Time, Cosmos, Microcosm: Browne and Donne

A brief preliminary: after class yesterday, I realized that we need to have a better sense of the historical period. How would we put the following events on a time-line?: birth and death of Donne; birth and death of Shakespeare; birth and death of Milton; accession of Elizabeth to the throne; death of Elizabeth; death of James I; death of Charles I; beginning and end of English Civil Wars; Restoration; Luther's 95 Theses; publication of King James Bible? Are there any other important dates would help give us a better sense of the period?

For the next class, we will be pairing readings of Donne with Thomas Browne in relation to the following headings: 1. Time, 2. Cosmos, and 3. Microcosm. I have collected readings in files on our documents site, 'Donne Poetry Selections' and 'Selected Readings from Browne's Religio Medici'. Please make sure that you read these texts with care (Browne's prose, remember, is like poetry), and have these texts for class.

In conjunction with the selections from Browne on time, please read Holy Sonnet X, Woman's Constancy and Love's Alchemy.

In conjunction with the selection from Browne on the cosmos, please read The Canonization, The Flea, and Holy Sonnet XIV. For this section, we will keep in mind Dr. Johnson's judgement of the poet - as one who 'yoked the most heterogeneous ideas by violence together.' Is Donne inventing connections between the different subjects of his poetry - which Johnson finds only remotely related, or is he discovering 'occult resemblances?' In what ways do Browne and Bacon conceive of nature differently? To what extend does a Brownian conception of nature inform the poetry of Donne?

What does Donne mean in Expostulation 19, when he says that God is a metaphorical God?

In conjunction with the selections from Browne on the microcosm, please go over your readings of Donne's Meditation 4 and 17 (assigned last time), and read The Good Morrowe, The Sun Rising, A Valediction of Weeping, and Good Friday, Riding Westwards.

Please check the site again towards the end of the week for possible further updates.