The Middle Ages

The Middle Ages is like no other period in The Norton Anthology of English Literature in terms of the time span it covers. Caedmon's Hymn, the earliest English poem to survive as a text (NAEL 8, 1.25-27), belongs to the latter part of the seventh century. The morality play, Everyman, is dated "after 1485" and probably belongs to the early-sixteenth century. In addition, for the Middle Ages, there is no one central movement or event such as the English Reformation, the Civil War, or the Restoration around which to organize a historical approach to the period.
When did "English Literature" begin? Any answer to that question must be problematic, for the very concept of English literature is a construction of literary history, a concept that changed over time. There are no "English" characters in Beowulf, and English scholars and authors had no knowledge of the poem before it was discovered and edited in the nineteenth century. Although written in the language called "Anglo-Saxon," the poem was claimed by Danish and German scholars as their earliest national epic before it came to be thought of as an "Old English" poem. One of the results of the Norman Conquest was that the structure and vocabulary of the English language changed to such an extent that Chaucer, even if he had come across a manuscript of Old English poetry, would have experienced far more difficulty construing the language than with medieval Latin, French, or Italian. If a King Arthur had actually lived, he would have spoken a Celtic language possibly still intelligible to native speakers of Middle Welsh but not to Middle English speakers.
The literary culture of the Middle Ages was far more international than national and was divided more by lines of class and audience than by language. Latin was the language of the Church and of learning. After the eleventh century, French became the dominant language of secular European literary culture. Edward, the Prince of Wales, who took the king of France prisoner at the battle of Poitiers in 1356, had culturally more in common with his royal captive than with the common people of England. And the legendary King Arthur was an international figure. Stories about him and his knights originated in Celtic poems and tales and were adapted and greatly expanded in Latin chronicles and French romances even before Arthur became an English hero.
Chaucer was certainly familiar with poetry that had its roots in the Old English period. He read popular romances in Middle English, most of which derive from more sophisticated French and Italian sources. But when he began writing in the 1360s and 1370s, he turned directly to French and Italian models as well as to classical poets (especially Ovid). English poets in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries looked upon Chaucer and his contemporary John Gower as founders of English literature, as those who made English a language fit for cultivated readers. In the Renaissance, Chaucer was referred to as the "English Homer." Spenser called him the "well of English undefiled."
Nevertheless, Chaucer and his contemporaries Gower, William Langland, and the Gawain poet — all writing in the latter third of the fourteenth century — are heirs to classical and medieval cultures that had been evolving for many centuries. Cultures is put in the plural deliberately, for there is a tendency, even on the part of medievalists, to think of the Middle Ages as a single culture epitomized by the Great Gothic cathedrals in which architecture, art, music, and liturgy seem to join in magnificent expressions of a unified faith — an approach one recent scholar has referred to as "cathedralism." Such a view overlooks the diversity of medieval cultures and the social, political, religious, economic, and technological changes that took place over this vastly long period.
The texts included here from "The Middle Ages" attempt to convey that diversity. They date from the sixth to the late- fifteenth century. Eight were originally in Old French, six in Latin, five in English, two in Old Saxon, two in Old Icelandic, and one each in Catalan, Hebrew, Greek, and Arabic.
"The Linguistic and Literary Contexts of Beowulf" demonstrates the kinship of the Anglo-Saxon poem with the versification and literature of other early branches of the Germanic language group. An Anglo-Saxon poet who was writing an epic based on the book of Genesis was able to insert into his work the episodes of the fall of the angels and the fall of man that he adapted with relatively minor changes from an Old Saxon poem thought to have been lost until a fragment from it was found late in the nineteenth century in the Vatican Library. Germanic mythology and legend preserved in Old Icelandic literature centuries later than Beowulf provide us with better insights into stories known to the poet than anything in ancient Greek and Roman epic poetry.
"Estates and Orders" samples ideas about medieval society and some of its members and institutions. Particular attention is given to religious orders and to the ascetic ideals that were supposed to rule the lives of men and women living in religious communities (such as Chaucer's Prioress, Monk, and Friar, who honor those rules more in the breach than in the observance) and anchorites (such as Julian of Norwich) living apart. The Rule of Saint Benedict, written for a sixth-century religious community, can serve the modern reader as a guidebook to the ideals and daily practices of monastic life. The mutual influence of those ideals and new aristocratic ideals of chivalry is evident in the selection from the Ancrene Riwle (Rule for Anchoresses, NAEL 8, [1.157–159]) and The Book of the Order of Chivalry. Though medieval social theory has little to say about women, women were sometimes treated satirically as if they constituted their own estate and profession in rebellion against the divinely ordained rule of men. An outstanding instance is the "Old Woman" from the Romance of the Rose, whom Chaucer reinvented as the Wife of Bath. The tenth-century English Benedictine monk Aelfric gives one of the earliest formulations of the theory of three estates — clergy, nobles, and commoners — working harmoniously together. But the deep- seated resentment between the upper and lower estates flared up dramatically in the Uprising of 1381 and is revealed by the slogans of the rebels, which are cited here in selections from the chronicles of Henry Knighton and Thomas Walsingham, and by the attack of the poet John Gower on the rebels in his Vox Clamantis. In the late-medieval genre of estates satire, all three estates are portrayed as selfishly corrupting and disrupting a mythical social order believed to have prevailed in a past happier age.
The selections under "Arthur and Gawain" trace how French writers in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries transformed the Legendary Histories of Britain (NAEL 8 , 1.117–128) into the narrative genre that we now call "romance." The works of Chrétien de Troyes focus on the adventures of individual knights of the Round Table and how those adventures impinge upon the cult of chivalry. Such adventures often take the form of a quest to achieve honor or what Sir Thomas Malory often refers to as "worship." But in romance the adventurous quest is often entangled, for better or for worse, with personal fulfillment of love for a lady — achieving her love, protecting her honor, and, in rare cases such as Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, resisting a lady's advances. In the thirteenth century, clerics turned the sagas of Arthur and his knights — especially Sir Lancelot — into immensely long prose romances that disparaged worldly chivalry and the love of women and advocated spiritual chivalry and sexual purity. These were the "French books" that Malory, as his editor and printer William Caxton tells us, "abridged into English," and gave them the definitive form from which Arthurian literature has survived in poetry, prose, art, and film into modern times.
"The First Crusade," launched in 1096, was the first in a series of holy wars that profoundly affected the ideology and culture of Christian Europe. Preached by Pope Urban II, the aim of the crusade was to unite warring Christian factions in the common goal of liberating the Holy Land from its Moslem rulers. The chronicle of Robert the Monk is one of several versions of Urban's address. The Hebrew chronicle of Eliezer bar Nathan gives a moving account of attacks made by some of the crusaders on Jewish communities in the Rhineland — the beginnings of the persecution of European Jews in the later Middle Ages. In the biography of her father, the Byzantine emperor Alexius I, the princess Anna Comnena provides us with still another perspective of the leaders of the First Crusade whom she met on their passage through Constantinople en route to the Holy Land. The taking of Jerusalem by the crusaders came to be celebrated by European writers of history and epic poetry as one of the greatest heroic achievements of all times. The accounts by the Arab historian Ibn Al-Athir and by William of Tyre tell us what happened after the crusaders breached the walls of Jerusalem from complementary but very different points of view.

