Creative Project Write-Up

The significance of the photographs is to illustrate various images found in the poems by John Donne, specifically, Death Be Not Proud and The Sun Rising. Additionally, they are representative of the ideas found in both poems.

Death Be Not Proud is characterized by black and white photographs taken in various places in San Luis Obispo, mainly, the cemetery. The first photo is of a tree at the cemetery. It is huge, towering over all the gravestones, and skeletal-looking. It correlates to the lines 1-2 of the poem. However, as Donne tells a reader that Death should not be feared, so it is similar with the tree. It is an element of life in an otherwise very dead place. The second photo was taken in Concord, MA during a trip back east over the summer. The light coming through the dense trees, creating shadows and darkness, is symbolic of overcoming Death and of resurrection (lines 3-4) The third photo was taken in SLO at the cemetery, and is a grave marker from the late 1800s. It correlates to lines 5-6). The headstone is a picture of death, and the angel is appropriate as offering an element of hope to the concept of dying, at being lead into heaven by a celestial being. The fourth photo was taken, again, at the SLO cemetery, and goes with lines 7-8. The row of headstones belong to Catholic priests that once served the mission. The fifth photo is of the inside of the SLO open-air/closed mausoleum. It correlates to lines 9-12, as there is no way to break these lines up with separate photos. Many are interred at the mausoleum, it goes on for corridors, bodies stacked in fives, put into the walls. Everyone from newborns to grandparents to soldiers is contained in this building. Photo six, the final photo, corresponds to lines 13-14, the most powerful of the poem. It was taken at the SLO cemetery, and is of a giant pyramid put up overlooking the cemetery. The pyramid has long been a symbol for a way to eternal life, from ancient times, and with the sun shining behind it, became appropriate to use as a final note to drive the point home Donne was attempting to make.

The Sun Rising is characterized by black and white photographs once again, taken in San Luis, several in my bedroom, several in a friend’s. Not all lines are represented in the poem for the sake of length, instead, several are referenced by the photographs. The first photo corresponds to lines 1-3 of the poem, and is literally of a lover trying to block out the rays of morning light. The second photo corresponds to lines 10-12, and is more symbolic of drawing a curtain closed, attempting to eclipse the light. The third photo literally corresponds to line 13 of the poem, and is of the photographer turned away from the camera, covered in natural sunlight. The fourth photo corresponds to lines 20-21. The two hands are a gesture of ruling, as the female hand covers the male, just as though the two lovers reign together in thrones as King and Queen. The fifth photo is a correlation to lines 25-26, and illustrates tenderness and happiness between two lovers. The sixth photo correlates to lines 27-28, and symbolically demonstrates heating the world with capturing the light on the wall through the window, creating a glowing, warm feel to the photo. The last picture corresponds to the final lines of the poem, in a picture of affection and closeness between two people in love.

The music chosen to correlate to the two works attempts to convey a mood that is consistent with the appearance of the photos. One is of a Renaissance Era chant, “Miserere me, Deus” about the concept of mortality, the other is a song by Nora Jones that is called “The Nearness of You.”