Donne's poem "A Fever" is an elaborate blend of narrative designs. Donne uses the venerable poetic device of elegiac stanza to express mourning for the (anticipated) death of a lover from a fever. There is an explicit surface meaning to this poem as well as implicit sub-textual meanings. On the surface, Donne's poem reads as a pre-elegy to the lover who suffers from this illness. It follows the traditional elegy format in which narration begins with death and rises at the end to alleviate the pain of death. However, due to a variety of elements, the poem twists into something more suggestive, and the fever becomes an analogy for sexual passion that is ultimately spent and lost. Thus, by combining elegy with innuendo of sexual desire, Donne's "A Fever" is a sort of assault on or corruption of both the classic elegy form as well as the traditional idea of love itself.
[...] A Fever and Fervor in John Donne's Elegy Donne's poem Fever”[i] is an elaborate blend of narrative designs. Donne uses the venerable poetic device of elegiac stanza to express mourning for the (anticipated) death of a lover from a fever. There is an explicit surface meaning to this poem as well as implicit sub-textual meanings. On the surface, Donne's poem reads as a pre-elegy to the lover who suffers from this illness. It follows the traditional elegy format in which narration begins with death and rises at the end to alleviate the pain of death. [...]
[...] For instance, much like a fever of my and all its negative implications, would possess the body, the speaker would the woman and own her for one hour. Also, the definitive meaning of the word “perséver” is “persevere.” In the explicit sense of the poem, the fever cannot persevere in the woman's body because of her physical or spiritual stability. However, based on the implications of the speaker's sexual fever, perseverance is a quality given to the speaker's sexual love, which (like a fever) lasts only briefly and will eventually pass or fade (or ultimately has the power to kill). [...]
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