A Comparison of John Donne and Ben Jonson

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Of the many similarities that John Donne and Ben Jonson have, they do have many dif-ferences. One of these differences is their use of style to show or mask the clarity of their poems. Donne uses elaborate and complicated conceits such as the famous compass conceit in “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning” as an example of how men and women have different roles in society though their love is forever. Jonson on the other hand uses a much more un-derstandable writing that though is not as figurative as Donne’s effectively displays the same meaning through clearer terms. His “On My First Son” is easily recognizable as an elegy to his dead son. Secondly, Donne uses much more metaphors and conceits than Jonson does, showing how life is unusually connected and how many things in nature mirror human activities. In Donne’s “Meditation 17,” he uses several metaphors such as bells tolling to deaths, books to life, and treasure to benefits. However, Jonson does not use many conceits and thus his writing is not as figurative and metaphoric.

Despite their differences, the two poets share several similarities. Both of them write of their loves and of their difficulties with them. In Donne’s “Song,” he explains how he must leave his lover, but his lover should not be sad and just imagine him there. In Jonson’s “Song: To Ce-lia,” he explains how the girl he is going for has rejected her gift but that doesn’t upset him be-cause it smells of her. Both poets have an epigrammatic style, as evident in Donne’s “Holy Son-net 10” (“Death, thou shalt die.”) and Jonson’s “Still to Be Neat” (“Still to be neat, still to be dressed…”). This style makes their writing memorable and quotable and thus strengthening the memories of them.