I think "The Most Dangerous Game" is an escape book whose principal emphasis is on plot. The story is about a hunter who after a series of unlucky events finds himself in an island with a man who hunts people for sports. The two main characters represent two opposite sides. Rainsford is a good person who respects human's life while General Zaroff is a kind of bad guy who has no value for human life. Suspense is the main element to make the story attractive. There is a mystery coming from the very beginning when Rainsford first hears about the "Ship Trap Island". Then the second mystery is introduced when Zaroff tells Rainsford what the most dangerous game in the world is. The story comes to its climax when Rainsford is forced to join Zaroff's hunting game. The celebrated hunter now becomes the quarry. Reader's curiosity, which combined with anxiety, has been greatly aroused at this moment. The question --- " Who is going to win the game" keeps them reading. No one knows what will exactly happen until the answer comes out at last. The whole book is full of actions and conflicts. Rainsford conflicts with himself, with nature, with society and with Zaroff. There is no dull moment in the story. Something exciting is always happening. With the development of the plot, readers are left anxious to find out how Rainsford manages to escape from being caught. The ending of the story is a typical ending for the escape book. Rainsford finally kills Zaroff. The hunter and the hunted change their positions. The good defeats the evil. The happy ending gives every reader a kind of relief. "The Most Dangerous Game" is a good adventure book for people of all ages to enjoy. That's why I think it's an escape book rather than an interpretive book.
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Criticism on "The most Dangerous Game"

