John Donne''s ''Anatomy of The
World'' brings the idea of the creation of a
new world but also praises the
old one. For Donne, the old world is still exists but we can understand that only after
death. In the ''Anatomy'' Donne provides metaphors for the changes between the old world and the new world. Donne claims that the old world has died in a purpose to create the new one; in
lines 183-184 Donne
gives a description of the old world death, he also gives it feminine qualities: "She, she is
dead; she''s dead: when thou knowest this, thou knowest how poor a trifling thing man is…" (Lines 183-184) These two worlds are two ways of belief and thinking, one is the world before death- i.e.: life and the second is the world after death where one can see things differently. Donne doesn’t grief for the death of the old world, but he still craves for it, and in the ''Anatomy'' he deals with the differences between these two worlds.
The last part of the ''Anatomy'' is very important for the reader to understand Donne''s point of view. In that part Donne gives his conclusion for his long piece of art, and he expresses his sorrow for the changes that humanity has gone through, and the fact that words has less importance then before; he compares the old world to a human corpse that won''t be last for long, but in lines 449 to 451 Donne says that the old world''s death is the creation of the new, which means: redemption. We can understand from that part how religious Donne''s way of thinking is: "As oft as thy feast sees this widowed earth, will yeerely celebrate thy second birth…" (Lines 449-451) Donne refers the same also to man when he describes the mid-wife that directs man after his death to his home, i.e.: to the new world (Line 454)
In the last part of his conclusion Donne sees himself as Moses who delivered the laws of the Lord to the people of Israel. The people of Israel are a metaphor to the true people of that world that lament for the fall of the new world, in that part he also reaches to an understanding for the importance of verses and words. This, Donne claims, is the only bridge between these two worlds; it’s a bridge between the dead and the alive, the body and the soul.
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