Health Is Beauty: John Donne's Aesthetics In The First Anniversary

Donne has been receiving great attention from Chinese readers in recent years. Donne studies have covered thematic explorations, textual analysis and cultural interpretations, but they are mainly confined to his Songs and Sonnets. Usually, Donne scholars cannot reach any agreement on his poems, even his personal affairs. To some degree, such embarrassment is contributed to the truth that Donne had never left any theories. However, Donne's undoing means nothing with his ideas. Therefore, the thesis attempts to dig out Donne's aesthetics:health is beauty, implied in his long poem The First Anniversary by employing the textual analysis and historical approach.The First Anniversary, as one of his long and obscure poems, certainly attracts little interest of readers. In the poem, Donne goes to represent the decay and frailty of the current world by the occasion of the untimely death of Miss Drury. The world's sickness and ugliness is clearly revealed through the speaker's anatomizing the carcass-like world. And the ugliness of the world is shown by contrasting the World Soul's beauty. Meanwhile, Donne has directly given his understanding of beauty. Therefore, it is conspicuous that Donne's comprehension and pursuit of beauty can be uncovered by analyzing his view of ugliness and sickness. Furthermore, the poem also reveals that integrity, color, proportion and wetness are the crucial factors that affect health or beauty of the world and a man.