Metaphysical

Poetry
Metaphysical
Poetry

Metaphysical Poetry- Definition(1)

By itself, metaphysical means dealing

with the relationship between spirit to
matter or the ultimate nature of reality.

Metaphysics is also concerned with

abstract thought or subjects, as
existence, causality, or truth.

Metaphysics also refers to the

philosophy of knowledge and existence.

Metaphysical Poetry- Definition(1)

The adjective metaphysical is used as

designating or pertaining to the poetry of
an early group of diverse 17th-century
English poets, notably John Donne, whose
characteristic style is highly intellectual and
philosophical and features intensive use of
ingenious conceits and turns of wit.

Their work is notable for the use of

intellectual and theological concepts in
surprising conceits, strange paradoxes,
and far-fetched imagery.

Metaphysical Poetry- Definition(1)

Donnes poetry is noted for its vibrancy of

language and immediacy of metaphor,
compared with that of his contemporaries.
Donne's earliest poems showed a brilliant
knowledge of English society coupled with
sharp criticism of its problems. His satires
dealt with common Elizabethan topics,
such as corruption in the legal system,
mediocre poets, and pompous courtiers,
yet stand out due to their intellectual
sophistication and striking imagery.

Metaphysical Poetry- Definition(1)

The Metaphysical poets are

obviously not the only poets to
deal with Metaphysics as their
subject matter, so there are a
number of other qualities
involved as well.
Among others:

Metaphysical Poetry- Definition(2)

Use of ordinary speech mixed

with puns, paradoxes and
conceits (a paradoxical metaphor
causing a shock to the reader by
the strangeness of the objects
compared. Some examples:
lovers and a compass, the soul
and timber, the body and mind, i.e.
two incredibly dissimilar things)

Metaphysical Poetry- Definition(2)

Conceit: from the Italian concetto, "concept" or

"idea; used in Renaissance poetry to mean a
precise and detailed comparison of something
more remote or abstract with something more
present or concrete, and often detailed
through a chain of metaphors or similes.

Conceits were closely linked to emblems, to

the degree that the verbal connection between
the emblem picture and its meaning was
detailed in an interpretative conceit.

Metaphysical Poetry- Definition(2)

John Donne is considered a master of

the conceit, an extended, elaborated,
eaggerated metaphor, usually strained
or far-fetched in nature, that combines
two vastly unlike ideas into a single
idea, often using unpredictable,
unexpected imagery.
When the stanza of a poem contains a
conceit, the stanza itself can be called a
conceit, as with the octave in Donnes
Holy Sonnet X :

John Donne, Holy Sonnet X

Death, be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so ;
For those, whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow,
Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me.
From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be,
Much pleasure, then from thee much more must flow,
And soonest our best men with thee do go,
Rest of their bones, and soul's delivery.
Thou'rt slave to Fate, chance, kings, and desperate men,
And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell,
And poppy, or charms can make us sleep as well,
And better than thy stroke ; why swell'st thou then ?
One short sleep past, we wake eternally,
And Death shall be no more ; Death, thou shalt die.

Metaphysical Poetry- Definition(2)

Unlike the conceits found in other

Elizabethan poetry, most notably
Petrarchan conceits, which formed
clichd comparisons between more
closely related objects (such as a
rose and love), Metaphysical
conceits go to a greater depth in
comparing two completely unlike
objects.

Metaphysical Poetry- Definition (2)

The exaltation of wit, which in the 17th

century meant
a nimbleness of thought, or mental dexterity
a sense of fancy (imagination of a fantastic or
whimsical nature)
originality in figures of speech.
Abstruse terminology often drawn from
science or law.
Often poems are presented in the form of an
argument.

Metaphysical Poetry- Definition (2)

In love poetry, the metaphysical

poets often draw on ideas from
Renaissance Neo-Platonism to show
the relationship between the soul and
body and the union of lovers' souls.
They also try to show a
psychological realism when
describing the tensions of love.

Metaphysical Poetry Platonic Love(3)

During the Renaissance, Plato got mingled with

Christian and Eastern thought. Through this
mingling we get Platonic love (which is a lot
more than you probably think it means).
For Plato, beauty proceeds in a series of steps
from the love of one beautiful body to the love
of physical beauty in general, and ultimately to
the love of that beauty
not in the likeness of a face or hands or in the

forms of speech or knowledge or animal or

particular thing in time or place, but beauty
absolute, separate, simple, everlasting the
source and cause of all that perishing beauty of
all other things."

Metaphysical Poetry Platonic Love(3)

When this scheme is Christianized

by equating this ultimate beauty with
the Divine Beauty of God, the
Renaissance Platonic lover can
move in stages through the desire
for his mistress, whose beauty he
recognizes as an emanation of
God's, to the worship of the Divine
itself.

Metaphysical Poetry- Platonic Love(3)

This complex doctrine of love which

embraces sexuality (the mystical
union of souls, cf.* Donne's "The
Canonization") but which is directed
to an ideal end (discussed in Plato's
Symposium) is particularly evident in
Donne (but we also see it in poets
from Sidney to Lawrence).
*cf (Latin confer, compare) abbreviation for compare, used in texts to
point the reader to another location in the text)

Metaphysical Poetry- Platonic Love(3)

Platonic love has also come to mean

a love between individuals which
transcends sexual desire and attains
spiritual heights (for examples, see
some of the courtly romances like
Tennyson's Idylls of the King), as
well as homosexual love (see
Forster's Maurice), derived from the
praise of homosexual love in The
Symposium.

Metaphysical Poetry- Definition(4)

The term "metaphysical poets" was

first used by Samuel Johnson (1744),
who said that "the metaphysical poets
were men of learning, and to show
learning was their whole endeavour."
He also said of their poetry that "the
most heterogeneous ideas are yoked
by violence together; nature and art
are ransacked for illustrations,
comparisons, and allusions."

Metaphysical Poetry- Definition(4)

The hallmark of their highly

intellectualized poetry, written
chiefly in 17th-century England,
often less concerned with
expressing feeling than with
analyzing it, was in addition to
the metaphysical conceit a
reliance on intellectual wit,
learned imagery, and subtle
argument.

Metaphysical Poetry- Definition(4)

Although this method was by no

means new, these men infused
new life into English poetry by the
freshness and originality of their
approach as well as the dramatic
directness of language, the rhythm
of which derives from living
speech.

Metaphysical Poetry- Definition(4)

Besides John Donne, the leading

metaphysical poet, the most
important metaphysical poets
are John Donne, George
Herbert, Henry Vaughan, Thomas
Traherne, Abraham Cowley,
Richard Crashaw, and Andrew
Marvell.

Metaphysical
Poetry
Metaphysical
Poetry

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