ENGL 100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: William Carlos Williams, Lyric Poetry, John Donne
Document Summary
Structure: refers to the way in which the plot is put together. Epic, tragedy and comedy all rely on certain types of event happening in a particular order. Setting: some genres use a specific setting to accomplish particular goals, usually satirizing a particular institution or group. Pastoral poetry uses rustic settings and characters to criticize the corruption of life at court. Genre: when you work with a genre, you must think about the properties that define that genre. Lyric poems about death: a subject written about by authors of all periods and cultures. He is apostrophizing death, speaking to it as if it was a human and he is personifying it. Thou: referring to someone who is of our social inferior. You: referring to someone who is of our social superior. Donne refers to death as thou, saying that he is his inferior, he looks down upon and condescends him.
