Supremacy, he couldn’t graduate from Oxford or Cambridge.

His brother died in prison, after torture, because of his Catholic faith. Ironically, this led Donne to question his own Catholic faith.

Loved women, literature, travel and spent most of his money

A paradoxical lifeMarried the niece of his patron, Anne More. Because of that he was put into prison and lost all sources of support. They had 12 kids, many of whom died.

Became a Member of Parliament

Rose high in the Anglican (anti-Catholic) Church and became Dean of St. Paul’s so his over 160 sermons are part of his great work

He preached his own funeral sermon before he died.

Before he died, he looked so skeletal that everybody thought he was just animated bones. He had his portrait done while he was in his burial shroud and kept that portrait by his bed and looked at his every night – the image of himself as a dead body.

None of his poetry was published until two years after his death!!

Where do we see Donne now?

Metallica – “For Whom the Bell Tolls”

Jethro Tull

Lost in Austen

Indie Rock mewithoutYou

Jefferson Airplane

For Whom the Bell Tolls - Hemingway

Howl’s Moving Castle– “Go and Catch a Falling Star”

As you readRead two or three of the poems out loud and LISTEN. If possible read them to somebody else.

Who is speaking? To whom? Where?

Paraphrase the lines

Explain what is interesting (or not) about the rhymes.

For John Donne, everything has double meanings. Figure out the sex meaning, the religious meaning, the “real world” meaning – and see how they overlap.

 Treat the poem like a

puzzleDon’t worry about rhyme and meter. Instead, try to figure out the sentences and the extended metaphors (conceits).

If you can’t figure out the metaphors, focus on the images: How do the pictures the poet develops in your mind contribute to the meaning of the poem?