Metaphysical poetry Paper no. 1

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Metaphysical poetry

• The term “metaphysical”

A group of poets which emerged in the beginning of the seventeenth century, tried to write poetry in a different way which with a passing of time came to be known as the metaphysical poetry. Metaphysical poets is a term coined by the poet and critic Samuel Johnson to describe a loose group of ‘British lyric poets’, whose work was characterized by the inventive use of conceits, and by speculation about topics such as love or religion. These poets were not formally affiliated; most of them did not even know or read each other.

“Meta” means “beyond” and “physics” means “physical nature”. Metaphysical poetry means poetry that goes beyond the physical world of the senses and explores the spiritual world. Metaphysical poetry began early in the Jacobean age in the last stage of the age of Shakespeare. John Donne was the leader and founder of the metaphysical school of poetry. Dryden used this word at first and said that Donne “affects the metaphysics”. Other metaphysical poets are Abraham Cowley, Henry Vaughan, Richard Crashaw, Andrew Marvell, George Herbert, Robert Herrick etc.

• Origin of the Name

In the chapter on Abraham Cowley in his ‘lives of the most Eminent English poets’(1779-81), Samuel Johnson refers to the beginning of the seventeenth century in which there “appeared a race of writers that may be termed the metaphysical poets”. This does not necessarily imply that he intended metaphysical to be used in its true sense, in that he was probably referring to a witticism of John Dryden, who said of John Donne: “He affects the metaphysics, not only in his satires, but in his amorous verses, where nature only should reign; and perplexes the minds of the fair sex with nice speculation of philosophy, when he should engage their hearts, and entertain them with the softness of love. In this … Mr. Cowley has copied him to a fault.” Probably the only writer before Dryden to speak of a certain metaphysical school or group of metaphysical poets is Drummond of Hawthorn den (1585-1649), who in one of his letters speaks of “metaphysical ideas and scholastical quiddities.”

In the context Johnson wrote:

The metaphysical poets were man of learning, and, to show their learning was their whole endeavor; but, unluckily resolving to show it in rhyme, instead of writing poetry, they only wrote verses, and, very often, such verses as stood the trial of the finger better than of the ear; for the modulation was so imperfect, that they were only found to be verses by counting the syllables…. The most heterogeneous ideas are yoked by violence together; nature and art are ransacked for illustrations, comparisons, and allusions; their learning instructs, and their subtilty surprises; but the reader commonly thinks his improvement dearly bought, and, though he sometimes admire, is seldom pleased.

In 1921, Herbert Grierson published Metaphysical lyrics and poems of the seventeenth century, which collected poems by Donne, Herbert, Vaughan, Marvell, and Carew. Helen Gardner’s metaphysical poets anthology, published in 1957, contained work by many more writers, including ‘proto-metaphysical’ poets such as William Shakespeare and sir Walter Raleigh, and even poems by restoration libertine the earl of Rochester. As Burrow remarks, in Gardner’s anthology ‘The all-thinking, all-feeling metaphysical poets were becoming virtually coextensive with seventeenth century poetry’. By the 1980s many scholars described the ‘metaphysical poets’ idea as being little more than an attempt by Eliot and his followers to impose a ‘high Anglican and royalist literary history’ on seventeenth-century English poetry. But in Burrow’s view, the ‘metaphysical poets’ label still retains much value. For one thing, John Donne’s poetry had considerable influence on subsequent poets, who emulated his style. And there are several instances in which seventeenth century poets used the word ‘metaphysical’ in their work, meaning that Samuel Johnson’s description has some foundation in the poetry of the previous century.

• Characteristics:

1. Dramatic manner and direct tone of speech is one of the main characteristics of metaphysical poetry. In the starting line of the poem ‘The Canonization’ –there is given a dramatic starting-

“For God’s sake hold your tongue, and let me love”.

2. Concentration is an important quality of metaphysical poetry in general and Donne’s poetry is particular. In his all poems, the reader is held to one idea or line of argument. Donne’s poems are brief and closely woven. In “The Ecstasy”, the principal argument is that the function of man as a man is being worthily performed through different acts of love. He continues with the theme without digression. For instance,

“As ‘twixt two equal armies, Fate

Suspends uncertain victory,

Our souls, (which to advance their state,

Were gone out), hung ‘twixt her and me”.

