Metaphysical Poetry
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METAPHYSICAL POETRY
INTRODUCTION
The term “metaphysical” comprises of two words i.e meta(after) and physical which means after physical. Thus metaphysical could be something that cannot be explained by science. Metaphysical poetry is known to be highly intellectualized with extremely complicated thought consisting of strange imagery and frequent paradox. Also, metaphysical poetry is not actually regarded as a specific genre of poetry. The arrival of the Renaissance and the Church Reformation and the humanism that followed paralleled the advent of the Metaphysical period in poetry. This period also coincided with the death of Elizabeth I and the subsequent weakening of the strong monarchy of the Tudors. The terms “metaphysical poets” was coined by the famous literary critic and writer Samuel Johnson in his book “Lives of the most eminent English poets” wherein he talked about various English poets of the 17th century which included John Donne, Richard Crashaw, George Hebert, Andrew Marvell and Henry Vaughan.
The metaphysical poets were few in number and reacted against the Elizabethan literary style and ideas.They rejected the conventional ideal of love held by Elizabethan poets and their indifference to real experience. The Elizabethans saw love as a romantic pleasure to be described in general terms, but the Metaphysicals attempted to analyse personal and intimate experiences of love. The emphasis was on the experience. Also, immediacy was a particular characteristic of their poetry.They rebelled against accepted ideas, e.g. the deification of nature and the notion of the greatness of kings. Their themes were usually serious, and often satirical. Religion was a constant topic because there was an uncertainty as to what was the true religion. There was little reference to contemporary matters, political or otherwise, but the problems of the time were often reflected in the poetry, especially the religious issues. The poems were not aimed at a ‘public’ readership, but rather at the intellect of their own closely-knit group.
CHARACTERISTICS OF METAPHYSICAL POETRY
Metaphysical poetry is known to be highly ambiguous and obscure in nature, it needs full concentration and attention to get to the roots of the complex thought.
It is considered to be highly terse and concise in the history of poetry. The poems are brief, yet every line conveys a lot of meaning in a very few words. Nothing is superfluous and spare.
It is intellectually rigorous, dialectial and subtle in nature.
It is known to be highly argumentative and uses logic, syllogisms or paradox in persuation.
It is highly dramatic with abrupt aggressive opening but modulaing tones.
The style is epigrammatic, succinct and concise.
Use of wit and conceits is very common. Conceit develops a comparison which is exceedingly unlikely but is, nonetheless, intellectually imaginative. A comparison turns into a conceit when the writer tries to make us admit a similarity between two things of whose unlikeness we are strongly conscious of and for this reason, conceits are often surprising. The metaphhysical conceit fell out of way in the eighteenth century when it came to be regarded as unnatural. But with the strong revival of the metaphysical poets, it was seen as a figure that most of the poets made use of.
Certain notable metaphysical poets are
John Donne (1572–1631)
John Donne was an English poet and a cleric in the Church of England. He is considered to be the most prominent poet of the Metaphysical school. His widespread popularity is due to his discovery by T.S. Eliot, who was impressed by the precision of expression, his cogent logic and the variety and distinctiveness of the voices Donne created. Donne wrote both on love and on death. He resolves everything into a unity; the oneness of lovers and the self sufficiency of lover, for example “She is all states and all Princes, I Nothing Else is.” Metaphysical poetry is known to employ unusual verse forms and complex figures of speech to elaborate metaphysical conceits. Donnes poetry exhibits each of these characteristics. His jarring, unusual meters, the use of abstract puns, his often bizzare metaphors(in one poem he compares love to a carnivorous fish; in another he pleads with God to make him pure by raping him) and his process of oblique reasoning are all the characteristic traits were seen in Donne as in no other poet.
Donnes poems range from an intense and passionate declaration of love to the greatest celebration of dualism; the dualism of body and soul, emotion and intellect. His love poetry is mostly manly, all denoting his attitudes to the lady than the lady herself. He has written some of the intense love poems which are striking, immediate, colloquial and strike to the depth of feelings, both spiritually and sensually. Donne mixes the discourses of the physical and the spiritual; over the course of his career, Donne gave sublime expression to both realms.
His conflicting proclivities often caused Donne to contraidct himself though. (For example, in one poem he writes, “Death be not proud, though some have called thee /Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so.” Yet in another, he writes, “Death I recant, and say, unsaid by me / Whate’er hath slipped, that might diminish thee.”) However these contradictions symbolise