Richard Connell's "The Most Dangerous Game"' is a story about hunting. The title describes it as the most dangerous. However, we do not find this out until the proagonist, Sange Rainsford meets the antagonist General Zaroff. The story also consists of many types of conflict to build suspense. First, there is external conflict when Rainsford fallsfrom the ship into the ocean. It is Rainsford against nature. Can he survive? He manages to swim to a nearby island owned by Zaroff. He takes Rainsford in and wines and dines him. Zaroff questions Rainsford. He finds out that Rainsford is an author of a hunting magazine. Zaroff finds this interesting. Therefore, he lets Rainsford know about his game Rainsford is informed he will become part of this game. Now, we see another type of enternal conflict. Rainsford is terrified. He refuses to condone cold-blooded murder; he thinks this is inmoral. Zaroff gives Rainsford the choice of playing his game or he can deal with Ivan. Zaroff gives Rainsford a head start. The hunt can last for three days or until one of them kill the other. The game has now become physical. It is Rainsford against Zaroff.Finally, Rainsford tades control of his terror. He figures out a way to beat Zaroff at his own game. Rainsford swims to Zaroffs home. He waits for Zaroff, then his fight for survival is over. The hunter becomes th hunted. Which is the more dnagerous of two? This is a true story of one mans bravery and ability to fight to the end.

Criticism 2:Analysis of The Most Dangerous Game

Many people look at themselves in the mirror and say, " I know who I am." But how many of them have done so after analyzing themselves through a story? And if they have done that, how many of them were being honest with themselves? A Lacanian analysis can bring out sides of us that we didn't know existed. I found this to be true after reading "The Most Dangerous Game." By looking at the events in the story and the characters that play them out, I found that there is a part of me that has an insatiable curiosity and a love of danger. To begin with, by looking closely at the main characters and their actions, I found a small part of myself in each of them. When Rainsford heard gunshots from the yacht, he jumped up onto the ship's railing. My initial response was, "Why would you do such a thing when no one is there to help if you fall?" I believe that this was my logical, sensible reaction. However, if I look at the situation with a sense of curiosity I find that I would have done the same thing. I think this is because, even though I've always tried to be a responsible, reasoning person, I have always had a desire to be carefree and daring. I think that want comes from movies I've seen in the past and books I've read in which the female characters were adventurous and lived for danger. I can remember times when I would finish reading a book, perhaps, and try to be just like the adventuring character. I can also look at General Zaroff, too, and see a hidden facet to my person. What I first thought of the General was that he was disgusting, evil, and had no respect for human life. I thought, "Oh my gosh, what if there really are people like this in the world?" However, when General Zaroff laid all the cards on the table and stated his purpose, hunting people, specifically Rainsford, I was oddly intrigued. I was frustrated with myself for being interested in such an inhumane game. But upon further examination of my reaction, I found that it wasn't the game that literally that fascinated me, but the concept of it; the danger. I feel that this interested me because the very few tastes of danger that I've had in the past have appeared to me as fun, actually living life to the fullest extent. Rainsford's curiosity and General Zaroff's obsession with danger are both found in my hidden personality because in my subconscious mind I've developed a passion for such things through personal experiences and fictional occurrences. In the same way, some of the events in the story grabbed my attention. When the game started and Rainsford began running in confusion from General Zaroff, I felt that I, too, needed to think of a means of escape. "...spurred on by...panic." This is how Rainsford describes his actions. If a person is driven by panic alone, a certain danger awaits them. In an odd way, this moved me to something like excitement; excitement for that danger that lurked ahead of Rainsford in the jungle of bushes all over the island. I think I was interested in this because this sort of situation is foreign to me, in a way. And ever since I was young, trying new things has appealed to me. So naturally, something that I have rarely had experience with would snatch my attention. Another happening in the story was when General Zaroff set the hounds on Rainsford. "Ever nearer drew the hounds. Rainsford forced himself (onward)..." In the same section, "He heard the hounds. Then he leaped far out into the sea." The constant reminder of the pursuing hounds awakened a fear in me, I think because I have a habit of putting myself in the character's position. It was no different here; I pretended I was Rainsford. But what shocked me was that I almost enjoyed the fear. I believe that I responded this way because my life has always been safe and I've always looked before leaping because that is what I was taught to do by teachers and my parents when I was young. All in all, I find that within the safe, studious, careful person that I am, there lies a much deeper person a person that enjoys walking on the wild side, being dangerous, and throwing caution to the wind. I can see this side of me more clearly when I read "The Most Dangerous Game" because the events and characters in the story somehow transform me into my danger-loving twin.

