Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1964. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1964. / Typescript. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

The elegies, as a major body of John Donne's poetry, have been unjustly slighted by critics. In order to correct this imbalance in Donne criticism, this study will examine the whole body of Donne's formal elegies. Despite their diversity, it will be shown that they fall into several broad groupings based on tonal quality and elegiac type: complaintive, lamentive, amatory, and abusive and satiric. By examining Donne's elegies individually and in light of both the Elizabethan and the classical elegy, it will be seen that Donne is the only English poet who utilizes the full scope allowed by the classical elegy.

Thesis--University of Illinois. / "First published in 1944, reissued 1965. Bibliography: p. 214-219.

It is the purpose of this thesis to examine the classical allusion in Donne's secular poetry to show that the body of such allusion is more extensive than is generally conceded. More important, this study will evaluate rather than merely catalogue the allusions in order to show ho Donne employs such allusion and in what way his poetic practice as to the employment of classical allusion is different from the practice of his contemporaries. It will be demonstrated that, with very few exceptions, Donne uses the standard myth or allusion as a foundation or departure point from which he then goes on to synthesize the myth and turn it into poetic material that is of special significance to his theme.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 59-61).

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 59-61). Also available in print.

Diss.--Hamburg. / Lebenslauf. "Literatur-verzeichnis": p. 53.

Texte remanié de: Th. / Bibliogr. p. 241-266. Index.

This thesis traces a stylistic development from the dichotomy of plainness and eloquence in Elizabethan style, through the stylistic innovations of Ben Jonson and John Donne to the ultimate synthesis of the two styles in George Herbert's poetry. To accomplish this, the thesis reads a selection of their works closely, paying particular attention to the effects of style on the reader's reception of a poem's content. A progression is observed, in which Jonson demonstrates that ornamental language does not necessarily obscure truth; Donne uses that eloquence for didactic purposes, to illuminate paradoxical truth; and Herbert enlists delightful language within a plain style in his effort to communicate persuasively in his devotional lyrics. Thus the development of the “metaphysical” style is read not as an adoption of classical or continental style, but as a response to the problems of style inherited from the Elizabethan dichotomy between plainness and eloquence.