The Philosophical Fundamentals of Belief in the Mystical Poetry of Rumi and Donne
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/rsth.2006.25.2.137Keywords:
John Donne, Jalal al-Din Rumi, mystical poetry, spititualityAbstract
The central focus of my article is a comparative study of the Persian Sufi poet, Jalal al-Din Rumi (1212-1273), and the English Metaphysical poet, John Donne (1572-1631). In this article, I have analyzed the two schools of thought to which these poets belong as well as their individual world-views to elucidate the different dimensions of the shared philosophy governing their poetry. Mine is, in itself, a Metaphysical endeavor, namely to use Dr. Samuel Johnson’s phrase facetiously, “yoking together” two literary monarchs who appear to be culturally, chronologically, and geographically so distant.
My close and comparative study of these two poets has illustrated the basic principles that underlie the metaphysical poems of Rumi and Donne. In a yet more general sense, my article has shed more light on the bonds between the two disciplines of religion/mysticism and literature and has thus examined not only the interdependent issues in the two disciplines but also the invisible and yet highly astonishing closeness that exists in the representative works of the two literary and religious traditions.
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