Metaphysical Poetry

What is a metaphysical poem?

The term "metaphysical" when applied to poetry has a long and interesting history. You should know this, but the information in Helen Gardner's Introduction to The Metaphysical Poets (Penguin)is more than adequate. Luckily, you have no time in an exam for a lengthy discussion. The examiner wants to see you discuss the text.
Metaphysical poetry is concerned with the whole experience of man, but the intelligence, learning and seriousness of the poets means that the poetry is about the profound areas of experience especially - about love, romantic and sensual; about man's relationship with God - the eternal perspective, and, to a less extent, about pleasure, learning and art.
Metaphysical poems are lyric poems. They are brief but intense meditations, characterized by striking use of wit, irony and wordplay. Beneath the formal structure (of rhyme, metre and stanza) is the underlying (and often hardly less formal) structure of the poem's argument. Note that there may be two (or more) kinds of argument in a poem. In To His Coy Mistress the explicit argument (Marvell's request that the coy lady yield to his passion) is a stalking horse for the more serious argument about the transitoriness of pleasure. The outward levity conceals (barely) a deep seriousness of intent. You would be able to show how this theme of carpe diem (“seize the day”) is made clear in the third section of the poem.
Reflections on love or God should not be too hard for you. Writing about a poet's technique is more challenging but will please any examiner. Giving some time to each (where the task invites this), while ending on technique would be ideal.
Here are some suggestions as to how to look at the detail of individual poems under a very broad heading.

Love in the poems

In Marvell we find the pretence of passion (in To His Coy Mistress) used as a peg on which to hang serious reflections on the brevity of happiness. The Definition of Love is an ironic game - more a love of definition let loose; the poem is cool, lucid and dispassionate, if gently self-mocking. So you can move on to Donne, in whom passionate sexual love is examined with vigour and intensity. There are far too many suitable poems to consider all in detail, but The Good-Morrow, The Sunne Rising and The Anniversarie belong together, while A Nocturnall, upon S. Lucie's Day gives the other side of the coin. There is positive celebration of life in The Good Morrow and the others, while in the Nocturnall we have the examination of complex negativity.
In A Valediction, Forbidding Mourning the argument is not logically persuasive, but the cleverness and subtlety of Donne's method are diverting - an intelligent woman might be comforted. She cannot change the fact of the lover's going, but the poem is evidence of the integrity of the love he has professed hitherto.
Both Herbert and Vaughan address man's love of God, while Herbert, and Marvell (Bermudas), consider God's love of man. Herbert considers man's duty to God in The Collar and The Pearl as does Marvell in The Coronet.
Eternity and man's life in the context of this, is the explicit subject of all of Vaughan's poems in the selection, but is considered by Herbert in The Flower and, in a wholly secular manner, by Marvell in To His Coy Mistress.
In terms of the whole poetry of these four, this small selection accurately reflects the arguably narrow preoccupation of Herbert and Vaughan with religious questions, and the great variety of Marvell.
The selection only of love poems is partly misleading in Donne's case. He wrote a great deal of devotional verse, much of it very good, but his most striking achievements are in the Songs and Sonets. Herbert, of course, is not narrow - he is concerned with man's whole life in relation to God. Vaughan is more problematic - his preoccupation with his own salvation and his conviction that most of mankind is damned are less attractive qualities. He is fanatical where Herbert is tolerant.

