American Journal of Research in Humanities and Social Sciences ISSN (E): 2832-8019 Volume 20, | January, 2024 P a g e | 44 www.americanjournal.org AN ANALYSIS OF THE THEME OF LOVE AND DEATH IN JOHN DONNE'S POETRY Sadullaev Feruz Bakhtiyorovich Associate Professor, PhD Qilicheva Zevarxon, Master Student, Bukhara State University f.b.sadullayev@buxdu.uz A B S T R A C T K E Y W O R D S This article is aimed to discuss the poetry of one of the greatest minds in English literature, the metaphysical genius John Donne. Donne`s writing is very complicated and rarely holds a single meaning. His poetry includes a lot of different subjects, out of which we discuss the ones including love or/and death. In this paper we are going to speak about the critics' views, both the ones that consider Donne's love poetry to be a result of his metaphysical studies and those that write about Donne`s “true self”. This paper discusses all the various ways of love that Donne writes about and all the different types he challenges death. Furthermore, we analyze the poems in which Donne mixes love and death together, as a result, he never allows death to "win". Moreover, by making analysis of Donne`s poems we will try to explore “the writers soul”. Love, death, spiritual peace, religion, holy, the power of love, contempt, cynicism, bitterness, sarcasm. Introduction АНАЛИЗ ТЕМЫ ЛЮБВИ И СМЕРТИ В ПОЭЗИИ ДЖОНА ДОННА Целью данной статьи является обсуждение поэзии одного из величайших умов английской литературы, гения-метафизика Джона Донна. Сочинения Донна очень сложны и редко содержат один смысл. Его поэзия включает в себя множество различных тем, среди которых мы обсуждаем такие, как любовь и/или смерть. В данной статье мы поговорим о взглядах критиков, как тех, которые считают любовную поэзию Донна результатом его метафизических исследований, так и тех, которые пишут об «истинном я» Донна. В этой статье обсуждаются все виды любви, о которых пишет Донн, и все виды любви, которые он бросает вызов смерти. Кроме того, мы анализируем стихи, в которых Донн смешивает вместе любовь и смерть, в результате он никогда не позволяет смерти «победить». Более того, анализируя стихи Донна, мы попытаемся исследовать «душу писателя». Ключевые слова: любовь, смерть, духовный мир, религия, святость, сила любви, презрение, цинизм, горечь, сарказм. American Journal of Research in Humanities and Social Sciences Volume 20 January, 2024 P a g e | 45 www.americanjournal.org JON DONNENING SHE`RIYATIDA SEVGI VA YO`QOTISH MAVZUSI TAHLILI Annotatsiya. Ushbu maqolaning maqsadi ingliz adabiyotidagi eng buyuk shoirlaridan biri, metafizik daho Jon Donning she'riyatini muhokama qilishga qaratilgan. Donning yozuv uslubi juda murakkabhisoblanib, kamdan-kam hollarda bitta ma'noni anglatadi. Uning she'riyati juda ko'p turli mavzularni o'z ichiga oladi, ulardan ayniqsa sevgi va yo`qotish tushunchalarini o'z ichiga olgan mavzularning muhokamasi ko`rib chiqiladi. Ushbu maqolada Donnening sevgi mazmunidagi she`riyatini, Donnening "ichki dunyosi" haqida yozganlarning fikrlari misol tariqasida keltiriladi. Quyida Donne yozgan sevgining turli xillari va u o'limga qarshi kurashayotgan barcha turlari muhokama qilinadi. Qolaversa, Donne sevgi va o‘limni o`zida mujassamlashtirgan, natijada u hech qachon o‘limning “g‘alaba qozonishiga” yo‘l qo‘ymaydigan she’rlarining tahlilini ham ko`rib chiqiladi. Bundan tashqari, Donnaning she'rlarini tahlil qilish orqali biz "yozuvchining qalbi" ni o'rganishga harakat qilamiz. Tayanch so`zlar: sevgi, o'lim, ruhiy tinchlik, din, muqaddas, sevgining kuchi, nafrat, kinizm, achchiqlik, kinoya. INTRODUCTION The poet was born on January 22, 1572, into a prosperous Catholic household that was descended from Thomas More. He grew up during and was influenced by the turbulent time when Catholics were severely persecuted for publicly practicing their religion. In 1593, Donne's own brother, who had been found guilty of Catholic sympathies, perished in custody. He led a life that was frequently risky and unimaginably dissimilar from that of many modern readers of his writings. The poet was a complicated person who at times even seemed to realize that he had two distinct personalities: the famed "Jack Donne" of his youth, who was a passionate lover of ladies, drink, and debauchery, and "Dr. Donne," the more mature and morally upright Dean of St. Paul's Cathedral. His life's experiences and the culture he lived in are wholly unrelated to the way we live now. Donne lived in a tumultuous England, aside from the persecution and potential murder he faced every day for continuing to practice his religion as a Catholic. Western medicine was still in its infancy, public executions were common, attended by those who enjoyed watching criminals be tortured and killed in gory detail, and England was always at war with the rest of Europe. In the 17th century, John Donne was a very progressive figure. His poetry demonstrates a greater respect for women than many of his contemporaries, and he believed that torture was an impediment to the justice system. He continued to write, nonetheless, in order to capture the views of the day regarding a number of significant issues. He frequently combined the two concepts of love and death in one intricate poem during the course of his career. LITERATURE REVIEW The prior persona that he believed he had taken on in his teens, Jack Donne, was a poet whose poetry was filthy, irreverent, and frequently verging on blasphemy. Donne's persona at this time was not dissimilar from the young, affluent playboys of today. One of his contemporaries called him "a great visitor of Ladies, a great frequenter of Plays, a great writer of conceited Verses." It is simple to identify with this young, lighthearted man who frequently used poetry as a ruse to enter a young woman's bedroom. Dryden writes: He perplexes the minds of the fair sex with nice speculations of philosophy, American Journal of Research in Humanities and Social Sciences Volume 20 January, 2024 P a g e | 46 www.americanjournal.org when he should engage their hearts and entertain them with the softness of love1” . Grierson writes: the strains of dialectic, subtle play of argument and wit and fantastic; and the strain of vivid realism and a record of passion. – Donne’s Love-Poetry” by Herbert J.C. Grierson. Izaak Walton describes John Donne's astonishing