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1. The text Shakespeare and the nature of man presents the explanation of the
paradigmatic crisis that operates as a transition from the Renaissance to the
Baroque times. It states that, through the reading of Plato, people discovered
new ideas, which were treated either as complements to the accepted picture or
as new ways of interpreting the universal truth. For instance, people did not
question the existence of kingship. At first people thought that it was the
thoughtful mens duty to discover and describe the eternal law and finally fulfill
the end for which God had made them: by learning the nature of man, one
learns the end for which man was made, which is the knowledge of God.
Humans also believed in the powers of Nature; they thought that it ruled over
the cosmos, over the world of elements on Earth and over the world of human
government. They also believed that man is the highest of animals in rank, as it
possessed a nutritive and rational soul. And, according to Neo-Platonics theory,
mans true home is with the angels, and to achieve this, he had to follow the
laws of Nature, find the truth, govern and rule. An example shown is that of the
king, ...who is to be in the kingdom what the soul is in the body, and what God
is in the world. However, these three inter-related hierarchies which created the
optimistic figure of man were to be questioned. The collapse of one of them
may probably mean the collapse of the other two. It turned out that there was a
growing pessimism about mans situation: Man turned to be enslaved by
passions. This means that he transgressed the Law of his Nature. Since Adam
sinned, his descendants after him would follow his misfortune. In consequence,
when Adam fell, Nature fell too. The entire system of Nature was running a
downfall. This questioning began thanks to the studies of Copernicus, who
questioned the cosmological order, Montaigne, who questioned the natural
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order, and finally with Machiavelli who questioned the political order. The
Creator has formed the world for man, the glorious possessor of reason, and
the only sensible being who can understand the God who made him. That was
the conclusion of Renaissance humanism, but not Montaignes: After translating
Sabundes Natural Theology, Montaigne purports to demolish and smash the
monotonous and boring ideas of Sabunde by attacking the arrogance and
vanity of man. He stated that man is the frailest and most vulnerable of all
creatures. So, he begins to compare man and animals: man himself is
another animal. Even worse, he admits that animals are superior to man in the
way that animals are more faithful and magnanimous than human beings.
Machiavelli was concerned on the behaviour of man as a governor. He thought
that man was naturally evil, therefore incapable of good action. He stated that
the best way to govern him was through fear and force. If he was right, all the
inherited doctrines were all for nothing, which meant that man could no longer
reflect the order of the cosmos or the order of created things. He denied Gods
government of the world. These ideas were attacked at first, but unconsciously
were a defense of the traditional dogma, and the peoples hysteria may indicate
that they realized that Machiavelli might have been right. The old Cosmology
was also destroyed when Galileo perfected the telescope and could prove his
theory, which consisted in the discovery of four new planets. This new
philosophy ruined Nature`s three domains as they were very closely connected
and called the old theory in doubt. Galileos discoveries destroyed old concepts
and made new explorations, which was part of the temper of the late sixteenth
century and which would still go on developing in the following century. As
regards religion, there had also been a change since Protestantism changed his
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old ideas of predestination to new greater and moral ideas: The soul was no
longer guarded from Gods wrath by saintly intermediaries; instead, it stood face
to face with the Almighty. Again, the religious situation was insecure, and so
was the political: Elizabeths reign was coming to a close. The last characteristic
that brought the crisis was the melancholy, which encouraged analysis and
anatomy. This characteristic was based on something more realistic and had
similarities to the ideas of Montaignes and Machiavelli in the sense that it
pointed out that man had lost his virtue:
And now no human creatures once disrayd
Of that fair gem.
Beasts sense, plants growth, like being as a stone,
But out alas, our Cognizance is gone.

In addition to this new belief in man as an evil being, he had free will. He was
half intellect and half sense. This means that he could, through the use of free
will, decide to which level he belonged. The earlier Renaissance had
emphasized the revelation of those potentialities by comparing man with the
angels. In contrast, the later Renaissance emphasized their destruction by
comparing man with the animals. Finally, Robert Frost has described what the
result was, by the end of the sixteenth century:

As long on earth
As our comparisons were stoutly upward
With gods and angels, we were men at least,
But little lower than the gods and angels.
But once comparisons were yielded downward
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Once we began to see our images
Reflected in the mud and even dust,
Twas disillusion upon disillusion.
We were lost piecemeal to the animals,
Like people thrown out to delay the wolves.