The poems' arguments

Looking at the poets' technique should, perhaps, begin with a consideration of argument. In a way all of the poems have an argument, but it is interesting or striking in some more than others.
To His Coy Mistress - the light and the serious arguments in one; the structure "Had we ..." "But ..." "Now therefore ...";
A Valediction Forbidding Mourning - the structure "As ... so" "But ... But" "Therefore" "Such wilt thou be to me ..." and the similarity to this of The Definition of Love (but there are big differences, too);
The World - various follies depicted, with the solution to the supposed puzzle in the final stanza;
Bermudas and The Collar - both use a dramatic form: the puritan sailors' song or the outburst of the rebellious Christian;
The Flower is dramatic, too, but embodies a kind of parable: Herbert sustains both the metaphor and the idea of the speaker as the Christian “Everyman”, examining his relationship with God;
Discipline - the severity of God's wrath is mirrored in the taut, cramped lines - compare this with the “disordered” lines of The Collar.

Imagery

You can also consider the imagery used by the poets. Do NOT become bogged down in discussion of single images, such as the notorious “twin compasses” in A Valediction Forbidding Mourning.
Consider, rather, the whole range of sources of imagery each uses. Broadly speaking, Donne is eclectic (wide-ranging) and apparently obscure. He did not write for publication, but showed poems to friends whom he supposed to be well-read enough to understand these references. Donne's imagery draws on the new (in the late 16th century) learning of the English renaissance and on topical discoveries and exploration. We find references to alchemy, sea-voyages, mythology and religion (among many other things). Certain images or ideas recur so often as to seem typical: kingship and rule; subjectivism ("one little room an everywhere" "nothing else is"); alchemy - especially the mystical beliefs associated with elixir and quintessence - and cosmology, both ancient and modern (references both to spheres and to the world of "sea-discoverers").
Herbert's imagery, by way of contrast, draws on the everyday and familiar; reason is like "a good huswife", spirit is measured in "drammes" and God's grace is a "silk twist", suffering is a harvest of thorns or blood-letting, Paradise is a garden where winter never comes, severity is a rod and love is God's bow or the host at a banquet. It will be seen, however, that many of these images are found in Christ's teaching, while others (or the same ones) may have acquired religious connotations. The reference to "thorn" and "bloud" in The Collar ironically seem to ignore the conventional religious symbolism of these terms.
Vaughan uses imagery almost exclusively from the natural world which is apprehended with a delight notably absent from his perception of most other people. The clue to this lies in The Retreate where Vaughan notes that "shadows of eternity" were seen by him in natural phenomena such as clouds or flowers. These images are readily understood and beautiful as with the flown bird and the star liberated from the Tomb. With Marvell, imagery is more problematic. Unlike Donne who scatters metaphors freely, Marvell is more selective and sparing. Very often the image is more memorable and striking than the idea it expresses, as with the "deserts of vast eternity", while frequently one finds an idea which cannot be understood except as the image in which Marvell expresses it, as with the "green thought in a green shade". In any case, with all of these poets, the use of metaphor serves, and is subordinate to, the total argument.
You should not leave the subject of technique without considering two poems (Jordan I and The Coronet) in which poetry is itself discussed. Herbert argues for plain-speaking, truth (man's real relationship with God, not a pastoral fiction) and simplicity in a poem in which only the final two lines are simple. Herbert cannot help the cleverness of his verse but time and again concludes poems with praise of simplicity and deprecation of the wit he has just displayed. In The Coronet, Marvell considers whether the poetic skill which has formerly (and culpably) served to praise his "shepherdess" can "redress that Wrong", by weaving a "Chaplet" for Christ.
But, the poet concludes, this is self-deception and vanity, and he ends with a prayer that God will act to remove the "Serpent" (the pursuit, in writing, of the poet's own "Fame" or (self) "Interest" - even if this requires the destruction of Marvell's own ingenious verse - "my curious frame"). In the skilful development of the central metaphor of the garland or "coronet" (appropriate both to the pastoral context and with biblical connotations, especially in associating the temptation to evil with the Serpent lurking in the greenery, Marvell exhibits the complexity, the riddling quality which this poem calls into question, perhaps best shown in the tortuous syntax of the first sentence with its succession of subordinate clauses separating the introductory "When" from the subject and main verb "I seek".

