The Metaphorical Meaning of Circle Imagery in the Love Poems by Donne

The poetry by John Donne, a representative of the Metaphysical School in England in the 17th century, is unique in style, original in imagery, fantas tic in conceits, and the similarities between the tenor and the vehicle in the m etaphors are hard to be perceived. Donne's fantastic style lies mostly in the de licate metaphors. According to the traditional rhetorics, metaphor is a rhetoric al device used as an "ornament", the similarities between whose tenor and vehi cle are confined to the analysis of the lexical meaning. Donne's metaphors are d oubtlessly "far-fetched" and "absurd" to tailor to this theory. The Interac tion Theory by Dr. Richards declares metaphor is the "interaction of thoughts" instead of the transferring of lexical meanings. This theory is forceful in exp laining Donne's metaphors, which induces this paper to try tentatively to analyz e the metaphorical meaning of the "circle imagery" in Donne's love poems.