¡Descarga The good-morrow, john donne y más Apuntes en PDF de Idioma Inglés solo en Docsity! VIRTUAL SESSION 2. ACTIVITY 2 Here are two poems by John Donne. For this activity, you must comment ONE of them (& remove the other one). THE GOOD-MORROW (by John Donne) I WONDER by my troth, what thou and I Did, till we loved? were we not wean´d till then? But suck´d on country pleasures, childishly? Or snorted we in the Seven Sleepers' den? 'Twas so; but this, all pleasures fancies be; If ever any beauty I did see, Which I desired, and got, 'twas but a dream of thee. And now good-morrow to our waking souls, Which watch not one another out of fear; For love all love of other sights controls, And makes one little room an everywhere. Let sea-discoverers to new worlds have gone; Let maps to other, worlds on worlds have shown; Let us possess one world; each hath one, and is one. My face in thine eye, thine in mine appears, And true plain hearts do in the faces rest; Where can we find two better hemispheres Without sharp north, without declining west? Whatever dies, was not mix'd equally; If our two loves be one, or thou and I Love so alike that none can slacken, none can die. 1. Some words (following their order in the poem) are explained for you: by my troth: really; country: music; snorted: snored; seven sleepers’ den: refers to the legend of the seven persecuted Christians who were imprisoned in a cave and slept for 187 years but did not die; but: apart from; fancies: imagination, unreality; good morrow: good morning; maps: astronomical charts; worlds on worlds: many worlds; hemispheres: two hemispheres make up the world, but the lovers are superior because their union creates a world which does not have the negative characteristics of west or north; equally: Galen, the Roman doctor, wrote that death resulted from an imbalance of elements in the body. 2. Make sure you do understand the meaning of every word in the poem. I have not indicated the meaning of some words (wean, alike, slacken, etc.) because they are rather common and in this case, they are used with right sense. 3. Why does the poet wonder what they did before they loved? What does this imply about the psychological time-scale of love? Donne wondered what they did before they loved because with these rhetorical questions he consolidates love to his inamorata in the poem. He asks himself, “I wonder by my troth, what thou and I Did, till we loved? were we not wean'd till then? But suck'd on country pleasures, childishly?Or snorted we in the Seven Sleepers' den?” because Donne would prefer expend his past life with his darling rather than without her. It involves that, probably, Donne would change his past existence for her to expend most time possible with she, but he cannot join in because these issues belong to Fate. 4. Why does the poet describe their souls as ‘waking’? I think Donne describes souls as “waking” because they must act according to save their love. They must act cautious, show their inside in a “waking” way. 5. How does love transform the room where the lovers are? Donne said: “For love all love of other sights controls, And makes one little room an everywhere.” He refers that when they are together, it does not matter the place where they are, even though it be the most miserable place, it is the place where they are love the other, and for this reason, it have a special importance. 6. How does Donne compare their world with other worlds? What is significance of this? Donne write: “Let sea-discoverers to new worlds have gone; Let maps to other, worlds on worlds have shown; Let us possess one world; each hath one, and is one.” It means Donne wants that both show their own world inside them, I mean, their personality, behavior, ideals, felling, etc. to build a new world which belongs them. 7. What is Donne’s conclusion? What conditions are necessary for love to last forever? “Whatever dies, was not mix'd equally; If our two loves be one, or thou and I Love so alike that none can slacken, none can die.” Donne thinks eternal love will never die when the owners of that love get a perfect connection between them, even though their love is “Love so alike that none can slacken”. 8. Personal response: do you feel that this rather spectacular view of love is still relevant to our 21st-century existence, or are more down-to-earth (con los pies en el suelo) today? I think nowadays, love´s vision agrees with down- to-earth theory, but I am generalizing a little bit. Personally, I say Western societies educate us with this vision. In my case, I guess I also follow this theory to get not suffering, but, when I really feel love to someone, I feel over the moon rather than in the floor. Even so, I think this spectacular view of love is not still relevant to our 21st-century existence.