preparations for his death in his biography of the saintly poet. Walton depicts Donne leaving his beloved study for the last time. Aware of his hourly deterioration, he retired to his bedroom and said his final goodbyes to his cherished loved ones. Walton also explains how he had looked into and studied all of Donne's sermons in their entirety and how he liked the devotional writings the poet, including his poems, letters, and papers, produced before his passing. By stating this, Walton makes Donne seem like a saint: “ It is no accident that this biography, published as religious tensions were growing acute and civil war loomed, represented Donne as a “saint2”. Before dying in 1631, Donne is seen in a photograph by Walton posing in the burial shroud. The resulting artwork served as a model for the stone effigy of Donne in St. Paul's Cathedral and was replicated in the 1633 publication of Donne's collected poems as the engraving depicted. Because of his attire and the way he posed for the drawing, he appeared more saintly in this representation. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION As Donne is aware of the weaknesses of the flesh, the pleasures of sex, and the ecstasy of secret rendezvous, his handling of love poetry is realistic rather than idealistic. He does, though, attempt to define the connection between the body and the spirit. True love is a relationship between two souls; it has nothing to do with the physical body. Donne did not go to great lengths to describe the beauty and attraction of any portion of the feminine body, despite the realistic touches and descriptions in the love poems. Instead, he talks about how it affects the lover's heart. He occasionally gives himself permission to let his mind stray to various areas of the female body, but, as in the previous poems, he does not linger on the allure of a handsome mistress's lips, eyes, teeth, or cheeks. It is quite astonishing that a poet who enjoys sex would completely resist the urge to focus on the beauty or physical appeal of any aspect of the feminine body. Donne demonstrates the power of love. Love, all like, no season knows nor clime, Nor hours, days, months, which are the rags of time. Actually, the union of two souls is true love. Donne unquestionably pioneered a brand-new kind of love poetry. What surprises the reader is the range of diverse emotions and circumstances surrounding the theme of love—sexual, violent, and brimming with life. Even when there is contempt, cynicism, bitterness, and sarcasm, the power of love is real and undeniable. Both in terms of style and content, his love songs are unusual and unique. Here, sensibility and wit, joy and contempt, beauty and repulsiveness are all mixed together. Look at the jilted lover's disdainful rage: When by thy scorn, o murderess, I am dead And that thou think’st thee free 1 John Dryden:” Discourses on Satire and on Epic Poetry”; Release Date: September 26, 2014, ISO-646-US (US-ASCII); 2 Walton, Izaak. “Introduction.” The Norton Anthology of English Literature, edited by Stephen Greenblatt, et. Al. 10th edition, vol. A, Norton, 2018, pp. 976-980. American Journal of Research in Humanities and Social Sciences Volume 20 January, 2024 P a g e | 47 www.americanjournal.org From all solicitations from me. Then shall my ghost come to thy bed3. John Donne composed numerous poems about his exploration of love from all possible perspectives, as well as his joys and sufferings, in his spiritual works. Donne, as opposed to other poets, had a knack of employing his words to convey love in a humorous manner. By writing about his own personal experiences with and fantasies about love, he genuinely transformed into the poet philosopher of love. The poem "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning" is about spiritual peace and Donne explains and shows how love is a necessary component of existence and that life is pointless and barren without it. In line 1, Donne explains how "virtuous men pass mildly away" and leave their friends and sweetheart behind. He explains how their souls are intertwined and how being physically apart will never sever their link. He says: Our two souls therefore, which are one, Though I must go, endure not yet A breach, but an expansion, Like gold to airy thinness beat4. John Donne's "Holy Sonnet 10" is one of his most religious poems, and it also contains a passage about dying. Donne explains how the speaker should have no dread of death. He says that death is weak and that no one should be afraid of it in the following quotation: Thou art slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men, And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell, And poppy or charms can make us sleep as well And better than thy stroke; why swell’st thou then?5 What this quote means Death has no pride or control over a person, according to Donne. Following are some quotes from Donne's description of the sonnet's conclusion. “One short sleep past, we wake eternally / And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die”. Meaning that if there is faith in life beyond death, then death has no power. CONCLUSION To conclude, this article is devoted to claim Donne's metaphysical love poetry holds a unique position in Renaissance literature. Moreover, in this paper main themes and characteristics of Donne's love poetry are analyzed in details. From the information given above, we can learn that John Donne is considered one of the brightest representatives of English literature, and he described the theme of love in a special way. He is one of the great poets who alternated two opposing feelings and reflected them in his poems. 3 Kumar, Dharmender. "The Apparition by John Donne". Poem Analysis, https://poemanalysis.com/john-donne/the- apparition/. 4 Donne, John. “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning.” The Norton Anthology of English Literature, edited by Stephen Greenblatt, et. Al. 10th edition, vol. A, Norton, 2018, pp.935-936. 5 Donne J. Holy Sonnet X. CMAJ. 2001 Mar 20;164(6):842. PMCID: PMC80885. https://poemanalysis.com/john-donne/the-apparition/ https://poemanalysis.com/john-donne/the-apparition/ American Journal of Research in Humanities and Social Sciences Volume 20 January, 2024 P a g e | 48 www.americanjournal.org REFERENCES: 1. 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