Comparing the poets

Openings

All the poets, though they occasionally display erudition (learning) write with fairly colloquial voices. The best-known (and, so, frequently-quoted) examples are Donne's pretended outbursts: “I wonder by my troth ...”; “Busy old foole” and “For God's sake hold your tongue ...” However the simple intimate address to the reader - “'Tis the year's midnight” is no less characteristic of speech.
In Herbert we find equally pregnant openings. There are simple introductory statements which turn out not to be so simple: “Love bade me welcome ”(but what is this love, or who?), “I know the wayes of learning ...”; there are questions: “Who sayes that fictions onely ... become a verse?” and tranquil recollections of far from tranquil outbursts: “I struck the board, and cry'd, No more”. And, finally, as Donne addresses his mistress directly, so Herbert speaks, in the second person, to God: “Throw away thy rod” and “How fresh, O Lord ... Are thy returns ... These are thy wonders, Lord of love”.
As in other respects, Marvell exhibits more variety here. We find the second person in To His Coy Mistress. When Donne does this, we can believe, even though his own thoughts are what we learn, that an intimate address to a real woman is intended (in, say, The Good-Morrow, The Anniversarie and, even, A Valediction Forbidding Mourning). But the “Coy Mistress” is conspicuously absent - a mere pretext for Marvell to examine his real subjects - time and the brevity of human happiness.

Themes and subjects

As Donne and Herbert do, Marvell writes much about his own ideas, but with less consistency. There is variety and superficial contradiction in the Songs and Sonets but Donne's preoccupation with love is not in doubt. Herbert's devout manner appears consistently in the poems in The Temple, but To His Coy Mistress is not easily reconciled with Bermudas or The Coronet. Marvell in all of these poems writes with lucidity and wit yet there is often an element of detachment - perhaps best shown in the dispassionate clarity and wordplay of The Definition of Love. It is interesting to note that the simplicity of much of Bermudas (essentially a list of God's gifts to the settlers of the islands, though individual lines contain the usual wit - as in the description of the [pine]apples) is explained by the device of making most of the poem a hymn of gratitude, sung by the English sailors.
Though Vaughan's exclusive religious views may repel us, we cannot ignore the clarity and directness of his style. The syntax is easy to the modern ear and unusual vocabulary is rare. He may open with an exclamation: “Happy those early dayes!” or “They are all gone into the world of light!” The simple understatement employed by Herbert is more than matched in The World which has one of the most striking openings of any English poem:
I saw Eternity the other night.
It could be fairly argued that the poem does not wholly succeed in the account, in detail (no poem could!) of the vision of Eternity which follows, but we can see how Vaughan works in the tradition established for poetry by Donne and for devotional verse by Herbert.

