Donne's Holy Sonnets have long been considered classic examples of Renaissance poetry. They were not printed until after his death in 1631, the first printing dating from 1633, and three additional sonnets were added some time later when another manuscript was discovered. This essay will examine the rhetorical and textual culture surrounding and influencing Holy Sonnet 9 (as the order of sonnets in manuscripts and printed versions was not uniform, it appears as sonnet 5 in a sequence), which begins " If toxic minerals... Additionally, the sonnet's illustration of the Renaissance self-idea will be examined, as will meter and other formal features. For the sake of simplicity, this sonnet will henceforth be referred to simply as “Minerals,” and for purposes of citation, this essay will treat Westmoreland’s manuscript version of “Minerals” as the primary source. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay Like most Renaissance writings, “Minerals” is laden with rhetorical techniques, the purpose of which is to emphasize the points being made or to influence the audience. somehow. Rhetoric is firmly rooted in ancient Greek and Roman culture, its precepts and mechanics expounded by ancient luminaries like Aristotle and Plato. It is therefore natural that such techniques were at the forefront of the minds of Renaissance writers; Jacob Burckhardt, in The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy, says that "...rhetoric was particularly sought after by the humanists" (Burckhardt, 1860, p. 80), because much of their knowledge was based on Greece and the Ancient Rome. The Holy Sonnets actually have a specific significance for the general idea of ​​rhetorical culture: it was widely believed that speech, and therefore rhetoric, was God-given and distinguished humans from animals. The phrase “God-ordained speech,” used by Richard Allestree in The Government of the Tongue (1674), sums up this idea well. During the Reformation, people began to explore this idea that speech and divinity were closely linked and that, therefore, being adept at rhetoric made sense from a religious point of view: the better one exercised the gift that God had given us, the closer we could be to God. Combined with the emergence of a sense of self during this period, this gave significant cultural weight to the ability to speak effectively. Examples of rhetorical devices that can be found in "Minerals" include the octave that begins it. This is, in its entirety, an example of logos – the use of examples to present an argument based on reason. In both quatrains, Donne employs rhetorical questions. The type of questions he asks is described as anacenosis and involves directly asking the audience for their opinion (of course, without expecting a response). In the first line of the nap, however, the audience changes and so do the rhetorical techniques since, on the other hand, the nap is an example of pathos, or an appeal to emotion. Donne uses a different type of rhetorical question in line 9, called epiplexy, to express his sorrow for asking the questions present in the octave. This is reinforced by the use of another rhetorical technique known as the apostrophe, in line 10, in which Donne exclaims "O God", essentially saying that he is unworthy (although this apostrophe is not not present in all surviving versions of the sonnet). Other techniques follow this: Donne's reference to his tears making a "Heauenly Lethean blur" is aexample of hyperbole, which is a type of auxesis or amplification. The final line, "I think it's grace, if you forget," is what categorizes the sestet as an appeal to emotion rather than logic. This change in rhetorical techniques highlights the difference between the two parts of the sonnet and emphasizes the emotions and ideas conveyed within. Our understanding of Donne's exact idea of ​​the structure or vocabulary of "Minerals" is hampered by the absence of a manuscript with the author's definitive approval. There are three versions of the sonnet, any of which could be Donne's intended sonnet. Between the three versions that exist, there are mainly minor changes; “letcherous” contrasts with “Leacherous,” for example, which are probably idiosyncrasies of the author or composer of each manuscript or print. Small changes in spelling or punctuation are common, such as inserting parentheses or commas around "ellse immortall" in the second line, or inserting a comma in line 12 (so we read "And drown in it, my black sins remembered” as in the Westmoreland manuscript). According to a letter written by Donne, he decided to collect his poetry just before taking orders and asked to borrow "this old book" (Donne, 1654, Internet 1) from Henry Goodere, with whom he corresponded. This implies that, as Stringer said, "he had not even managed to keep handwritten copies for his own use or reference" (Stringer, 2005, p. L), so there is no evidence that There is even one definitive version of the sonnet. .Two of the versions each have a significant difference, meaning that Donne's complete idea of ​​the sonnet is not certain. The first printed copy, for example (published in 1633), differs from the Westmoreland manuscript (dated 1620 and verified as having been written by Rowland Woodward, a friend of Donne) and from the printing of the Divine Meditations (1635) at the line 13. Instead of “That you remember it, Some Clayme as debt,” it contains the phrase “That you remember it no more as a debt.” This difference is obviously significant because it significantly affects the interpretive depth of the verse, deletes (or inserts) what is possibly a reference to a biblical passage, and is probably a modification made to the sonnet by Donne himself some time after its original distribution . The presence of "Some Clayme as debt" in both the Westmoreland Manuscript and the Divine Meditations (the text of which was taken from a different manuscript) implies that Donne intended the poem to be read that way, although it is not possible to be sure. The significant difference in the Westmoreland manuscript is between lines 9 and 10; instead of “But who am I that I dare argue with you?