En 205 Study Guide

• List of Authors with their works

• John Donne

• The Flea
• The Undertaking
• Death Be Not Proud

• George Herbert

• The Alter
• Easter Wings

• Andrew Marvell

• The Coronet

• Milton Paradise Lost

• Book 1,3 and 4 (Put emphasis on 1 and 4)

• Jonathan Swift

• A Modest Proposal
• Gulliver’s Travels

• Alexander Pope

• The Rape of the Lock

Works and their relevance

• The Flea

• Written in Petrarchan verse
• The flea is a metaphor known as a hyperbole – staple of metaphysical poetry – takes something small and makes it bigger than it is.
• Lover envies the flea because it encompasses the union of the couple without being married. The flea is not just representing its life now, but also the lives of both this horn dog and his mistress.
• First two stanzas summary – flea has mixed our blood. Why not just go ahead and make this union official?
• Final stanza – You’ve just ruined your soul by killing the flea. Might as well go ahead and make your crime worse by us getting it on.
• Overall:  This guy just emphasizes that the struggle.is.real and existed in the early 17th century.

• The Undertaking

• Narrator starts by saying he has done a brave thing, but is not going to brag about it.
• If he should say something, then his task becomes less meaningful for everyone would try to copy.
• Says to love a person regardless of society. For you become “braver than all the Worthies”. He’s bragging on himself at this point.

• Death Be Not Proud

• No notes, so no class interpretation here
• Compares Death to something as peaceful as sleep or rest, not a plague that is brought by poison or war. When a Christian will go to sleep, they will wake in Heaven (Eternity) and Death himself will die.

• Donne deals more with the lovey-dovey of metaphysical poetry.

Check power point to review the group metaphysics- one-ups everyone else[pic 1]

[pic 2]

Andrew Marvell

• The Coronet

• Uses thorns as a symbol for the pain that he should suffer through sin. Wants to redress these thorns with a garland of flowers, or a coronet.
• While his poems will come out and he will gain fame, Marvell predicts the breadth of his success and by doing so he will become entwined with the dealings of the serpent.
• Says the reader should not bother reading his poems because they are diminishing to the true nature of the world: seeking passage into heaven’s throne. Yet through his humility, Marvell accepts that he alone is not worthy of Christ’s sacrifice and would at least be able to crown his feet if not permitted to take out the thorns on his head.

• John Milton

• Paradise Lost – THE EPIC ORIGINAL STORY, BUT TOLD IN A WAY TO MAKE IT SEEM ORIGINAL…. awh yeaaaahhhh

• Now, Milton disagrees with the Calvinist belief that pre-destination exists. He believes that God is omniscient, but people are still capable of free will. The whole works serves as like an unofficial prequel to the Bible, with Milton splicing both Old and New Testament figures in there, but he really just makes it sound like he was showboating his education.  So, the summary:

• Note: She said to focus really on 1 and 4, so review all highlighted quotes and side notes in your book from those areas.

• Book 1

•  Starts with a preface that explains it purpose: the fall of Satan, the fall of man, God’s commands, etc. Begins kind of “in medias res” of it all with Satan getting kicked out of Heaven into Chaos. He then finds Beelzebub and the other fallen angels that fought God and together, they form Satan’s Army.
• They then build a temple called Pandemonium and prepare for the battle against God’s new world (Earth).

• Book 4

• Satan starts feeling sad that he can no longer go back to Heaven.
• Line 20: “Hell within him, for within him Hell”

• Milton has personified Satan when compared to his description in the Bible. He is given emotions and ambiguity to express Milton’s point to the readers: Satan’s not the evil we’ve been led to believe; mankind is the evil because of their free will.

• Line 115-117: --possible quote ID – short, simple, relevant

• He looks around to see the Paradise that God has created and is in disgust because of it. 3 different emotions.

• Gabriel and Satan want to fight, but God comes in and referees with the Scales of Balance saying Gab would win.

18th Century Literature

• Escalation

• Literacy development in Europe>More readers> More writers=*Boom* Diversity in genres
•  Commentary on this diversity

• Innovation
• Criticism of said innovation (satire= most famous critique)

• Public sphere of society

• Shift from rural to urban (population rising)
• Development of cafes, theaters and public libraries spread sphere of knowledge, civility and politeness.
• Rise of individualism and civil engagement.

• Science and Nature

• Developments in science that sparred from Newton’s apple whoopsie that makes us all learn Calculus and such today.
• Set background for culture of “curiosity”
• Enlightenment thinkers place people in center of rational development. They’re evidently already set in that department.

• War

• Great Rebellion
• Restoration – leads to restoration comedy – theaters re-open. Shakespeare gets famous again. Woo-hoo!
• Glorious Revolution

• No more solid Roman Catholic
• Takes away idea of divine right and makes it more of who has got that fire bloodline.

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