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Alchemical augmentation and primordial fire in Donne's "The Dissolution".(Critical Essay)

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From: Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900
Date: 20050101
Author:Albrecht, Roberta

That John Donne's "The Dissolution" has been generally ignored is illustrated by his biographers, Robert C. Bald and John Carey, neither of whom comments on the poem. (1) Granted, it appears in only a few manuscripts; (2) nevertheless, one would expect its sexual and alchemical references to inspire more debate, if nothing else, in response to Jay Arnold Levine's interpretation published some forty years ago. Levine argues that "The Dissolution" is a twofold elegy, both funereal and erotic; and, moreover, that its true subject is sexual impotence, a topic repugnant to Renaissance ...

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