Letteratura inglese III, prof. Michelucci 1

JOHN DONNE GEORGE HERBERT 

He’s more extreme, strong imagine Peaceful, harmonious composition George’s

The tone is darker suavity.

Donne’s speaker tend to imagine a more distant Herbert’s speaker see evidence of God’s presence

God whose presence and intervention cannot at practically everywhere in the world

all be taken for granted Herbert occasionally explores is doubts in

He expresses his doubts in intellectual terms, and intellectural terms, but answer them with

answers them in the same way emotion

He wrote for a limited readership. Because He wrote for all classes reader or people the lines

understanding Donne takes effort and are simpler and shorter, we understand them

concentration easily

Both poets often strongly emphasize an attitude of humility toward God. Herbert stresses humility, for

instance, in such a poem as “Love III,” while Donne highlights the same attitude in many of his Holy

Sonnets.

Both are metaphysical poets

Attitude of humility toward God

Both use highly memorable and unusual imagery

Poems that start with a kind of crisis, conflict which almost seems not to have a solution and at the end you

reach this kind of solution to the conflict.

It’s like a fairytale – starting with a conflict > a break of the balance > resolution at the end

LOVE – Herbert

Love bade me welcome. Yet my soul drew back

Guilty of dust and sin. L'Amore mi aprì le braccia

But quick-eyed Love, observing me grow slack e la mia anima indietreggiò,

From my first entrance in, colpevole di fango e di vergogna.

Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning, Ma, con rapido sguardo, l'Amore

If I lacked any thing. vide la mia debolezza fin dal mio primo istante

e venne più vicino chiedendomi dolcemente

se qualcosa mi mancava.

A guest, I answered, worthy to be here: "Un invitato" risposi "degno di essere qui".

Love said, You shall be he. "Tu sarai quello", disse l'Amore.

I the unkind, ungrateful? Ah my dear, Io, il maligno, l'ingrato?

I cannot look on thee. O mio amato, non posso neppure guardarti.

Love took my hand, and smiling did reply, L'Amore prese la mia mano e replicò sorridendo:

- "Chi ha fatto i tuoi occhi, se non io?"

Who made the eyes but I? - "E' vero, Signore, ma li ho sporcati;

lascia la mia miseria vada dove si merita".

Truth Lord, but I have marred them: let my shame - "E non sai tu" disse l'Amore "chi ne portò su di se il castigo?"

Go where it doth deserve. - "Mio amato, allora ti servirò".

And know you not, says Love, who bore the blame? - "Occorre che tu ti sieda", disse l'Amore, "che tu gusti il mio cibo".

My dear, then I will serve. E io mi sedetti e mangiai.

You must sit down, says Love, and taste my meat:

So I did sit and eat.

Summary

The whole poem is about the change of position: pilgrim (lower position); God (higher position)

God said to him that he’s the right one pilgrim – higher position

The pilgrim said to be ungrateful and unkind because he thinks that he’s not the right one.

“I can’t even look at you”

“Yes” – I am your father, come with me, no matter what you’ve done.

Love took my hand and replied kindly as love wants to protect him.

Structure

It’s composed by three stanzas. Each stanza has six lines. 3 stanzas = Trinity

It has a particular structure, style.

It has binary movement: one shorter, one longer line.

It’s like a dialogue between two characters. Love (personification of God) and the poet (common pilgrim)

It has a strong theatrical aspect.

They start with a kind of crisis, conflict which almost seems not to have solution and the end you reach this kind

of solution to the conflict.

st

1 stanza

The first stanza describes how the lyrical voice is called by Love. The lyrical voice describes how he/she is

welcomed by love (“Love bade me welcome”). Love is being personified, as it can speak and interact with

the lyrical voice in a human way, and works, at the same time, as a metaphor of God. Nevertheless, the

lyrical voice feels guilty and wants to refuse Love’s invitation (“Yet my soul drew back/Guilty of dust and

sin”). Love observes the lyrical voice’s guilt and draws near him/her (“But quick-eyed Love, observing me

grow slack/ From my first entrance in,/Drew nearer to me”). Instead of blaming or criticizing the lyrical

voice, Love asks him/her whether he/she need something (“sweetly questioning,/If I lacked any thing”). The

lyrical voice has a guilty and nervous tone, as he/she feels ashamed of his/her own sins. The action narrated

throughout the poem seems to have already taken place due to the tense of the verbs. However, the

narration is powerful and vivid, as the poem is structured in a dialogue form, which is furthered in the

following two stanzas.

 Break of balance. Crise, conflict.

 Love is the first character, is a representation of God says ‘welcome, come here. I don’t send you away’

 He’s using for the action of pilgrim a concrete word “dust”

 My soul is full of dust

 We are totally light

 The pilgrim comes from a long journey, they’re not perfect. After a long journey, walking are full of dust.

 love/ God is intelligent.