/O God,” it reads “But who am I that I dare argue with you/O God?” ". This changes the "O God" from an exclamation of emotion or sorrow (which mirrors the "alas" found in line 4) to simply the end of a question, and thus impacts the effect of the sonnet in its entirety. Minerals” is arguably an exploration of the idea of ​​the self as an autonomous entity and is therefore a good example of a Renaissance perspective on self-identity. In the quatrains, the speaker asks what the difference is between harmful animals or plants and humans, and why the "sins" of plants and animals go unpunished. This evokes the concept of action, which is a key element of self-identity; the idea that one has the power to commit sin, or even take any action, of one's own will. Stephen Greenblatt, in Renaissance Self-Fashioning: From More to Shakespeare, asserts that self-fashioning occurs inseveral general conditions, many of which are demonstrated in "Minerals". This depends on “submission to absolute power” (Greenblatt, 1980, p.9), which is of course the very subject of the sonnet and demonstrated by line 9: “But who am I to dare to argue with you? ". Furthermore, self-formation depends on the existence of a dangerous Other who is perceived as “strange, foreign, or hostile” (Greenblatt, 1980, p.9). In this sonnet, the examples are multiple: the goats, the minerals and the snakes, which are explicitly mentioned, but also the Devil, whose influence is simply implied. Another condition suggested by Greenblatt is that "one man's authority is foreign to another" (Greenblatt, 1980, p. 9), which is a particularly relevant point during the religious upheaval of the Reformation and the different visions. of God who emerged at that time. The sonnet is particularly important when looking at the self-fashioning of the Renaissance because the speaker directly questions the audience: in both quatrains, the listening audience; in the sesset, God himself. This demonstrates that an individual is attempting to define their own identity within their own peer group and reconcile it with the rules of their perceived authority. In line 5, the speaker refers to "the intention or reason carried within me", on which damnation is said to be based, and both of these concepts are crucial to the idea of ​​self. The speaker of the sonnet identifies himself as a repentant sinner – not just someone who has inherited sin, but someone who has willingly and actively sinned, as evidenced by the mention of reason and intention as well as the phrase in line 12 “my sins are black.” memoree” (although this may be figurative, it implies that the speaker is remembering his sins). Identifying oneself as a sinner could be considered parrhesia, described as “a verbal activity in which a speaker expresses his or her personal relationship to the truth” (Foucault, 1999, p.6). With this admission, the speaker establishes a conflict between himself and both his peer group and authority, and identifies him as capable of independent action and thought. "Minerals" is written in iambic pentameter, like most other Renaissance sonnets, and has a relatively stable metrical structure, with the second, fourth, and eighth syllables being stressed in almost every line. However, it presents two deviations from this structure; depending on how line 11 is read, the first stressed syllable is the sixth, because it is the first occurrence of a polysyllabic word that has forced lexical stress. Although the word "tears" can be stressed post-lexically, it is a monosyllabic word, so its stress is left to the reader; it includes the third syllable of the line and therefore does not conform to iambic pentameter. This line also requires the elision of the "e" sounds in both "celestial" and "Lethean" in order to conform to the meter. The other, more important gap is located in line 6: the presence of the word “hateful” here places emphasis on the ninth syllable, the etymology of the word denying the possibility of a different pronunciation method. There is no way to read this line without stressing an odd syllable, so this may be a deliberate subversion of meter by Donne. If we look, however, at the punctuation in the versions of the sonnet judged closest to Donne's hand (the Westmoreland and Divine Meditations versions), there is a caesura after "equality" in the form of a comma, after which ( s' it is read as a stand-alone line), the meter is again iambic pentameter. Regardless, this is a significant departure from structure and is notable for that reason. The sonnet's rhyme scheme is also interesting, 02/01/14