PERSONAE AS ELEMENTS OF THE POETIC PROCESS IN THE POETRY OF JOHN DONNE

JULIA MARIE WALKER, Purdue University

Abstract

The thesis of this study is that many of John Donne's Songs and Sonets and Elegies operate as analogues of actual physical processes--alchemical, numerological, artistic, and dramatic--and that the personae of these poems are the elements of those processes. The study begins with a review of Donne persona criticism, then moves on to a discussion of post-structuralist persona theory, after which a theory of persona for Donne's poems is proposed. The third chapter contains information about the processes of alchemy, numerology, and Mannerist art and citations of critics who have alluded to Donne's use of these fields of knowledge. This informational chapter is followed by a detailed examination of "The Extasie" as an alchemical process. The study closes with readings of four other Donne poems: "Loves growth" as a numerological process, "The Canonization" as a dramatic and artistic process, "The Sunne Rising" as a numerological and alchemical process, and "The Bracelet" as a numerological process. The author concludes that John Donne's emphasis on poetic process reflects both his characteristic fascination with the "imagin'd corners" between seemingly disparate bodies of knowledge and the attraction which problems, situations in a state of flux, held for him.

Degree

Ph.D.

Subject Area

British and Irish literature

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