3. An expanded epigram would be a fitting description of a metaphysical poem. Nothing is describe in detail nor is any word wasted. There is a wiry strength in the style. Though the verse forms are usually simple, they are always suitable in enforcing the sense of the poem. For instance-

“Moving of th’earth brings harms and fears

Men reckon what it did and meant.

But trepidation of the spheres,

Though greater far, is innocent”.

4. Fondness for conceits is a major character of metaphysical poetry. Donne often uses fantastic comparisons. The most striking and famous one used by Donne is a comparison of a man who travels and his beloved who stays at home to a pair of compasses in the poem “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning” –

“If they be two, they are two so

As stiff twin compasses are two

Thy soul fixt foot makes no show

To move, but doth, if th’other do”.

We find another example of “The Ecstasy”-

“Where like a pillow on a bed,

A pregnant bank swel’d up…..”.

5. Wit is another characteristic of metaphysical poetry. So, here we find various allusions and images relating to practicality all areas of nature and art and learning- to medicine, cosmology, contemporary, discoveries, ancient myth, history, law and art. For example, “the ecstasy”, Donne uses the belief of the blood containing certain spirits which acts as intermediary between soul body-

“ As our blood labours to get

Spirits, as like souls, as it can,

Because such fingers need to knit

That subtle knot, which makes us man".

6. Metaphysical poetry is a blend of passion and thought. T.S. Eliot thinks that “passionate thinking” is the chief mark of metaphysical poetry. There is an intellectual analysis of emotion in Donne’s poetry. Though every lyric arises out of some emotional situation, the emotion is not merely expressed, rather it is analyzed. Donne’s poem “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning” proves that lovers need not mourn at parting. For instance,

“So let us melt, and make no noise,

Neither tear-floods, nor sigh-tempests move,

‘Twere profanation of our joys

To tell the laity out love”.

7. Metaphysical poetry is a fusion of passionate feeling and logical arguments. For example, in “The Canonization”, there is a passion expressed through beautiful metaphors:

“Call us what you will, we are made such by love;

Call her one, me another fly,

We are tapers too, and at our own cost die,

And we in us, find the eagle and the dove”.

But at the same time, the tone of the poem is intellectual and there is plenty of complexity involved in the conceits and allusion, such as the “phoenix riddle”.

8. Metaphysical poetry is the mixture of sensual and spiritual experience. This characteristic especially appears in Donne’s poetry. Poems such as “The Canonization”, “The Ecstasy” –even though they are not explicitly discussed, the great metaphysical question is the relation between the spirit and the senses. Often Donne speaks of the soul and the spiritual love. “The Ecstasy” speak of the souls of the lovers which come out their bodies negotiate one another. For example,

“And whilst our souls negotiate there,

We like sepulchral statues lay;

All day, the same our postures were,

And we said nothing, all the day”.

9. Usage of satire and irony is another characteristic of metaphysical poetry. Donne also uses this in his poems. For example, in “The canonization”, there is subtle irony as he speaks of the favoured pursuits of people – the lust for wealth and favours.

“Take you a course, get you a place,

Observe his honour or his Grace”.

10. As far as Donne is concerned, the use of colloquial speech marks the metaphysical poetry. This is especially apparent in the abrupt, dramatic and conversational opening of many of his poems. For example,

“For God’s sake hold your tongue, and let me love”

Or

“Or the king’s real, or his stamped face”

11. Carelessness in diction is another characteristic of metaphysical poetry. These poems reacted against the cloying sweetness and harmony of the Elizabethan poetry. They deliberately avoided conventional poetic expression. They employed very prosaic words, rugged and unpoetic words. Their versification and their dictions are usually coarse and jerky.
12. Affection and hyperbolic expression is another character of metaphysical poetry. It is often hard to find natural grace in metaphysical writing, abounding in artificiality of thought and hyperbolic expression.

“Our two souls therefore, which are one,

Though I must go, endure not yet

A breach, but an expansion,

Like gold to ayery thinness beat”.

13. The lyrics of the metaphysical are very fantastic and peculiar. According to A.C. word, “The metaphysical style is a combination of two elements, the fantastic form and style and the incongruous in matter and manner”. Therefore, so far we discussed the salient features of metaphysical poetry; it is proved that John Donne is a great metaphysical poet.

