Conflict and Contact: From John Donne’s “Dialogue of One” to T. S. Eliot’s Monologue

Celal Bayar Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi, cilt.19, sa.3, ss.1-12, 2021 (Hakemli Dergi)

This paper aims to read Donne’s certain love poems in conjunction with Eliot’s

“The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”. Eliot believes English poetry composed

in the 17th century resonates with that of the 20th century. Therefore, this

article explores the similarities and differences between the metaphysical

poetry and the modernist poetry. This discussion is predicated upon the notion

of wholeness in Donne and the idea of fragmentation in Eliot. The exploration

of the themes of completion and disintegration initially focuses on the concept

of ecstasy, analyses how the boundary between the self and the other dissolves

and how the conventional dichotomy between the body and the spirit is

challenged. This article also deals with the notion of irony in terms of

fragmentation and compares the use of irony in Eliot’s poem with the

employment of metaphysical conceits based on binary oppositions in Donne’s

poems. This study further concentrates on both poets with regards to the

sensuousness of language. It finally contrasts the unified sensibility of the

seventeenth-century poet with the dissociated sensibility of the twentieth-

century poet. This paper concludes Donne’s “dialogue of one” rests upon

conflict and contact whereas Eliot’s monologue does not lead to contact.