Donne’s Imagery:

Creating Riddles

Abstract

In this article I am going to discuss some essential aspects of the images that Donne uses in his poems. The images that he uses create a riddle like effect in the reader’s mind as there are some deliberately missing links in them. So as teachers of Donne’s poems we get a unique pleasure when we are able to solve the riddles and understand their intended meaning. At the same time we feel like taking part in the creation of the poem since we have to fill up the gaps/missing links that are there in the poems. As a theoretical background of this process of creation the reader response theory can be put forward which supports the role of the reader as a creator. My article is going to focus on this issue of riddles through a close reading of three poems by Donne, namely, “Air and Angels,” “The Flea” and “The Ecstasy.”