• Critical opinion:

Critical opinion of the school has been varied. Johnson claimed that “they were not successful in representing or moving the affections” and that neither “was the sublime more within their reach.” Generally, his criticism of the poets’ style was grounded in his assertion that “Great thoughts are always general,” and that the metaphysical poets were too particular in their search for novelty. He did concede, however, that “they….sometimes stuck out unexpected truth” and that their work is often intellectually, if not emotionally, stimulating. The group was to have a significant influence on 20^th-century poetry, especially through T.S. Eliot, whose essay “The Metaphysical poets(1921)” praised the very anti-Romantic and intellectual qualities of which Johnson and his contemporaries had disapproved, and helped bring their poetry back into favour with readers.

• Metaphysical Poets

Major poets:

• John Donne (1572-1631)

He was the most influential metaphysical poet. His personal relationship with spirituality is at the center of most of his work, and the psychological analysis and sexual realism of his work marked a dramatic departure from traditional, genteel verse. His early work, collected in satires and in sonnets, was released in an era of religious oppression. His holy sonnets, which contains many of Donne’s most enduring poems, was released shortly after his wife died in childbirth. The intensity with which Donne grapples with concepts of divinity and mortality in the holy sonnets is exemplified in “sonnet X,” “sonnet XIV,” and “sonnet XVII.”

• George Herbert (1593-1633) and Andrew Marvell (1621-1678)

They were remarkable poets who did not live to see a collection of their poems published. Herbert, the son of a prominent literary patron to whom Donne dedicated his Holy Sonnets, spent the last years of his short life as a rector in small town. On his deathbed, he handed his poems to a friend with the request that they be published only if they might aid “any any dejected poor soul”. Marvell wrote politically charged poems that would have cost him his freedom or his life had they been public. He was a secretary to John Milton, and once Milton was imprisoned during the restoration, Marvell successfully petitioned to have the elder poet freed. His complex lyric and satirical poems were collected after his death amid an air of secrecy.

• Abraham Cowley (1618-1667):

Cowley tended to use grossly elaborate, self-consciously poetic language that decorated, rather than expressed, his feelings. In his adolescence he wrote very imitating the intricate rhyme schemes of Edmund Spenser. In The Mistress he exaggerated John Donne’s “metaphysical wit” –jarring the reader’s sensibilities by unexpectedly comparing quite different things-into what later tastes felt was fanciful poetic nonsense. His pindarique Odes try to reproduce the Latin poet’s enthusiastic manner through lines of uneven length and even more extravagant poetic conceits.

• Richard Crashaw (1613-1649):

Crashaw is categorized as one of the metaphysical poets, his poetry differs from those of the other metaphysical poets by is cosmopolitan and continental influences. As a result of this eclectic mix of influences, literary scholar Maureen Sabine states that Crashaw is usually “regarded as the incongruous younger brother of the metaphysicals who weakens the ‘strong line’ of their verse or the prodigal son who ‘took his journey into a far country’, namely the continent and Catholicism.” Lorraine M. Robert writes Crashaw “happily set out to follow in the steps of George Herbert” with the influence of The Temple(1633), and that “confidence in God’s love prevails in his poetry and marks his voice as distinctly different from that of Donne in relation to sin and death and from that of Herbert in his struggle to submit his will to that of God.”

• Thomas Traherne (1637-1674):

Traherne’s poetry is often associated with the metaphysical poets, even though his poetry was unknown for two centuries after his death. His manuscripts were kept among the private papers of the skipps family of Ledbury, Herefordshire, until 1888. Then, in the winter of 1896-97, two manuscript volumes containing were discovered by chance for sale in a street bookstall. The poems were initially thought to be the work of Traherne’s contemporary Henry Vaughan. Only through research was his identity uncovered and his work prepared for publication under his name. As a result, much of his work was not published until the first decade of the 20^th century.

• Henry Vaughan (1622-1695):

Henry Vaughan, opening of “The World”,

“I saw eternity the other night

Like a great ring of pure and endless light,

All calm, as it was bright,

And round beneath it, Time in hours, days, years

Driv’n by the spheres

Like a vast shadow mov’d, in which the world

And all her train were hurl’d; “

His poetry may not have received much acclaim during his lifetime, yet his unique reflections on nature seem to have had their influence on later readers, among them, the romantic poet William Wordsworth.

