Metaphysical and Romantic Poetry

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How are Donne’s major themes of religious spiritualism and spiritual love reflected in three of his poems? Donne’s major themes of religious spiritualism and spiritual love are reflected in his poem, The Flea, in which he compares marriage to a flea, commenting on the institution of marriage and its role within society. He continues to explore these themes of spirituality in For Whom the Bell Tolls in which he conveys that all of mankind is spiritually connected. In Love’s Alchemy Donne highlights the difficulty of attempting to understand love, concluding that love is ineffable and is the result of a spiritual connection between two people. Donne’s The Flea follows a male character’s attempts at persuading his partner to succumb to his sexual desires. Donne’s use of metaphor in, “This flea is you and I, and this our marriage bed, and marriage temple is” compares the flea to the sacred institution of marriage, invoking a sense of transcendence and purity about the church and religion, whilst questioning its integrity by alluding to sex. Donne employs symbolism in the passage, “three lives in one flea spare...And sacrilege, three sins in killing three” alluding to the Holy Trinity of Christianity reinforcing that the flea is sacred and holy, exploring the concern of religious spiritualism within the conceit of the flea. Donne explores the concepts of death and loss in For Whom the Bell Tolls, relating individuals and the whole of humanity to land through the metaphysical conceit. The piece focuses on the idea of death and loss and comments on how the entirety of mankind is related in the metaphor, “No man is an island, entire of itself” conveying that all humans are connected through their experiences and spirituality and that no one is truly isolated nor whole by oneself, instigating a powerful sense of belonging. Furthermore, the notion of death is explored

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