A-Level English: John Donne Themes
Age of Discovery - correct answerTo his Mistress Going to Bed: Imagery of exploration
and discovery, the New World, and new knowledge
Song 'Go and catch a falling star': The speaker urges the reader to go on a
transformative journey seeking new knowledge
A Valediction Of Weeping: About to go on a journey himself, the speaker uses imagery
of the globe and travel
A Valediction Forbidding Mourning: About to go on a journey himself the speaker uses
imagery of the world and new tools such as the compass.
The Sun Rising: The speaker uses colonial and global imagery to revere his lover and
show that together they are the world.
Hymn to God, my God, in my Sickness: The speaker uses imagery of the globe, maps,
straits, and travel to reflect on the passage between Earth and heaven.
Alchemy - correct answerLove's Alchemy: Searching for a true lover is as futile as
searching for the elixir of life.
Love's Growth: The quality of love is mixed and impure.
The Ecstasy: They are distilled to the purest form of love.
A Nocturnal Upon St. Lucy's Day: The speaker has been distilled to less than nothing by
the alchemist love.
The Sun Rising: Wealth is merely an alchemic mimic of the wealth of their love.
The Good Morrow: Their love is equally mixed and balanced.
A Valediction Forbidding Mourning: Their love has been refined into gold, the purest
metal, and spreads across the world.
Astronomy and astrology - correct answerA Valediction Forbidding Mourning: Imagery
of the stars / Earth / spheres / universe.
A Valediction of Weeping: Imagery of the spheres / Earth / moon.
Song 'Go and catch a falling star': Imagery of stars / the ineffable universe.
Love's Growth: Imagery of stars / the spheres.
The Sun Rising: Imagery of the sun / celestial bodies / spheres.
Hymn to God, my God, in my Sickness: Physicians are like cosmographers and his
body a map of the heavens.
Holy Sonnet VII 'At the round Earth's imagined corners': Paradox of the round / flat
Earth.
Attitudes towards women - correct answerTo his Mistress Going to Bed: Though she is
subordinate to him, the speaker reveres his lover.
The Funeral: The speaker is controlled by, even afraid of the power of, his former lover.
The Ecstasy: The speaker and his lover are equal and elevated.
Love's Alchemy: The bitter, jaded speaker condemns women.
Song 'Go and catch a falling star': The speaker condemns all women as unfaithful.
Twicknam Garden: Rejected and heartbroken the speaker condemns all women but the
one who has rejected him as untruthful.
, Air and Angels: The speaker muses on the difference between men's pure love and
women's inferior love.
Woman's Constancy: The speaker fears his new lover will abandon him.
The Flea: The speaker argues with his lover about the flea to try and seduce her.
The Apparition: The speaker condemns the lover who broke his heart.
The Relic: The speaker reveres his miraculous lover, though believes their relationship
will be misinterpreted in the future.
Botany and nature - correct answerThe Ecstasy: Imagery of blossoming, grafting, and
growth to reflect the union of souls.
Love's Growth: Love grows and blooms like a natural substance.
Twicknam Garden: The heartbroken speaker is an intruder into the beautiful garden.
A Nocturnal Upon St. Lucy's Day: The natural beauty of the world is destroyed.
Cartography - correct answerHymn to God, my God, in my Sickness: The speaker's
body is like a map, imagery of straits and continents
Holy Sonnet V 'I am a little world': The speaker as a microcosm of the world
A Valediction Of Weeping: The lovers' tears are like globes impressed with maps
Catholic practices - correct answerThe Canonisation: The lovers are made saints by
love and worshipped
The Funeral: The bracelet of hair as a relic, the speaker as 'love's martyr'
The Relic: The bracelet of hair as a relic, 'misdevotion' turning the man and woman into
saints
Twicknam Garden: The speaker becomes a fountain whose tears are like religious
relics
Cosmic forces - correct answerSong 'Go and catch a falling star': The speaker muses
on the ineffable and impossible.
The Sun Rising: The speaker challenges and argues with the sun.
Air and Angels: The speaker describes love using a complex philosophical conceit
about angels.
Love's Growth: The speaker references the sun, spheres, alchemy, and elements when
discussing love.
A Valediction Forbidding Mourning: A sense of awe at the size of the world but the
certainty the lovers will remain connected despite it.
A Valediction of Weeping: Imagery of oceans and globes to describe the parting lovers'
grief.
Goodfriday 1613: Meditation on the consequences of Jesus's crucifixion, awesome
imagery of spheres, heaven, and Earth.
Holy Sonnet X 'Death be not proud': The speaker challenges and condemns the
personified force of death.
Holy Sonnet VII 'At the round world's imagined corners': The speaker anticipates the
awe and majesty of Judgement Day.
