religious imagery in poetry Essay

Religious Imagery in Every School
Jean Cocteau once said, “The poet doesn't invent. He listens.” He could be listening to his hearts, impulse, or old thoughts. Each one of these items has a certain form of poetry that follows these “voices.” Metaphysical poetry follows what is in the heart of the poet and what he thinks will best connect the idea of everlasting love with something like sainthood. Cavalier poets use their impulses and immediate feelings to express time slipping away and the need to immortalize someone in a poem. Neoclassical poetry satirizes things that should have larger meanings whose meanings have been lost through the changing times of society. In John Donne’s “The Canonization,” Robert Herrick’s “To Daffodils,” and Alexander Pope’s “The Rape of the Lock,” each use their individual styles of writing to incorporate religion into their poems with the use of metaphors and poetic devices to express their particular feelings.

In metaphysical poetry, the poet lives in the moment, love is endless, and time means nothing. Metaphysical poets are full of emotion and are able to connect two ridiculous things by using love as a tie between them. In John Donne’s “The Canonization” love is connected with metaphor after metaphor to explain the speakers need to love over everything else. The human body may be something fleeting, but the feelings in the human heart and mind never die. This love can be continued on like the lives of saints or a poem that is still being read today.
As the poem begins, it is clear that the speaker is addressing someone who is in argument over his love affair. In Donne’s first lines, “FOR God's sake hold your tongue, and let me love; or chide my palsy, or my gout;”He begins by trying to persuade the reader to disapprove or make fun of his shortcomings, instead of his affection.
Furthermore, Donne continues on by saying that his love is not the cause of war or floods but that his love is, when looked at as part of a bigger...