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Post by wrongdoor on Nov 10, 2007 0:36:32 GMT -5
Hello! I hope that a thread like this has not previously been started. However, I am wondering in your (anyone's opinion) if you can relate Wilmot's work with other contemporaries of his time or slightly before (be it in style, ethic, construction, allusions...etc)
The authors / poets that I am most interested in are Sydney, Spenser, Surrey, Wyatt, Petrarch, Wroth, Shakespeare, Chaucer.
Just something I've been stewing over and would love some insight on!
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Post by The Poetic Protégée on Nov 12, 2007 13:11:05 GMT -5
Wow, fascinating thread, wrongdoor! I will try my best to contribute sometime soon...I would love to hear what you think!  |
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Post by The Rolling Rooster on Nov 12, 2007 15:46:52 GMT -5
I actually was doing some thinking about this. There seems to be a strong and noticeable shift in the boundaries between friends and love, eroticism and pornography, pleasure and danger, adoration and misogyny in the works of John Donne (in his Holy Sonnets- in particular #14 he asks God to "rape" him so that he may be "chaste" and several sexual paradoxes are given as well as simply violent statements  ) and Lady Mary Wroth. Furthermore, John Wilmot tends to take the perception or female voice (which Lady Mary Wroth was famous for revolutionizing- though she may not have been the first)... and they are all beginning to stray from the formal "Italian" and "English" versions of sonnets- to different sequences and different poetry altogether! Just a few thoughts  |
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Post by The Poetic Protégée on Nov 14, 2007 14:44:39 GMT -5
Wow! A few thoughts, she says. ;D I'm not familiar with John Donne. I will have to do some research.
This period of history is famous for its breaking down of boundaries. I never thought of that applying to the form of the poetry as well as the content, but now you mention it it makes perfect sense! With so much freedom, there was bound to be a great deal of experimentation and liberation.
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Post by The Rolling Rooster on Nov 14, 2007 15:33:58 GMT -5
Actually I have an "open" topic in my British Literature course and I am going to focus on Donne's Holy Sonnets (I'm not settled yet on my thesis) but I hope it will prove to be interesting and insightful, and I will certainly post about it here. He is an incredibly fascinating man! He went from being an atheist to being a very controversial Puritan preacher  Quite a jump But nevertheless he raises points in shocking manners that I think is a wonderful tactic for urging people to action I'll know more after more research |
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Post by The Poetic Protégée on Nov 16, 2007 3:27:51 GMT -5
I'm looking forward to hearing more, Roo! That sounds like a fascinating topic. (British Literature course, awwwesome! ;D ).
Interesting that Donne changed from athiest to preacher and John Wilmot, who was outspoken against religion, renounced his former ways on his deathbed. Not quite as extreme as becoming a preacher but I guess he didn't have much time. It's interesting though, was it the fear of death that made him embrace religion or was he on that path? I am inclined to believe the former, personally.
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Post by The Rolling Rooster on Nov 16, 2007 3:32:08 GMT -5
I'm really not certain to the reason- but yes I think it is a great parallel, though not TOO closely drawn! I can also picture him converting just to get a priest out of his bedchambers...  (Sorry that is heinous) but I think he did it for a good reason, with his life it seems contradictory, but we never know what is happening in the depths of one's soul I hope to continue this chat!!! Fascinating stuff |
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