Varieties of Wit in Donne and others

Hello, if someone can just proofread this and take out any errors and fix any sentence structure issues that would be very helpful. Basically just making sure everything is clean and makes sense.

Alexander Dimarino

3113W

Professor Brown

12/7/20

Wit in a generalized sense is often characterized by the ability to be clever and quick humored in a very creative and unique way. Ones wit often shows the sharpness and intelligible aptitude that one possesses. The way John Donne uses wit in comparison to my favorite writer thus far we have studied Thomas More has many distinctive differences. It is apparent that John Donne on the surface displays a sense of imagery with his very articulate descriptions that often rub off as provocative. Thomas More creates a world that is a “what-if” where he describes a perfect world of harmony with society functioning on all cylinders. More’s clever ideas however are not very transparent as his opinions are often clouded by descriptions and uncertainty to the reader. Donne uses a seductive-dramatic style whereas More uses imaginative techniques. It is clear to that both Donne and More also use irony to display wit when writing poetry.

You can see conflicting moods in Donne’s poetry shifting from a joyous to dark tone. He may seem at times he is contradicting himself with his emotions as he speaks about subjects. For example, in the poem “Song (Go, and catch a falling star)” by John Donne, he explains in this poem how there is a lack of loyalty from women and that it is very seldom to come across a “true and fair” woman,

“Nowhere/ Lives a woman true, and fair” (17-18). Donne is speaking of betrayal and believes that no woman possesses the capability to be “true and fair”. Their desires will eventually emerge, and they will show how they lack the ability to be loyal to one.

“Yet she/ Will be/ False, ere I come, to two, or three” (25-27). In Donne’s eyes, finding a woman of good intentions may seem like a possibility, but in the end, one will be proved wrong. However, you can see his tone dramatically shift in his poems in regard to women. It is as if Donne is using his own personal experiences in his life to describe how he is feeling, which seems to be a roller coaster of emotion. In his poem “Song; Sweetest I do Not Goe” by John Donne, he describes the hardship of parting from one another. He explains how death separates one another and ends love, so if they were to part before death it would help them become used to the feeling and make the feeling of losing one another easier.  “For weariness of thee/ Nor in hope the world can show/ A fitter love for me/ But since that I/ Must die at last, ‘tis best/ To use myself in jest/ Thus by feign’d deaths to die” (2-8). Donne explains his lines with such simplicity, yet they have such deep meaning. You can clearly see how he feels towards the woman he is writing to and how powerful the love is between them.

The display of ironic wit is evident here because it shows his deep emotion to both sides of love and how deep of a connecting is resulting from both. He is able to make the reader feel something very powerful and send such a strong message through both pieces even though they are conveying complete opposite matters. “Then fear not me/ But believe I shall make/ Speedier journeys, since I take/ More wings and spurs than he.” (13-16). He is willing to part from a woman he loves in order to avoid the risk of experiencing the pain that will take place to lose each other in death. Donne is clearly in deep love with this woman which can come as a shock to people if they were to read “Song (Go, and catch a falling star)” beforehand. One would not be able to fathom how one can go from being a betrayed soul with a despise for untruthfulness and no faith in a companion to be loyal, to being a man of sympathy and such compassionate feeling for another person.

To be able to switch perspective but be so descriptive and sensual about both sides shows what he has endured and how real of a perspective he has on love. A lot can be taken away from both of these poems he has written and gives a glance at the type of insight he provides with his writing. Donne’s dramatic flair that he uses can be seen most when he provides almost no emotion at all. This can be seen in his poem “Woman’s Constancy” where the writing is taken into a dramatic monologue almost similar to rant in his own head of sorts. He is questioning the actions of a woman and deciding how she will break his heart. “Now though has loved me one whole day/ Tomorrow when you leav’st, what wilt thou say? / Wilt thou then antedate some new-made vow? / Or say that now/ We are not just those persons which we were” (1-5). Donne’s dramatics and curiosity irks him the question of how long until his lover will leave. It is bound to eventually happen in his eyes, and it is only a matter of time before he is betrayed. She will eventually give up on him and move on to someone else, only to do the same hurtful act of creating an emotional connection and breaking it with another man.

