China and the West

Yan, Kui. Sheng ming de li zan [John Donne]. [ID D30996].
Reads Metem, FirAn, and SecAn as an epic trilogy on how the Soul of the World has experienced a circular life experience by its adventurous journey from Eden to Earth and finally to Heaven. In the preface, surveys past Donnean criticism, rejects the old Jack-John Donne dichotomy, and sees the trilogy, written in Donne's middle years, as a bridge between his secular love poetry and his divine poems. In Chapter 1, "A Song of the Soul: A Chronological Study", discusses how Donne creates his view of the Soul of the world, a view that reflects the fall-rise pattern prevalent in Renaissance thought. Argues that this view allows him to see the journey of the Soul of the World as reflecting his own spiritual progress. Points out that all three poems contain an invocation, a body, and a conclusion and that the body of each contains eight sections, which suggests that the three poems share a similar design, which is further reenforced by numerous repetitions of similar words and ideas. Maintains that Donne's presentation in the trilogy of life by death, of beauty by ugliness, and of truth by deception reflects his theological perspective. In Chapter 2 "Humanistic concerns : A synchronic study", focuses on four essential themes found throughout the trilogy: self, life, love, and change. Maintains that the theme of self is seen best in the invocations of the three poems, where the anima mundi and "I" are intermixed, dialectically creating out of the "deathlesse soule" an eternal self symbolic of the macrocosm and microcosm. Sees the trilogy as a song both of the individual soul and of the soul of human beings in general. Says that the theme of life pivots in Metem on the metempsychosis of the anima mundi, in FirAn on the frailty and decay of the world, and in SecAn on the exaltation of the soul into the world from which it came. Notes that the theme of love pervades all three poems but that its focus shifts from secular love to divine love, a shift that enriches the concept of love. Claims that in the trilogy change is combined with constancy, working both as a theme and as background: as theme it acts as a foil to support the notion of the soul's eternal life in Metem and to support the concept of the beauty and divinity of the heavenly world in the two Anniversaries; as background, it brings together the other themes and builds up part of Donne's cosmological philosophy. In Chapter 3, "Cosmological life : a background study", explores Donne's cosmological philosophy in terms of his poetic reconstruction of the cosmos, one that ponders on Pythagorean harmony and order and that was called forth by the Copernican revolution and one that centers on the redemption of the soul. Concludes that this reconstruction shapes Donne's philosophy of life that is embodied in the four essential themes, giving rise to his uses of paradox and wit and defining the trilogy as a psalm of life. Contains a conclusion, an index of names, a list of works cited, a chronology of Donne's life and a postscript.