 Personification of God

 The crisis he tend to confict the person of the human being appear in front of human God???

 He’s using a sort of gergo

 It’s about God serving the pilgrims

 Dust = both levels – pilgrim

 Quick-eyed = intelligent

 Sweetly = child attitude

nd

2 stanza

The second stanza presents a debate. The lyrical voice tells Love that he/she lacks the worthiness to be in

front of him (“A guest, I answered, worthy to be here”). Love replies that he/she should be there (“Love

said, You shall be he”). The lyrical voice will insist on his/her ungratefulness and his/her unworthiness (I the

unkind, ungrateful? Ah my dear,/I cannot look on thee”). Love will reassure the lyrical voice and tell him/her

once again that he/she is worthy of his presence (“Love took my hand, and smiling did reply,/Who made the

eyes but I?”). In this stanza, the conversation between the lyrical voice and Love is more dynamic as they

debate on whether the lyrical voice is worthy of Love’s presence. The tone shifts, it is more mild and gentle,

as the lyrical voice accepts Love’s words. God, in the form of Love, is presented as a forgiving, as he tells the

lyrical voice: “Who made the eyes but I?”. The dialogic form of the stanza, and of the entire poem, has a

regular pace, constructed by this question and answer form. This interaction between the lyrical voice and

Love, God, has a ceremonial feel that is brought down to earth by the lexical simplicity in the words used.

 God is personified by Love

 You are the guest that I was waiting for

 Pilgrim thinks not to be the right one

 “I can’t even look at you”

 I’m not your father, come here, no matter what you’ve done

 He doesn’t have to be worried, he’s the one who has created him

 He: implies the elected guest – you should be the person I was waiting for

 Ungrateful, unkind: the pilgrim said to be like this because he thinks that is not the right one

 Smile: wants to reassure him

rd

3 stanza

The third stanza presents the last part and the end of the dialogue between Love and the lyrical voice. The

lyrical voice feels ashamed because he/she “have marred” his/her eyes (“Truth Lord, but I have marred

them: let my shame/ Go where it doth deserve”). Once again, the lyrical voice feels guilty, sinful, and not

worthy of Love’s presence and words. Love will insist that he “bore the blame” (there is alliteration in this

phrase). The lyrical voice emphasizes his duty to Love, and God, and says that he/she “will serve”. Finally,

Love says that the lyrical voice must “taste” his meat, and the lyrical voice finishes the stanza by saying that

he/she did (“So I did sit and eat”). Notice how the tone changes and, in these last lines, the lyrical voice

Love (III)

overcomes his/her feelings of guilt and his/her nerves and accepts the gentle words of Love. In ,

this holy love, the love of God, compensates for human weaknesses

 My soul is full of sins and they are reflected to my soul

 I’m not pure enough to come

 Love said: who bore the blame (l’accusa).

Who is the one who took all the responsibility of al to sins

 Love is addressing the pilgrim using “you”:

o as God was a sort of servant

o As he wanted to identify the pilgrim with all human beings

 So that I did sit and eat

 You: the pilgrim. Courtesy form created by plural

 My meat: myself

 Meat/Eat: the author want to make rhyme with meat but to make it more stressed

THE ALTAR – George Herbert

A broken ALTAR, Lord, thy servant rears, Ti dono un altare crepato,

Made of a heart and cemented with Signore,

tears; cementato di lacrime, fatto col

Whose parts are as thy hand did frame; cuore;

No workman's tool hath touch'd the le parti le hai create tu

same. stesso,

A HEART alone mai toccate, prima di adesso.

Is such a stone, Un cuore solo

As nothing but È un materiale

Thy pow'r doth cut. Che solo la tua

Wherefore each part potenza intaglia.

Of my hard heart Perciò ogni parte

Meets in this frame di un cuore arduo

To praise thy name. si unisce insieme

That if I chance to hold my peace, a lodare il tuo nome.

These stones to praise thee may not Così che quando dovrò

cease. tacere,

Oh, let thy blessed SACRIFICE be mine, saranno le pietre il mio

And sanctify this ALTAR to be thine. cantore.

Fa che il tuo santo sacrificio sia

il mio,

Per santificare questo altare

come tuo.

Analysis

It’s composed by 4 stanzas, 4 lines each one.

 There’s a game between 3 (number of trinity) and 4

Summary

The poem is shaped as an altar, and tells God he's building an altar made out of his heart that is held together

with tears. Nobody has carved or fixed up the "stones" he's using to build it (they are just the way God made

them). He's putting all of his heart and soul into this altar in order to praise God, and in order to leave something

behind after he's dead and gone that will still praise God. In the end, he wants God's sacrifice to be his, and for

God to bless this altar he has built for him

The altar is the heart of sacrifice.

The frame is the creation

I would like the altar to be perfect. I want to glorify it.

Lines 1-4

The first thing we encounter in this poem is an image,