2. The Baroque is thought to be a period of artistic style that used exaggerated
motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama and tension. It is
referred to as the Miltonian Age because Milton was the first great literary
personality of England, who became the hero of his epic poem and tragedy. He
was able to return to the full-time composition of poetry only in 1660, when the
monarchy was restored. Milton's poetry and prose reflect deep personal
convictions, a passion for freedom and self-determination, and the urgent
issues and political turbulence of those times. Writing in English, Latin, Greek,
and Italian, he achieved international renown within his lifetime. Miltons
sentences are long, like Latin sentences, he inverts the order of words, like a
Latin Author. His final great achievement was Samson Agonistes, in which
Milton is seen himself as its hero. There was a great division among the people
in England in those times, this division broadened and led to the civil war under
King Charles I. Some people wanted a greater share in the government
whereas some other preferred the Absolutism of the monarchy. This conflict
ended in the division of the people, who were called later Tories and Whigs. As
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regards religion, the Puritans would not tolerate the kind of Christianity that the
Reformation brought into the country. The Protestantism created new branches
such as Calvinism and Lutheranism. The Puritans decided to follow Calvins
ideas which consisted of predestination: no matter what people did in life but
they would anyway end in heaven or hell.
3. According to what Bradford Smith and TS Elliot explain, one of the most
salient aspects of Metaphysical poetry is the conceit: an elaborated metaphor.
Some of Donnes characteristic effects are brief words and sudden contrasts.
But Marvells work, To His Coy Mistress, produce an effect of great speed by
the use of short syllables. In the seventeenth century a dissociation of sensibility
set in, and it was exaggerated by Milton. Metaphysical poets use obscure words
and of simple phrasing. Some of these characteristics can be shown in Donnes
sonnet Batter my heart, three persond God; for, you. Another key critic of
metaphysical poetry is Patricia Beer, who states that Donne uses sexual
imagery to speak about religion. She also states that it is a very noisy poem by
the clattering effect from thet sounds, and that the whole rhythm represents the
chopping and changing of battle. She also adds that the effect of the technique
used in this poem conveys the idea of a series of demolishing blows (as in the
use of the b plosives trying to convey the shattering to pieces). In the first
stanza by writing batter my heart and make me new, the author conveys the
concept of being reborn. Then he writes: As yet but knocke, breathe, shine, and seeke
to mend. In this case, there is the use of plosives and three verbs which are
invoking the Trinity. Knocke refers to the father, breathe to the Holy Spirit and
shine to the Son. There is a persona begging God to batter his heart. There is a
conceit in the second stanza: the working of castles and fortresses represent
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that his heart is impenetrable and he needs to be usurped and captive by faith.
He needs to be penetrated. The use of the first person singular is taken as a
representation of the town, meaning that the battle is lost by man: the battle
among God, Reason and Devil. Finally, the third stanza is loaded with meaning;
it has so much meaning that it goes on the last two couplets, which also contain
two conceits, and where the most important things are expressed: It states that
man is a sinner by nature, and that he was born a sinner. That he is nothing but
weak and passive. There is also the notion of the impenetrable fortress, but at
the same time penetrable because it is God who needs to imprison man to keep
him free from the Devil. There is contrast of the verbs captive and bethroth,
being captive stronger than the other as it relates to the notion of indefiniteness,
endless. There is another contrast among three verbs: enthrall, which carries
the idea of seduction, ravish, which carries the idea of bewitching and imprison,
which carries the idea or penetration. All in all, the aim of the poem is to
transmit the idea that if God penetrates you, you are chaste, purified; like
Baptism. In the poem by Marvel To His Coy Mistress there are some of the
metaphysical characteristics shown. In the first stanza the persona is flattering
her mistress, meaning that if he had the time, he would give her an eternal love.
But there is no such time for courtly love. Another characteristic is the presence
of the woo sound representing the sound of whining, as if complaining that she
should hurry. The alliteration (in this case the woo sound) is the emotional
charge of literature. There is also a semantic field of geography as the River
Ganges, in India, is mentioned: It is a sacred river, therefore she is sacred. This
is another example of a conceit. A clear allusion is the religious theme when he
mentions till the conversion of the Jews meaning eternity, as the Jews would never
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convert. The author mentions a growing vegetable, which refers to a phallic
notion and to the sense of deflowering (the sexual aspect). The political topic is
also mentioned: he stated that his vegetable should grow vaster than empires
and slow. The alliteration in should show gives emotional charge, again. In the
second stanza the theme will change and will bring a very complex idea into
thought: he refers to the winged chariot to the idea of time, which is flying. The
word bed refers to the grave, the vault which he mentions in his poem. The
word worm refers to the idea of rotting, that she would rotten in the vault. This
means that if she does not go to bed (with him), she would end in the vault, so
she should accept his worm. There is a clear threatening towards her with the
idea of passing time and rotting. The word quaint means old, and no woman
wants to be like that. Or either turn into ashes or be eaten by worms. The
persona is also sarcastic by mentioning that the grave is a fine and private
place. He is being sarcastic in order to gloat on her, he intends to hurt her so
that she hurries and goes to bed with him as soon as possible. Finally, the third
stanza concludes: the youthful hue sits on a skin like morning dew meaning that
youth will soon leave, melt away and dissolve like the morning dew, which lasts
very little. There are tactile, visual and auditory images in this stanza: it contains
a kinesthetic image, involving the five senses. There is more presence of
alliteration in the final argument: thus, though/ sun, stand, still. This poem shows that
it is not a Platonic one at all.
4. John Donnes poem Death be not proud, though some have called thee
presents a technique known as false analogy according to Patricia Beer:
Even if dead people and sleeping people did look alike, which in fact they do
not, that would be no reason for fearing death no more than sleep. Another
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technique asserted in this poem is that of the comparison. This technique is
used by most poets in order to make comparisons by means of metaphor with
the aim of emphasizing and highlighting emotion and wit. This is clearly shown
in the first stanza:
For, those, whom thou thinkst, thou dost overthrow,
Die not, poore death, nor yet canst thou kill me.

