John Donne
Upon Galileo's discovery of sunspots and his detailed mapping of the moon's chaotic craters, the poet John Donne began an effort to quantify the implications of cosmic imperfections. This was a physical representation of something that men had been forming for years: A paradox. Blemishes on the sun clashed with the idea that the heavens were God’s perfect creation compared with that of the sinful Earth. Many authors rejected this thought and style. Why give up truth for deception? Why give up the consistent for the unfathomable? John Donne disagreed, believing that guided imagination is more powerful than reason in the reader's eyes. He sought to inspire a more dynamic cosmic perspective by demonstrating a way to disregard sunspots. How? To extinguish the sun. This prompts the reader to ask how once more, and then Donne reveals that the closed eye is an eclipse greater than any nature provides. The illogical made manifest allowed consumers of his poems to revel in their newfound intellectual status, thereby exploding Donne’s popularity.
A visual paradox (Or soul-sight), such as the infinitely recursive triangle, provides infinite novelty, as it is impossible for the brain to properly store within memory, leading to repeated amazement. That is another element of Donne’s success: he repeatedly drew his readers back to engaging topics.
Roger Walt Sperry carefully cut a cat’s brain down the middle, making the discovery that both sides were separately conscious, but not conscious of each other. That cat became two minds and lost the ability to have both sides of its body move in unison, instead trying to move in different directions at once. Knowing this was possible, Sperry found individuals with naturally occurring split-brain syndrome. He postulated that we all have parallel experiences. That each waking instant is an instant twinned, baking a paradox into our brain. Modern poet William Carlos Williams wrote a poem, “This is Just to Say.” In it, a man recalls that when he ate a plum in the past, thinking of its sweetness and refreshing coldness at the same time —a paradox of focus that enriches every experience —further showing how the unexplainable is important for vivid description. “The miracle of the impossible you. The one that glimpses two.”
John Donne was a pioneer, making a massive leap in poetic development, to the point that modern poets are only just beginning to understand his formative techniques. The Chase Verdict is that John Donne is an excellent poet to read, especially as a part of a book club, as it fosters cohesive discussion.