It’s the Latin version of the most famous Delphic maxim, strongly recommended by Socrates, γνῶθῐ σεαυτόν (Know Thyself).
This all-important loan translation is more precisely rendered “ nosce te ipsum”. In 1594, Sir John Davies (1569-1626) brought together two meditative poems under the title Nosce Teipsum. This week’s “poem” is an extract from an extract, so a little context is useful. The learned Muse - probably Clio, the Muse of History and founder of historical and heroic poetry. Which is a proud, and yet a wretched thing. I know my sense is mocked with everything Yet to the least and vilest things am thrall. I know I am one of nature’s little kings, I know my soul hath power to know all things, She within lists my ranging mind hath brought,Īs force without, fevers within, can kill Nor rules of art, nor precepts of the wise,Ĭould in my brain those beams of skill infuse,Īs but the glance of this dame’s angry eyes. So lopped and pruned trees do flourish fair So working lees settle and purge the wine So do the winds and thunders cleanse the air Reformed my will and rectified my thought. Hath made my senses quick, and reason clear, He is particularly famous for his mastery of metaphysical conceits.This mistress lately plucked me by the ear, He wrote secular poems as well as erotic and love poems. Another important theme in Donne's poetry is the idea of true religion, something that he spent much time considering and about which he often theorized. His early career was marked by poetry that bore immense knowledge of English society and he met that knowledge with sharp criticism. These features, along with his frequent dramatic or everyday speech rhythms, his tense syntax and his tough eloquence, were both a reaction against the smoothness of conventional Elizabethan poetry and an adaptation into English of European baroque and mannerist techniques. Donne's style is characterised by abrupt openings and various paradoxes, ironies and dislocations. His poetry is noted for its vibrancy of language and inventiveness of metaphor, especially compared to that of his contemporaries. His works are noted for their strong, sensual style and include sonnets, love poems, religious poems, Latin translations, epigrams, elegies, songs, satires and sermons. He is considered the pre-eminent representative of the metaphysical poets. John Donne (/ˈdʌn/ dun) (between 24 January and 19 June 1572 – 31 March 1631) was an English poet and a cleric in the Church of England.
0 kommentar(er)
