Compare and Contrast George Herbert's 'Love' with Donne's 'Holy Sonnet'

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Compare and Contrast George Herbert’s ‘Love’ with
Donne’s ‘Holy Sonnet’ (TGR)

The very opening word of John Donne’s “Death be not proud” is “Death”, he is directly challenging death, whereas Herbert’s first word is “Love”.  This creates a binary opposition as the two words are complete opposites.  There is also a clear difference in the rhyming schemes.  John Donne uses Petrarchan sonnet as it is the normal conventional scheme.  This conveys Donne’s defiant and determined attitude as he knows exactly what he wants and how he feels.  This is shown through the imperative Donne uses in the opening line “Death be not proud”.  Also we see his boldness and defiant tone when he uses strong stresses at the beginning “mighty” and die”.   As opposed to Herbert who uses the simplistic ‘a,b,a,b’ rhyming scheme portraying his anxiety of what he feels.  We see his insecurity when he says “yet my soul drew back”.  When using the conjunction “yet” we see his uncertainty of his own feelings.

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Donne scarcely uses any Latinate words; he uses more Anglo- Saxon language.  He also uses more colloquial, monosyllabic words.  As opposed to Herbert’s “love” that seems to be in more of a sophisticated context. We also notice how “Love” creates a more intimate feel; this is depicted through the length alternating and by the three stanzas as opposed to the Donne’s one stanza sonnet and also as the poem is dialog between two people.  Also we see the intimacy as it is an extremely visual and dramatically illustrated poem especially in the first stanza.  Donne later begins to pity ...

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