Age of Discovery - correct answerTo his Mistress Going to Bed: Imagery of exploration
and discovery, the New World, and new knowledge
Song 'Go and catch a falling star': The speaker urges the reader to go on a
transformative journey seeking new knowledge
A Valediction Of Weeping: About to go on a journey himself, the speaker uses imagery
of the globe and travel
A Valediction Forbidding Mourning: About to go on a journey himself the speaker uses
imagery of the world and new tools such as the compass.
The Sun Rising: The speaker uses colonial and global imagery to revere his lover and
show that together they are the world.
Hymn to God, my God, in my Sickness: The speaker uses imagery of the globe, maps,
straits, and travel to reflect on the passage between Earth and heaven.
Alchemy - correct answerLove's Alchemy: Searching for a true lover is as futile as
searching for the elixir of life.
Love's Growth: The quality of love is mixed and impure.
The Ecstasy: They are distilled to the purest form of love.
A Nocturnal Upon St. Lucy's Day: The speaker has been distilled to less than nothing by
the alchemist love.
The Sun Rising: Wealth is merely an alchemic mimic of the wealth of their love.
The Good Morrow: Their love is equally mixed and balanced.
A Valediction Forbidding Mourning: Their love has been refined into gold, the purest
metal, and spreads across the world.
Astronomy and astrology - correct answerA Valediction Forbidding Mourning: Imagery
of the stars / Earth / spheres / universe.
A Valediction of Weeping: Imagery of the spheres / Earth / moon.
Song 'Go and catch a falling star': Imagery of stars / the ineffable universe.
Love's Growth: Imagery of stars / the spheres.
The Sun Rising: Imagery of the sun / celestial bodies / spheres.
Hymn to God, my God, in my Sickness: Physicians are like cosmographers and his
body a map of the heavens.
Holy Sonnet VII 'At the round Earth's imagined corners': Paradox of the round / flat
Earth.
Attitudes towards women - correct answerTo his Mistress Going to Bed: Though she is
subordinate to him, the speaker reveres his lover.
The Funeral: The speaker is controlled by, even afraid of the power of, his former lover.
The Ecstasy: The speaker and his lover are equal and elevated.
Love's Alchemy: The bitter, jaded speaker condemns women.
Song 'Go and catch a falling star': The speaker condemns all women as unfaithful.
Twicknam Garden: Rejected and heartbroken the speaker condemns all women but the
one who has rejected him as untruthful.
, Air and Angels: The speaker muses on the difference between men's pure love and
women's inferior love.
Woman's Constancy: The speaker fears his new lover will abandon him.
The Flea: The speaker argues with his lover about the flea to try and seduce her.
The Apparition: The speaker condemns the lover who broke his heart.
The Relic: The speaker reveres his miraculous lover, though believes their relationship
will be misinterpreted in the future.
Botany and nature - correct answerThe Ecstasy: Imagery of blossoming, grafting, and
growth to reflect the union of souls.
Love's Growth: Love grows and blooms like a natural substance.
Twicknam Garden: The heartbroken speaker is an intruder into the beautiful garden.
A Nocturnal Upon St. Lucy's Day: The natural beauty of the world is destroyed.
Cartography - correct answerHymn to God, my God, in my Sickness: The speaker's
body is like a map, imagery of straits and continents
Holy Sonnet V 'I am a little world': The speaker as a microcosm of the world
A Valediction Of Weeping: The lovers' tears are like globes impressed with maps
Catholic practices - correct answerThe Canonisation: The lovers are made saints by
love and worshipped
The Funeral: The bracelet of hair as a relic, the speaker as 'love's martyr'
The Relic: The bracelet of hair as a relic, 'misdevotion' turning the man and woman into
saints
Twicknam Garden: The speaker becomes a fountain whose tears are like religious
relics
Cosmic forces - correct answerSong 'Go and catch a falling star': The speaker muses
on the ineffable and impossible.
The Sun Rising: The speaker challenges and argues with the sun.
Air and Angels: The speaker describes love using a complex philosophical conceit
about angels.
Love's Growth: The speaker references the sun, spheres, alchemy, and elements when
discussing love.
A Valediction Forbidding Mourning: A sense of awe at the size of the world but the
certainty the lovers will remain connected despite it.
A Valediction of Weeping: Imagery of oceans and globes to describe the parting lovers'
grief.
Goodfriday 1613: Meditation on the consequences of Jesus's crucifixion, awesome
imagery of spheres, heaven, and Earth.
Holy Sonnet X 'Death be not proud': The speaker challenges and condemns the
personified force of death.
Holy Sonnet VII 'At the round world's imagined corners': The speaker anticipates the
awe and majesty of Judgement Day.