The 20^th century saw a revival of the interest in the metaphysical works of the 17^th century, and with it, the poetry of Henry Vaughan was rediscovered and widely praised.

Minor poets:

• Anne Bradstreet (1612-1672)
• Thomas Carew (1595-1640)
• George Chapman (1559-1634)
• John Hall (1627-1656)
• Edward Herbert (1583-1648)
• Richard Leigh (1649-1728)
• Katherine Philips (1632-1664)
• Sir John Sucking (1609-1642)

Overview of Metaphysical poetry of John Donne

The Flea

The flea is a remarkable metaphysical poem of John Donne. He makes use of a biological image of the flea for the expression of the theme of love. It is an exceptional image to deal with the theme of love. Donne avoids the use of traditional images and brings the image of the flea to deal with the theme of love. The poem is addressed by the lover to his beloved. The lover expresses his love, proposes to her and she refuses it, because of her sense of sin, shame and maidenhood. She does not respond to her lover because she consider it a matter of sin and shame. It is because of her refusal that the lover gives example of the flea. The flea has first such his blood now it sucks her blood and so their bloods mingled in that flea. It is neither sin nor shame. The lover tries to convince her that they are more than married in that living walls of that flea. That flea is now their marriage bed and also the marriage church.

Listening to such a speech of the lover, the lady tries to kill that flea, and again the lover tries to convince her not to kill that flea. He requests her not to make her nails purple in the blood of that flea. The reason is, it will be a sin of killing three lives – life of that flea, life of the lover, and killing herself. The lover wants her not to commit a dangerous sin of self-murder. She does not follow the request of that lover and kills the flea.

The third stanza of the poem is given to the lovers attempt to convince her that all her fears are groundless. Both became one in that flea and yet it was not a sin or shame. The same way if she accepts this proposal, it will not be sin or shame. The lover is an opinion that by accepting proposal, she will bring honour to herself. The lover wants her to realize that accepting proposal is not the loss of honour on the contrary it brings honour to a woman so she should part with her fear, sense of sin and shame.

Death, be not proud

John Donne is equally known for his holly sonnets as he is known for his love poems. His holly sonnets deal with serious themes and issues related to human existence. The present sonnet of Donne deals with the theme of ‘death’. Generally every human being is afraid of death, but the poet here, presents the picture of death in all together different way. The attempt of poet is reduce fear of death and to convince reader that death is normal incident of life just like any other incident of life.

The sonnet opens with the poets address to death that there is no need for death to be proud. Some people consider death powerful and dangerous but the poet considers it neither mighty nor dreadful. The poet challenges death saying that it cannot kill him. Truly speaking those people do not die whom death thinks that it has killed. The poet believes that the picture of death is nothing but rest and sleep. If, death provides rest and sleep, pleasure is to be derived out of it.

Sweetest love, I do not go

John Donne’s song with the title “sweetest love, I do not go” deals with the theme of love. The poem is addressed by the lover to his beloved. It presents before us the scene of parting between the lover and his beloved.

The songs opens with the lovers request to his beloved, that he is going away from her not because he is tired of her or because of a hope that he will be able to find out a better companion for himself. He tries to convince her that at last parting is bound to be there and so he would prefer and artificial parting by death and not real parting by forgetting her forever. The lover is firmed in his belief that death cannot caused parting between him and his beloved. The lover gives many examples to explain his part his deep love for his beloved.

The Dream

The Dream by John Donne is a poem about the theme of love. The central idea of this poem is that loved in fantasy, in dream is more perfect than love in reality. Love in reality makes both the person aware of differences and the happiness disappears. In the world of fantasy the beloved is as per the desire of lover, without difference and so lover enjoys that dream more than the real company of his beloved.

By many examples lover tries to justify his thought. Here lover talk ‘utopia’ kind of thing, where you can imagine anything which you want, there is no limitation. It can be about anything. Here lover talk about his beloved and he tries to say that in the dream he is king and no one there to stop him not even his beloved so that is best place for him because he able to do whatever he wish and his beloved not deny there.