Revisiting John Donne’s metaphorical language in “Meditation 17”: A hermeneutic reading
Revisiting John Donne’s metaphorical language in “Meditation 17”: A hermeneutic reading

Summary/Abstract: John Donne (1572-1631) was the leading poet of the metaphysical school of poetry in the 17th century. His mastery of using extended metaphors, also termed “metaphysical conceits,” manifests itself not only in his secular and religious poems, but also in his sermons. This paper intends to revisit centuries-long influence of Donne’s rich metaphorical language through a close reading of “Mediation 17.” The claim of the paper is that the unique stylistic and content based features of Donne’s multi-layered metaphors moving from the individual to the communal and conveying the universal themes of life and death and the shared human experience surpass temporal and cultural boundaries. Thus, the ultimate aim of this paper is to draw attention to the enduring quality of the metaphors Donne employs in “Mediation 17” as the aesthetics of the compelling interaction between the individual and the communal appeals to the literary taste of even contemporary readership. The theoretical frame of this paper draws largely on Schleiermacher’s theory of modern hermeneutics.

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