The+Apparition

=**The Apparition**= //**John Donne (1572-1631)**//



When by thy scorn, O murd'ress, I am dead And that thou think'st thee free From all solicitation from me, Then shall my ghost come to thy bed, And thee, feign'd vestal, in worse arms shall see; Then thy sick taper will begin to wink, And he, whose thou art then, being tir'd before, Will, if thou stir, or pinch to wake him, think Thou call'st for more, And in false sleep will from thee shrink; And then, poor aspen wretch, neglected thou Bath'd in a cold quicksilver sweat wilt lie A verier ghost than I. What I will say, I will not tell thee now, Lest that preserve thee; and since my love is spent, I'had rather thou shouldst painfully repent, <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #505050; display: block; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px;">Than by my threat'nings rest still innocent.

John Donne Background
====John Donne was born into a rich catholic family in 1572 during a strong anti-catholic period, and religion played an important role in his life. He attended Oxford University, and later Cambridge, ending at Lincoln's Inn, where he studied law. He unfortunately spent a large portion of his inheritance on women, books, and travel. During his life his poetry was condemned by most but admired by a small following. His brother died in 1593, and for a while he had some great work having to do with religion. He became a member of parliament, and became Anglican to gain favor with the House of Lords. He was renowned for his sermons for a while until his death, in 1631, when his work fell out of favor. As a leading English poet and an icon in metaphysical poetry, he is often considered one of the greatest poets of the English language.====

Context of Poem
Many of John Donne's poems are difficult to date because of his method of storing them in a manuscript. The exact historical context is unknown, however "The Apparition" is only one of five of Donne's "misogyny" poems. The poem also has religious values, and Donne was known to have spent a lot of his resources on women, and could be the source of the perceived bitterness he portrays in "The Apparition".

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__THEME__ === //"When by thy scorn, O murderess, I am dead"// //"And thee, feigned vestal, in worse arms shall see"// //"Then shall my ghost come to thy bed"// //"Bathed in a cold quicksilver sweat, wilt lie / A verier ghost than I."// //"What I will say I will not tell thee now"// //"I had rather thou shouldst painfully repent"// //"And thou thinkst thee free / From all solicitation from me"//
 * ** The death of an honest man caused by an dishonest woman. (A common theme of Donne's era.) **
 * **The tendency for jealousy to spur revenge.**
 * **Man's evil and God's rejection of sin, which will be reconciled on Judgment Day.**

__IMAGERY__

 * Implied Metaphor : "Murderess" implies that the speakers lover killed him with her "scorn".
 * Synecdoche : "worse arms" is only a part of what Donne means to be a new lover. It could also be a metaphor for the devil.
 * Metaphor : "false sleep" means that the new lover is awake, but rejects the woman because of her dishonesty and their weak relationship. "Shrink" means that the lover knows that he is denying her, but does so anyway.
 * Imagery : "Aspen wretch" implies an aspen tree that is associated with coldness, and are white, which she would be after seeing a ghost.
 * Imagery : "A cold quicksilver sweat" is another implication of her coldness, and also of her anguish. It creates an image of shining sweat in moonlight.
 * Metaphor : "A verier ghost than I" is a metaphor for her being more lifeless or pale than him after his visit.
 * Allusion : "Painfully repent" is an allusion to the revelations story in the Bible, before which man can join God in heaven through faith, and after which man will have to undergo extreme suffering to join Him.

__METER__

 * The speaker is a man who is unhappy with his lover, or, in a more metaphorical interpretation, God.
 * Donne uses varying meter and unusual rhyme scheme to emphasize the shocking and confusing message of the poem, which harbors no rational thought, but only emotion. It starts like a sonnet with an ABBA rhyme scheme, but that is followed by another B. Next is CDCDC, followed by EFFE, and ending with a GGG triplet.
 * The single stanza also hints at the irrational blast of emotion that makes up the poem, with no reasoning to follow.

__EMOTION__

 * The overarching tone of the poem is one of jealously, and revenge: "What I will say, I will not tell thee now"
 * The mood is also melodramatic: "When by thy scorn, O murderess, I am dead"
 * The experience of the reader is the feeling of anger that the speaker has in his lover.

//EXTRA CREDIT!// media type="youtube" key="zwWnI5PqA5Y" width="560" height="315"

Works Cited The Apparition Cartoon. Digital image. Http://galleryhip.com/. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Mar. 2015. "The Apparition." John Donne's "" and Comments. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Mar. 2015. "Apparition." YouTube. YouTube, n.d. Web. 11 Mar. 2015. "John Donne Biography." Bio.com. A&E Networks Television, n.d. Web. 11 Mar. 2015. John Donne. Digital image. The History Blog. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Mar. 2015. "John Donne: Poems Summary and Analysis of "The Apparition"" Grade Saver. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Mar. 2015. "John Donne." Poetry Foundation. Poetry Foundation, n.d. Web. 26 Feb. 2015.