Thomas More’s wit is made up his “experiences” in a Utopia. He is imaginative and created the character Raphael Hythloday, who has very passionate and sometimes provocative views on how a proper society should be run. More is very informational and covers every real-world problem we face in society whether it is poverty, equality, crime, religion etc. One thing that he focuses in on heavily that struck me was time management and efficiency. “There are no taverns, no ale-houses, nor stews among them, nor any other occasions of corrupting each other, of getting into corners, or forming themselves into parties; all men live in full view, so that all are obliged both to perform their ordinary task and to employ themselves well in their spare hours.” It is said that occasions that involve going out and having a good time are seen as corruption which can be seen to some as a negative who believe having fun and enjoying time is more important than productivity. On the other hand, people do go out and carelessly waste away their spare hours doing unhealthy and demotivating things which can affect your tasks in daily life.

More’s experiences and cleverness have made it apparent that he is able to give beneficial critiques to real world issues that can benefit from society today. More also uses irony in his writing to convey his points. He uses irony as a way to exaggerate his claims and sometimes contradicts himself. He oftentimes gives examples that may seem very unrealistic and eccentric. “But preachers, like the crafty fellows they are, have found that men would rather not change their lives to fit Christ’s rule, and so they have adjusted teaching to the way men live.” It is clear that the character Hythloday does not respect the way certain religions or certain preachers go about teaching religion. Even modernized, religion does teach values and guides people to being a more productive and good human being. One could see how Hythloday may seem like he is a taking a belief system, when there are still many practices that are followed today that do not conform to the way men live and are followed very closely.

Donne’s wit in his poetry displays a very powerful emotional impact on the reader, resulting in his effectiveness. His agony, hurt and use of dramatics all play a vital role in how powerful his writing is. Donne’s use of creating a spiritual metaphor in “The Bait” shows how he is able to make a reference to being wise and to not fall in love for beauty. “For thee, thou need’st no such deceit/ For thou thyself art thine own bait/ That fish, that is not catch’d thereby/ Alas, is wiser far than I” (25-28). Donne displays the power of his writing by describing how the woman is the bait and men are the fish, which personifies the true meaning of how you can fall for a woman just by beauty alone. This may only lead to pain when you do not know one’s true intentions and are fooled. With both writers you can see “the general notion of ‘intelligence’ through the more specific ‘ingenuity’ or ‘quickness of mind’ to the narrower modern idea of amusing verbal cleverness” (Baldick). Thomas More continues to prove this with his critiques on society when he states, “Among virtue has its reward, yet everything is shared equally, and all men live in plenty.” It is with these ideas that society can improve for the better by excluding greed, power, and all that makes a society doomed. Both writers had very different styles of wit, but were able to capture the attention of the reader with such “intellectual keenness” through the use of figurative language.

Works Cited

Baldick, Chris. The Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms, 4th ed., ed. Oxford UK: Oxford University Press, 2015.

Donne, John. “Song (Go, and catch a falling star)” The Broadview Anthology of British Literature, by Joseph Laurence Black et al., Broadview Press, 2016, pp. 809.

Donne, John. “Woman’s Constancy.” The Broadview Anthology of British Literature, by Joseph Laurence Black et al., Broadview Press, 2016, pp. 809.

Donne, John. “Song (Sweetest love, I do not go).” The Broadview Anthology of British Literature, by Joseph Laurence Black et al., Broadview Press, 2016, pp. 811.

More, Thomas. “Utopia.” The Broadview Anthology of British Literature, by Joseph Laurence Black et al., Broadview Press, 2016, pp. Book 1.

More, Thomas. “Utopia.” The Broadview Anthology of British Literature, by Joseph Laurence Black et al., Broadview Press, 2016, pp. Book 2 Chapter 6.