Stanzas and poetic form

Donne also establishes a pattern which the others emulate in his use of the stanza. He appears to love variety as a natural embellishment and (to borrow Milton's phrase)“true ornament of verse”. We can see this by comparing poems. The three stanza structure which carries the argument in The Good Morrow is used again in other poems. But the fluency of the stanza in The Good-Morrow leading to the brief penultimate line and final Alexandrine with its stately, measured quality, gives way in The Sunne Rising to a far more lively and varied stanza. The almost breathless colloquial lines are, however, qualified in each stanza by a wholly regular and fluent rhyming couplet which enables Donne to conclude with a rhetorical flourish (note, however, that the final pentameter line is divided - rather on the model of the Alexandrine - after the second iambic foot). In The Anniversarie the whole stanza is more measured and stately and the Alexandrine is restored as the final line. In A Nocturnall Upon S.Lucies Day Donne uses, again, predominantly the pentameter line, yet the whole effect is more laboured than the fluent Good-Morrow. This is achieved by repeated interruptions marked by the punctuation.
Herbert matches Donne for variety in the stanza, but is more aware of the appearance of the poem on the page, as well as the effect on the ear. Poems such as The Altar and Easter Wings are written almost wholly for the sake of appearance. In this selection we should note, especially, The Collar and Discipline. In Discipline the cramped, lean lines reflect the severity which the poet begs God to refrain from using. In The Collar, there is an apparent randomness, a lack of order on the page, which mirrors the disordered outburst the poet here records. the jerky quality which derives from rhetorical questions - frequent use of full-stop, colon and question-mark even in mid-line - gives way only in the final four lines to a fluent conclusion which comes with the poet's account of his submission to the divine pull on the collar.
In many of Marvell's poems we find the same eight-syllable iambic line, yet its effect can vary remarkably. In To His Coy Mistress the vigorousness of the argument appears in the breathless lines - few are end-stopped, and the lines have the rough power of speech.
In The Definition of Love the same line is used, but arranged in four line stanzas. These carry the argument in the same way in which Donne uses this stanza in A Valediction Forbidding Mourning. Unlike Donne, who is prepared to allow some use of enjambement (between first and second stanzas and frequently within all the stanzas) Marvell's stanza here has a near metronomic quality - a punctuation mark at the end of the second line exaggerates the rhyming syllable, which is emphatically matched at the end of the stanza. There is a similar regularity in Bermudas but here, by arranging the lines as rhyming pairs, Marvell conveys something of the sense of the motion of the English boat through the water (as the poem's last line makes clear). This same line is used again, but arranged into eight line stanzas to develop the argument in The Garden, which is less slick but more profound and thoughtful than that in The Definition of Love.
Vaughan feels free to use variety in his stanza. Less spectacularly, perhaps, than Donne, he nonetheless suits form to content. So The Retreate is a fast-moving sustained meditation not divided into stanzas. The more contrived and ordered argument of The World or Man require much longer stanzas, but regular in form, while "They Are All Gone into the World of Light", with its shorter stanza, becomes, in effect, a long series of distinct observations on the poem's single subject.
Most of these comments are very general. Connections have been made which you should now exploit in relation to particular poems. Memorizing the text is not required but you must know your way around the poems. Trying, for the first time, to understand them in an exam is not wise.
It is therefore worth taking a poem, and deciding what you can usefully write about it, in terms of content, technique and points of reference to other poems.

Preparing for exams

Make your own idiot-guides or spider-charts to learn this stuff. Clearly, the greater the number of poems for which you can do this, the stronger will be your position in an exam. Make sure, in doing this, that your chosen poems are varied, in terms of author, subject and technique.
A good essay will contain some detailed analysis of some of the poems, but will show general understanding of all of the set poems unless the question explicitly limits you to a smaller selection.
You may find that a question obliges you to consider the work of each poet, or of all poets in relation to some theme or subject. Do NOT keep commentary on each poem separate; DO make comparisons and move freely between or among the poems.
Do NOT quote at length. In an "open book" exam, especially, there is no credit for this. You may need to quote briefly but should use " ... " to eliminate redundant matter.
The time allowed for exams enables you to plan properly; for these poems, planning is indispensable - any essay will require you to write widely; without planning, you will miss important material or points of commentary. Do not waste time labouring (or repeating) a few basic comments.
Most examiners are fair. A question may be off-putting because it contains difficult terms, but the questions which may be asked will usually be fairly straightforward. The questions set may be like these:
Essays which invite you to examine the poets' treatment of a given subject or theme. These may be limited to two or three of the poets. Possible subjects would include love, religious faith, or (as it includes both of these) the poets' attitude to experience. The examiners may give a subject which imposes a particular plan, but this is NOT likely. You should have an outline (NOT a prepared essay) of your own, for each possible subject.
Essays which ask what are the special characteristics of "metaphysical poetry". These will appear either as an "open" question ("what makes a metaphysical poem?", in effect) or a quotation, to which you should respond ('" The most heterogeneous ideas are yoked by violence together". How far is this an accurate assessment etc?') If you have a "quotation" question it is most unlikely that the statement will be one which merits complete agreement or disagreement. You are allowed to qualify your agreement or refutation. N.B. You will never be given a quotation that is stupid or utterly wrong. Generally, they are more or less sensible.
Such essays can work for you, if you know what to do. You should first state what the characteristics of metaphysical poetry are, then illustrate them by consideration of appropriate evidence from the poems. The important tricks here are:
Have a clear list of characteristics, ensuring both content and method are covered.
Introduce evidence by some formula such as "we find this quality in The Garden, where Marvell ..." or "Both Herbert and Vaughan, in their different ways, address this subject in ..."
Ensure that you use a wide range of poets and poems. Where possible, compare, even if briefly, in passing.
Keep your eye on the ball. When you have shown one characteristic to be present (and how), then move on to the next.
It is just possible that you may be given a question which requires you explicitly to examine (and compare) technique (the poets' method). You should be doing this, anyway, in a poetry essay, so don't be frightened. But you must before the exam have a clear mental checklist of the characteristics to be considered here.
For all of these poets, the method is closely bound up with the subject and mood, so some comment on these, if you make this point, will be allowed.
If you write about Donne (among others) why not put him last? The examiners will see any number of scripts which will begin with the (admittedly interesting) opening of The Good-Morrow. Don't let yours be among them!

