This concentration of.
thought and contraction of language is used to signify a similar contraction of the.
world: onto a map; into a lover (The Sunne Rising); into the poles of a relationship.
(A Valediction: forbidding mourning). The miniaturisation of the universe is in.
keeping with the Neoplatonic world-view: the idea that everything, spiritual or.
physical is finite and can be contained within a single expression. He frequently.
refers to the Ptolemaic model of the universe, which has the Earth at the centre and.
all the astral bodies fixed in 'spheres' around it.
Holy Sonnets and Divine Meditations:.
Here Donne investigates issues of eternal and inescapable significance. Sin,.
repentance and death have always forced mankind to examine his faith and therefore.
demand an emotional response. Donne honestly and dramatically confronts these.
issues in all their complexity.
The tone of his holy sonnets are often cathartic and introspective, penitential and.
devotional. There is a sense of s own unworthiness before God and his fear of.
death, or rather is rationalisation of it. As with his secular poetry, they are.
characterised by their vigour, intensity, range of imagery employed, unusual.
juxtapositions and intricate word-play.
The witty images in his love poetry become, in his divine poetry images of a tortured.
soul and desperate fears. Mortality of kings and lovers is replaced by the more.
closely felt fear of personal mortality and its consequences. Images such as.
documents, blacksmiths, ravishers and besieged towns are similarly intensely worked.
to gain the necessary assurance of salvation.
While motivated by impulse and written to form, there is, however, no deep conflict.
between reason and faith, the argumentative tone suggest a deep need for.
reassurance that he can receive the mercy of God. Their emotional explosiveness is.
contained within the strict form of the Elizabethan sonnet. His choice of the sonnet.
form proves this because it is highly structured and therefore intellectually.
