This document contains students' responses to class discussions and assignments on poems by Shakespeare and John Donne. For Shakespeare's Sonnet 18, one student analyzes how the poem illustrates the power of poetry to live on. For Donne's "The Good Morrow," multiple students discuss how Donne presents the theme of love as going beyond limitations and restoring physicality to love. Other students respond positively to the poem for how it stirs feelings and paints a portrait of the lovers.

1. Students’ Responses
to Class Discussion
With instructor’s
Corrections & Notes
Unit 1

2. Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18

3. Do you think that Shakespeare
had his own theory of poetry?
Randa Hindi commented:
• Shakespeare thought that poetry never dies. As
his speaker in Sonnet 18 implies: poetry “lives”
and gives life to other things in the universe.
The final couplet of the sonnet illustrates the
power of poetry. “So long lives this and this gives
life to thee” shows that poetry turns into a living
entity that can endow other things (like love
and beauty) with a life which can transcend
death.
• Fixed and further elaborated by instructor

4. The Sonnet form used by Shakespeare influences the thematic
content of the poem. Discuss
Maria commented
• "The poem carries the meaning of an Italian or Petrarchan
Sonnet. Petrarchan sonnets typically discussed the love and
beauty of a beloved". As quoted from Wikipedia
• The form in its original usage carries a thematic content: the
adoration of a love interest Shakespeare used a Petrarchan
structure to convey a similar thematic concern with beauty
and love.
• The influence of the sonnet form on Shakespeare’s poetry is
discussed in an article here ….

5. Donne’s the Good Morrow

6. What is Metaphysical Poetry?
• A highly intellectual form of poetry developed at some
point during the 17th century. It is the Poetry that is having
a particular sense that is beyond this artificial world. It
means Heavenly / Spiritual / Intellectual thought. They are
lyrical poems usually containing intense meditations,
characterized by striking use of wit, irony, and play on
words. John Donne was considered the first metaphysical
poet. He was influenced by the belief that the precision of
beauty in the adored (loved one) behaved as a
commemoration of ideal beauty in the everlasting kingdom
(heaven). This type of poetry is ingenious, and highly
philosophical. Its topics included love, life and existence.
• Quoted from enotes
Byan al Ghanmi

7. What is Metaphysical Poetry?
• This type of poetry was created by Samuel
Johnson in 17th century in England , and John
Donne was considered to be the first
metaphysical poet. Metaphysical poems are
intelligent , brilliant , and unified by a highly
philosophical conception of the universe and
humankind . Such poems have a particular sense
that is beyond this artificial world. Their topics
included love, life and existence. Quoted from
enotes
Wid Jizani

8. What is Metaphysical Poetry?
• Metaphysical poetry is marked by bold and
ingenious conceits (e.g., metaphors drawing
sometimes forced parallels between apparently
dissimilar ideas or things), complex and subtle
thought, frequent use of paradox, and a dramatic
directness of language, the rhythm of which
derives from living speech. John Donne was the
leading Metaphysical poet; others include George
Herbert, Henry Vaughan, Andrew Marvell, and
Abraham Cowley. Quoted from enotes
Wijdan Shihri

9. What is Metaphysical Poetry?
• Metaphysical means having a particular sense
that is beyond this artificial world.
• A Metaphysical poem might combine entirely
opposite ideas together.
Jawaher Otaibi

10. What is Metaphysical Poetry?
• The roots of metaphysical poetry are basically found in the
seventeenth century, when a group of poets shared some common
features of metaphysical wit.
• The term Metaphysical poetry was used for the first time by Samuel
Johnson in his book "Life of Cowley" to describe a loose group of
British lyric poets ,whose work was characterized by the inventive
use of conceits and by speculation about topics such as love or
religion. The reason for calling these poets metaphysical poets is
the use of wit and far fetched imagery . John Donne is the most
famous of all the metaphysical poets.
• Quoted from http://www.blurtit.com/q549173.html
• Ghalia Obaid