The poems classified by subject - love

Donne
The Good-Morrow: New love celebrated.
The Sunne Rising: Love fulfilled and celebrated.
The Anniversarie: Love in relation to time.
The Canonization: Love as a new religion.
A Valediction: The consolation of love on parting.
A Nocturnall: A meditation on the lover's desolation.

Herbert
Jordan: Religious devotion versus secular love.
The Pearl: God's love for man.
The Collar: The inevitability of God's love.
The Flower: The severity and grace of a loving God.
Discipline: The same.
Love: The love of Christ the Host.

Marvell
The Coronet: Religious devotion versus secular love.
Bermudas: The mercy and bounty of God's love.
To His Coy Mistress: Sexual love and the brevity of life.
The Definition of Love: A display of the love of wit.
The Garden: Reasonable contemplation as a retreat from passion.

Vaughan
The Retreate: Love of holiness and loss of innocence.
The World: Love of God a mystery; divine election to grace.
Man: Man's purpose to find God beyond this life.
They Are All Gone into the World of Light: The saints' love of God as inspiration.
It will be seen that these descriptions enable you also to select poems which illustrate the general outlook and belief of the poet, or specifically religious questions. Though none of Donne's poems here is truly devotional, the idea of love as a kind of religion appears in places, notably in The Canonization.

Poems to compare

The poems are listed as they appear in the collection. Each is followed by the titles of poems which might helpfully be compared. Ensure you know why they can be compared.

Donne
The Good-Morrow: The Sunne Rising, The Anniversarie; A Nocturnall Upon S.Lucies Day.
The Canonization: Good-Morrow, Sunne Rising, Anniversarie; Jordan, The Coronet.
A Valediction Forbidding Mourning: A Nocturnall; The Definition of Love
A Nocturnall upon S. Lucies Day: The Sunne-Rising, The Good Morrow,The Anniversarie; A Valediction.

Herbert
Generally compare his, Marvell's and Vaughan's devotional lyrics.
Jordan (I): The Coronet
The Pearl: The Flower; The World
The Collar: Discipline, The Flower.
The Flower: The Collar, Discipline; Man.
Discipline: The Collar, The Flower.
Love (III): Bermudas.

Marvell
The Coronet: Jordan.
Bermudas: Love, The Flower.
To His Coy Mistress: The Anniversarie, The Canonization.
The Definition of Love: A Valediction.
The Garden: Bermudas; The Flower.

Vaughan
Generally contrast Vaughan's zeal and passion with Herbert's generosity and tolerance.
The Retreate: The Collar, The Flower.
The World: The Pearl; Bermudas.
Man: The Collar, The Flower.
They Are All Gone into the World of Light: The Retreate; The Flower; The Canonization.
Remember similarities may be of content, theme, mood or argument. Look out for contrasting approaches to the same subject or theme, too.