The overthrow of death is actually Death itself. This is why it is a conceit, a
metaphor. Captivity is temporary, not permanent so, poor death. Death does kill
you, yes. In this case, Donne defies death by saying that it cannot kill despite
its belief. This conclusion comes from Roman times: people thought they were
going to sleep forever as St. Augustine stated: You will soon die and feel
pleasurable, you will rest in eternity. But then it was made transitory. The only
thing which is forever is God. A new freedom of rhythm is also a characteristic
of Metaphysical poetry, which is shown in the second stanza of this poem:
From rest and sleepe, which but thy pictures bee,
Much pleasure then from thee, much more must flow,
And soonest our best men with thee doe goe,
Rest of their bones, and soules deliverie.

The presence of crescendo is used as Donne intends to go hostile till the end
of the stanza. The crescendo is expressed in the words rest, sleepe and
pleasure. The stanza aims to prove that people live a life and then they rest
eternally (as a positive concept). This process from life to death is seen as just
a simple transition in which death is the door to eternity. It is the threshold.
There is acceptance of death as an ordinary, short and non-harmful transition.
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The last stanza points out that death works for men as it is a slave of sickness,
it has no domain and kings use it (this is because Donne disliked kings). The
stanza also manifests that being poppie is pleasurable as it means being in a
state of trance, not dead or alive; just there, which is better than death. After
diminishing death, it becomes a mere stroke to go through the process of dying
because now death is weak; it is no more the master of the people:

Thou art slave to Fate, Chance, kings, and desperate men,
And dost with poyson, warre, and sicknesse dwell,
And poppie, or charmes can make us sleepe as well,
And better then thy stroake; why swellst thou then;

Finally, it has become so weak and ephemeral that it is not even mentioned in
the couplet:

One short sleepe past, wee wake eternally,
And death shall be no more; death thou shalt die.

Then, the fact that death dies is a conceit. There is antithesis between the
words short and eternally and between sleepe and wake meant as an
opposition between life and death.

5. Fears of judgment after death leading to damnation feature strongly in some
of Donnes poems. He made it clear that he did not believe that souls were
predestined, as most of the people thought, but he believed that it was
impossible to repent without God first giving the sinner grace to do so. This is
clearly shown in A Hymn to God the Father, by Donne. Its message is to
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express how sinful we are and that God is never done with us. In the first stanza
there is a reference to God, that he is done but not done, the word done refers
to the fact of forgiving, and the word not done refers to the duty that we,
humans must do. This conceit means he has not forgiven me so I do more
and more, then I am forgiven, so I fear no more. It means that we are the
chosen people, part of the Son (or the Sun) who is appointed to come and save
us and give us light (from the sun). Belief is an everyday work as regards the
original sin, and there is a necessity of forgiveness as well. In the second
stanza the word won implies the fact of having done something to win the sin,
but it was actually inherited without doing anything thanks to Adams sin. People
are to blame because they are all humans. This is another conceit. Man needs
to forgive, believe and do things for God.