A Nocturnal upon St. Lucies day

 A Nocturnal upon St. Lucies day 

IGNOU MEG01 BLOCK-2 Unit-13 John Donne: Portrait of the Man, His Thematic and Technical Innovations and textual study of four Love Poems


  1. The shortest day, and longest night of the year- the winter solstice (December 13)

  2. Alliteration (repetition of the same alphabet)

  3. of five stanzas of nine-lines each

  4. unusual rhyme pattern abba ccdd 

  5. forty-five lines

  6. Caesura- divides lines into two equal parts, sometimes separated by a comma. 

  7. Possibly dedicated to his wife or the mistress.

  8. It is not the actual or imagined death of a mistress; it is rather the loss of the mistress who loved the poet and whom the poet loved in turn.

  9. dejection, emptiness, isolatednes, and melancholy.

  10. Lucy, the goddess of this day,of cold and winter which is desolation and despair. Allowing the sun to shine scarcely, for seven hours.



Words and meanings:



  1. Nocturnal - active at night.

  2. Squib - a small firework that burns with a hissing sound before exploding.

  3. Hydroptic - Containing excessive water

  4. Whither - What place or which

  5. Interr’d - place (a corpse) in a grave or tomb, typically with funeral rites.

  6. Wrought - of metals) beaten out or shaped by hammering.

  7. Quintessence - the most perfect or typical example of a quality or class.

  8. Privation - a state in which food and other essentials for well-being are lacking.

  9. Beget - (especially of a man) bring (a child) into existence by the process of reproduction.

  10. Limbec - To strain or pass through a still

  11. Oft - Often

  12. Carcass - Corpse for animals (dead bodies)

  13. Elixir - A magical potion

  14. Vigil - a period of keeping awake during the time usually spent asleep, especially to keep watch or pray.



You can check out my YouTube videos on the same topic where I have explained everything in Hindi in detail. Links are below-


Block-3 The Metaphysical Poets: Donne, Herbert

Metaphysical poets Part 1 

Metaphysical poets Part 2

Life of John Donne 


More related and helpful links in the description box of my YouTube channel.




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