The Philosophical Fundamentals of Belief in the Mystical Poetry of Rumi and Donne
Keywords:
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.
References
Barber, D. 2001 Rumi Nation. Parnassus: Poetry in Review. 25.1: 176-209.
Barks, C. with J. Moyne 1995 The Essential Rumi. New York: Harper Collins.
Barks, C. 1999 The Glance: Songs of Soul-Meeting. London: Viking.
Bürgel, J. C. 1992 Ecstasy and Order: Two Structural Principles in the Ghazal Poetry of Jalal al-Din Rumi. In Leonard Lewisohn (ed.), The Legacy of Medieval Persian Sufism. London and New York: Khaniqahi Nimatullahi Publications.
Chittick, W. C. 1999 Sufism: Name and Reality. In Rob Baker and Gray henry (eds.), Merton & Sufism: The Untold Story, 15-33. Lousiville: Fons Vitae.
Clements, A.L. Ed. 1966 John Donne’s Poetry. . New York: W. W. Norton and Company.
Clements, A. L. 1992 John Donne’s Poetry. London and New York: W.W. Norton and Company.
Collins, J. B. 1940 Christian Mysticism in the Elizabethan Age: with its Background in Mystical Methodology. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press.
Dashti, A. 2001 A Journey through the Divani Shams [Sayri dar Divani Shams]. Tehran: Qalami Ashina Research and Publishing Centre.
Eliot, T.S. 1993 The Varieties of Metaphysical Poetry. Ronald Schuchard (ed.). San Diego: A Harvest Book: Harcourt Brace and Company.
Friedlander, S. 1998 Rumi: The Hidden Treasure. China: Fons Vitae.
Gardner, H. Ed. 1962 John Donne: A Collection of Critical Essays.Eaglewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall.
Gardner, H. Ed. 1962 The Religious Poetry of John Donne. John Donne: A Collection of Critical Essays, 123-37. Eaglewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall.
John Donne: The Divine Poems. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Goring, R. Ed. 1995 The Wordsworth Dictionary of Beliefs and Religions. Hertfordshire: Wordsworth Editions Ltd.
Grierson, H. J.C. 1995 Metaphysical Lyrics and Poems of the Seventeenth Century. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Husain, I. 1948 The Mystical Element in the Metaphysical Poets of the Seventeenth Century. London: Oliver and Boyd.
Izutsu, T. 1994 Creation and the Timeless Order of Things: Essays in Islamic Mystical Philosophy. Oregon: White Cloud Press.
Lewisohn, L. 1992 Overview: Iranian Islam and Perisante Sufism. In Leonard Lewisohn (ed.),The Legacy of Medieval Persian Sufism, 11-45. London and New York: Khaniqahi Nimatullahi Publications.
Lings, M. 1975 What is Sufism? Cambridge: George Allen and Unwin Ltd.
Martz, L. L. 1962 John Donne in Meditation. In Helen Gardner (ed.), John Donne: A Collection of Critical Essays, 152-71. Eaglewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall.
Nasr, S. H. 1993 An Introduction to Islamic Cosmological Doctrines. Albany: The State University of New York Press.
Persian Sufi Literature: its Spiritual and Cultural Significance. In Leonard Lewisohn (ed.), The Legacy of Medieval Persian Sufism, 1-11. London and New York: Khaniqahi Nimatullahi Publications.
Nicholson, R. A. Trans. 1968 Rumi: Poet and Mystic. By Jalal al-Din Rumi. London: George Allen and Unwin Ltd.
Nicholson, R. A. Ed. and Trans. 1940 The Mathnawi of Jalalu’ddin Rumi. London: Cambridge University Press.
Nurbakhsh, J. 1978 In the Tavern of Ruin: Seven Essays on Sufism. London: Khaniqahi-Nimatullahi Publications.
Nutt, J. 1999 John Donne: The Poems. New York: St. Martin’s Press.
Rumi, Jalal al-Din 1977 Selected Poems from the Divani Shamsi Tabriz. Trans. R.A. Nicholson. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Divani Shams. Badi’uzzaman Furuzanfar (ed.). Tehran: Negah Press.
Schimmel, A. 1975 Mystical Dimensions of Islam. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press.
Sellin, P. R. 1988 So Doth, So Is Religion: John Donne and Diplomatic Contexts in the Reformed Netherlands, 1619-1620. Columbia: University of Missouri Press.
Sells, M. 1994 Mystical Languages of Unsaying. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press.
St. Anselm 1979 St. Anselm’s Proslogion. Trans. M. J. Charlesworth. London: University of Notre Dame Press.
Stepaniants, M. T. 1994 Sufi Wisdom. New York: State University of New York Press.
Underhill, E. 1970 Mysticism: A Study in the Nature and Development of Man’s Spiritual Consciousness. Cleveland and New York: The World Publishing Company.
The Mystic Way: A Psychological Study in Christian Origins. London and Toronto: J. M. Dent and Sons.
Watkin, E. I. 1953 Poets and Mystics. London and New York: Sheed and Ward.
White, H. C. 1936 The Metaphysical Poets. New York: The Macmillan Company.
Zarrin-Kub, A-H. 1985 Step by Step to Meet God [Pili pili ta mulaqati khuda]. Tehran: Elmi Press.
The Mystery of the Reed-Pipe [Sirri nay]. Tehran: Elmi Press.