11. How Donne presented love?
• "The Good Morrow" is a love poem, but in a
Metaphysical manner. It is critical of the idealist strain
implicit in the Elizabethan love poetry. It restores
physicality, sensuality and sexuality to love. Donne
thinks love is a dialogue between the body and the
soul and neither on its own can constitute love.
Quoted from http://www.enotes.com/john-donne/q-
and-a/how-does-donne-develop-theme-love-good-
morrow-87193
Hanouf

12. How Donne presented love?
• "The Good Morrow" is a love poem, but in a Metaphysical manner.
It restores physicality and sensuality to love. Donne thinks love is a
dialogue between the body and the soul and neither on its own can
constitute love. The poet begins to advocate on the depth and
intensity of the new passage of experience .Previously he could
not know what love was. Now he has tasted it. As a lover, the
poet with the help of a number of far-fetched images displays his
realization of the experience.
Quoted from http://www.enotes.com/john-donne/q-and-a/how-
does-donne-develop-theme-love-good-morrow-87193
Ghalia obaid

13. How Donne presented love?
• The speaker presents the theme of love as going beyond the limitations
of time. Past, present, and future combine to stress the eternality of
love. In the first stanza, he uses the past by comparing himself before he
fell in love to his present state of being completely in love. He was
unaware of this feeling before meeting his true beloved.
In second stanza, he talks about the future with his beloved. He believes
that with his love and alongside his beloved, every thing will be fine. With
love, he will force everything. With love, he and his beloved will create
their own perfect world.
In third stanza, he continues to talk about the future. The two lovers can
see the reflection of each other, the reflection of their love in the eyes
and faces of each other.
Maria

14. How Donne presented love?
• In this poem the poet begins by saying that nothing in his world up
to now could compare with the love he has found. When he
compares his present state to past experiences they all seem just
like childish pleasure.
• In the second stanza he consolidates this state. He looks to a future
which he expects to lead to perfect love where his lover and himself
would be as one person living in their own lovely world.
• In the third stanza this theme of oneness continues and moves on
to where their perfect love is not only immortal but it makes them
immortal too
•
Wijdan Shiri

15. How Donne presented love?
• Love seen as an intense experience, which
isolates the lovers from reality but gives them
a different kind of awareness.
•
Wafaa Muhanna

16. Your response to Donne’s poem
• I like this poem , Because I feel that it stirred
my feelings. John Donne used a simple
languages That makes the theme of the poem
prominent. His feelings were reflected in the
poem , he described the theme of love using
different images. Also , he used the
ornamentation which is added the sense to
the poem.
Nojood Al-Harthi

17. Your response to Donne’s poem
• The “Good Morrow” made my morrow the day I read it! From
my standpoint, I think Donne really succeeded in painting a
beautiful portrait of the two lovers in the poem, and also gave
readers the choice to build the situation and draw their own
interpretations especially when reading through the
speaker’s questions in the first stanza.
• Through my online reading, I noticed that John Donne was
considered as the "father" of metaphysical poetry, which I
became aware of during my reading of the poem. He
enlarged "one little room" with their love to an "everywhere"
and created a perfect little world. He did not care about what
was going around him: from new discoveries of lands and
new worlds, he just cared about the world in which they
possessed each other.

18. Your response to Donne’s poem
• My favorite line in the poem and which spoke to me directly
is "Whatever dyes was not mixed equally". As a random
reader, it taught me the importance of balance, as long as you
have everything in your life balanced and "mixed equally", it
will remain healthy and alive. On the other hand, as a
literature student I can see how the poet was very certain of
the strong bond between him and his beloved that nothing
can come between them, especially that their love is perfectly
pure and not mixed with any selfishness.
• A casual online writer once wrote: "John Donne's poetry
deserves an eternity of its own ". As for myself, I couldn’t
agree more with the opinion she has stated!
Ranim Salim

19. Your response to Donne’s poem
• It's a poem that makes the reader understand
and feel what it's contain. The speaker
represents love in a simple way which makes
the poem easy to understand.
• The poem tells us how a love story begins and
how it will last forever. The poem is beautiful
because it allows us to live in a world of
simple and true love.
• Maria