An Analysis of Metaphysical Conceits in John Donne’s Poems

In the seventeenth century British literary arena appears a unique school of poetry called “metaphysical school”. The most remarkable characteristic of the metaphysical poetry is the original and arresting conceits. John Donne is the forefather and the most representative of the school. Through analyzing the sources of conceits in John Donne’s poems, this paper attempts to clarify the using of conceits in John Donne’s representative poems, and then summarize the features and unique functions of conceits. It is hoped that it can help readers to have a better understanding of the poet’s poetry, and grasp his thoughts.

‘The poetry’s domain is shrinking like a piece of shagreen — and primarily in people’s hearts’

Kekova’s new interview recorded by E. Konstantinova shows a combined portrait of Kekova as a poet adhering to the ‘neoclassical’ tradition of 20th-c. metaphysical poetry as well as a scholar specialising in works by A. Tarkovsky and N. Zabolotsky and their intertextual relations. The interview raises the issues of contemporary philological research, the tradition of Christian poetics, of ‘sermon’ in literature, and the legacies of the Silver and Golden Ages. According to Kekova, Tarkovsky’s and Zabolotsky’s poetic oeuvres have more in common with the Golden rather than Silver Age, hence their rejection of the delusions of Symbolism and the yearning for philosophical comprehension of their place in the world; she admits to sharing this pursuit as a poet. Kekova’s on point comments to poems by her beloved authors ensure better understanding of her own poetics, and Konstantinova’s questions reveal their semantic and stylistic interconnectedness.

N. A. Nekrasov and the English pre-Romanticists (to the origins of the poetic motif of Night)

The paper investigates the literary roots of «night-motifs» in N. Nekrasov`s epic «Who is Happy in Russia?» and his «night» poems «Knight for an Hour» and «Railroad» down to English poetry of XVII–XVIII cc.: metaphysical poetry by H. Vaughan (XVII c.) and greater didactic poem by E. Young (XVIII c.). Both mythological and lyrical «night» motifs of H. Vaughan`s poetry owed to ancient folk traditions of the poet`s Motherland – Wales, with its archaic Celtic language, rituals and sacred festivals (such as Samhein). E. Young`s poem «Complaint or night thoughts on life, death and immortality» (1743–1745) is closely related to later baroque culture, stressing the night-motif in the context of the poet`s contemplation of life, death and christian immortality of human soul. H. Vaughan`s and E. Young`s «night» poetry influenced greatly the sentimentalist and preromantic trends in European poetic traditions of XVIII–XIX cc. N. Nekrasov`s main epic poem with its profound night motifs, though continuing pre-romantic European traditions of H. Vaughan and E. Young, remains greatly indigenous and rooted deeply in both folk and poetic Russian orthodox culture.

Wagnerian Contexts and Wagner’s Codes of T.S. Eliot’s Poetry, 1910-20s

The paper deals with the analysis of reception and poetic transformation of aesthetic concepts and music ideas of Richard Wagner (1813–1883) in the works by T. S. Eliot (1888–1965). The research material includes the poems of the 1910-20s (“Opera”, “Paysage Triste”, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”, The Waste Land) as well the essay “Dante” and lectures “The Varieties of Metaphysical Poetry”, “The Music of Poetry”. The research is aimed to solve the problem of genesis of Eliot's Wagnerianism and identify the Wagnerian codes for his poetic texts. Following the representatives of literary Wagnerianism Eliot assimilated the ideas of revolutionary art, anti-bourgeois pathos, ideas of synthesis of arts, indivisibility of poetry and music, mythopoesis, etc. The poetry of the 1910–20s reflected Eliot’s interest in a wide cultural context (Wagnerianism and “Wagnerovschina”), Neo-Mythologism, etc. The poetry of this period is characterized by representation of Wagnerian “situations” and plots (the Grail plot), themes, composition strategies (system of leitmotifs, multi-layered text, etc.), music techniques (atonality, “endless melody”, suggestiveness, etc.), the direct quotations from Wagner’s works, etc. The author of the paper suggests that The Waste Land was created as a Gesamtkunstwerk, a complex multi-level poetic intermedial structure incorporating the elements of different arts (music, painting, scenography, dance, etc.).