CONCEITS, TYPE OF CONCEITS, CONCEITS USED BY JOHN DONNE PRESENTATION BY GROUP 1 GROUP LEADER: SANA ABID. MEMBERS: ZAINAB REHMAN. FOZIA QADIR. NIMRA NASEEM.

Presentation on theme: "CONCEITS, TYPE OF CONCEITS, CONCEITS USED BY JOHN DONNE PRESENTATION BY GROUP 1 GROUP LEADER: SANA ABID. MEMBERS: ZAINAB REHMAN. FOZIA QADIR. NIMRA NASEEM."— Presentation transcript:

1 CONCEITS, TYPE OF CONCEITS, CONCEITS USED BY JOHN DONNE PRESENTATION BY GROUP 1 GROUP LEADER: SANA ABID. MEMBERS: ZAINAB REHMAN. FOZIA QADIR. NIMRA NASEEM. SAMEEN KHAN. FARHEEN GUL. AASIA JAN. SHAZIA KHAN

2 WHAT IS A CONCEIT? As a literary device, a conceit uses an extended metaphor. compares two very dissimilar things. often elaborate and controls a large section of a poem or the entire poem. unique and ingenious, and can present striking juxtaposition and comparison of the unlike things.

3 CHANGES IN THE DEFINITION OF CONCEITS! The definition of conceit has changed over time. It was an especially popular literary device in the Renaissance Era, and with the so-called metaphysical poets, like John Donne. In the beginning of the Renaissance, the word conceit referred to any fanciful expression of wit. Later, it gained negative connotations, and was used to describe the type of over-the-top comparisons that poets of the Renaissance Era sometimes used to describe their loved ones. Now, the word has come to mean an extended metaphor of the kind popular in the Renaissance Era, without positive or negative connections.

4 DIFFERENCE BETWEEN METAPHYSICAL CONCEIT AND PETRARCHAN CONCEIT PETRARCHAN CONCEITS Petrarchan conceit is named for the Italian poet Petrarch, and applies only to love poetry in which the beloved is compared hyperbolically to extreme experiences or things. It is through these hyperbolic comparisons that the poet demonstrates the blissful heights and desperate lows of being in love. sometimes Petrarchan conceits are examples of oxymoron, as Shakespeare parodies in Romeo’s insistence that his love for Rosaline is like “bright smoke, cold fire, sick health.” METAPHYSICAL CONCEITS Metaphysical conceit is an imaginative leap made to compare two very unlike things and explore their similarities. Sometimes a poet can hide the real meaning of the metaphor under the surface of this comparison, while at other times a poet might choose to literalize a metaphor and explore what it would be like if the metaphor were realistic.

5 COMMON EXAMPLES OF CONCEIT Here are some idiom examples that display a conceit. Life is a bowl of cherries. Dead as a doornail. The apple of discord. Fit as a fiddle. Steal someone’s thunder. Spill the beans.

6 CONCEITS AND IMAGES OF JOHN DONNE

7 DIFFERENCE BETWEEN CONCEIT AND IMAGERY IMAGERY One of the stock devices used by a poet is imagery. images which are just and natural are employed by all the poets. For example: Comparing the cheeks of the beloved to a rose is an image. CONCEIT conceits emphasise the degree of heterogeneity—the strong element of unlikeness and the violence or strain used in bringing together dissimilar objects. comparing the cheeks of the lover to a rose because they have lost their colour and are bleeding from thorns, (and the consequent gloom) is a conceit.

8 NATURE OF JOHN DONNE’S CONCEITS!

9 1. DONNE’S CONCEITS ARE METAPHYSICAL they are taken from the extended world of knowledge, from science, astrology, astronomy, scholastic philosophy, fine arts, etc. They are scholarly and learned conceits and much too far-fetched and obscure. Moreover, they are elaborate. The well-known conceit of the two lovers being compared to a pair of compasses, where one leg remains fixed at the centre and the other rotates is an elaborate and extended conceit. Similarly, the comparison of the flea to a bridal bed or a marriage temple is another example of an elaborate conceit. In The Sun Rising, the beloved’s bed is the universe and the walls are the sphere.

10 2. TENSION OR MAGNETIC FORCE there is a sort of tension or magnetic force holding together the apparently dissimilar objects in a conceit. this tension holds the two together, while keeping their identities separate. This violent yoking together is done by the metaphysical element.

11 DONNE’S CONCEIT IS NOT A DECORATION Donne’s conceit is not a decoration, a piece of super-imposed machinery or setting but an organic part of the poetic process. While the Elizabethan conceit is traditional and ornamental, the metaphysical conceit is basic and structural. It is a part of the process of amplification and argument. It plays a vital role in proving the thesis of the poet. The separation of the husband and wife in A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning, is like the movement of one leg of the compass while the other leg is fixed at the centre. The drawing of the circle to indicate the journey of the poet to a foreign country and the stay of his wife at London like the fixed side of the compass is basic to the theme of the poem. The rotating side of the compass must return to the base to join the other side ultimately and as such there is no need to mourn.

12 MIXTURE OF THOUGHT AND FEELING Donne blends thought and feeling in his conceits to achieve the ‘unification of sensibility. The situation is emotional. its treatment and descriptions are wholly intellectual. Mark the description of the cheeks of the beloved in The Second Anniversary. Her sure and eloquent blood Spoke in her checks and so distinctly wrought, That one might almost say her body thought. Here the body (a physical thing) is connected with thought

13 SOURCES OF HIS CONCEITS. He sought conceits from the rich and varied experiences of his own life and the widening horizons of knowledge and the world around him. Donne does not draw on the source-material of Elizabethan poets for his conceits. His originality prevented him from following the Petrarchan or pastoral tradition. Donne had tasted life to the finger-tips and had lived en the continent for quite some time. This widened the scope of his knowledge and as such he enriched his poetry with conceits drawn from his vast experience of men and manners. Joan Bennett writes in this connection: “His images are drawn from his own interests….”

14 CONCEITS REFLECTING CONTEMPORARY DEVELOPMENTS John Donne made various references to alchemy for his conceits. He utilises contemporary chemical ideas indiscriminately. He made use of the latest scientific theories and current superstitions for ornamentation of his poems. He frequently utilised geographical images which reflected increasing knowledge of the world’s surface during his time. All these subjects were his delight; all such subjects occurred to him in his mood of poetic creation. For example, his poems A Valediction: Of the Book, The First Anniversary, Hymn to God, God in My Sickness, The Good Morrow, and An Anatomy of the World reflect his craziness for using the contem­porary ideas pertaining to geography.

15 IMAGERY DRAWN FROM DISEASE AND DEATH Donne was writing in an age when Death lurked round the corner, and plague, famine and violence were an everyday occurrence. Donne himself experienced disease and poverty. So, he had an urge to learn medicine His knowledge of medicine enabled him to draw images from disease, dissolution and death.

16 THANKYOU!