The Metaphysical Poetry:

Metaphysical poet:

                             (1)John Donne

                             (2)Abraham Cowley

                             (3)Richard Crashaw

                             (4)John Herbert

                             (5)Henry Vaughan

                             (6)Andrew Marwell

                             (7)Thomas Traherne

John Donne is the pioneer of a metaphysical poetry.

Introduction:-

            Tha term "Metaphysical” was first used by Dryden in his assessment of the poetry of John Donne.Later on the term was popularised by Dr. Johnson when he applied it to a group of poets who are now known as the pots of the Metaphysical school the term was applied to the group of English poets notably. John Donne, Abraham Cowley, Crashaw, Vaughan Herbert, Andrew Marwell and Thomas Tracherne. John Donne is tha founder. As the Metaphysical school of poetry who lead tha revalty against

the conventional poetry of tha spenserians. According to raintsbury:

                                    “Tha habit, cemmon to this school of

                                     Poets is always reekaing to express

                                     Samethin after Something behind

                                     And not the simple abvious first

                                     sense and suggestion of a Subject.”

Ø  Chief characteristics of the Metaphysical Poetry;

·         Delight in novel thought and expression:

Thay did not like to follow the traditional path.They had their own thoughts and they worked out in their own manner of expressing them sir Walter Scott said;

          “They played with thoughts as the Elizabethans

           had played with words”

 Thus we can say while the Elizabethan poets,contended themselves with a pair of lovers to a pare of doves John donne was bold enough to compare them to a pair of compasses. The Metaphysicial poets also rejected the idea of woman warship and instead of regarding woman as goldness worth of adoration they represented them simply was fickle and faithless creatures of flesh and blood.They entered into the enclosed garden of Elizabethans love poetry like angry gardeners;

                                    “For God’s sake hold your

                                         thngue and let mee love...

                                     I long to talk with

                                         some old lover’s ghost 

                                     Who died before the God of

                                         love was born.”

                         The Metaphysical poetry was purelly intellectual and made an appeal  to the intellectual.In it  emotions and feelings are expressed through the working of the intellect.

                         John Donne linkes up a wonderful range of ideas and exposed a more complex attitude of mind in ‘Barter my Heart’than Herbert does in “Afflication”.

     

·         Far-fatched images, similes and Metaphors

The Metaphysical poets introduced far-fatched image similes and metaphers in their poetry,which can not be easily understood by the common reader.In it we often come across;;

      “A combition of dissimilar image

       in things apprarently unlike”

 We see resemblaces between things which are clearly unlike between the physician and cosmographers and between the patient and the map.

      “While my physicians by their love

       are grown,cosmographers,and

       their map,who lie flat on this bed”.

·         The elements of love in the Metaphysical poetry;

  The theme of love was the promiment subject of the metaphysical poets. Many of the poems of the metaphysical poets deal with the theme of love. John Donne was one of the greatest poets of love he wrote number of song and sonnets on the subject of love but his reputation as a love poet rests on his fifty five Lyrics. Which worked published in one volume called”songs and sonnets”.Donne’s love poetry is not bookish but it is rooted in his “sweetest love, I do not Goe” he writes;

     “Sweetest love,I do not Goe,

      for weariness of thee

      Nor in the hope the world can’t show

      A fitter love for me,

      But since that I must dye at last

      this best to use myseif in just

      Thus by pain’d deaths to dye.”

·         The Mystical and Religious nate in the Metaphysical Poetry;

Donne excelled other metaphysical poets as a mystic and religios poet.His holey sonnets and the lyric like “A thyme to God”, The father show his deep faith him God”.

  “Only thou art a’bove,

    and when towards thee

  By leave I can looke,

     I rise again,

  But our old subtle for

     So tempteth mee,

  That not one hourse myself

     I can sustain.”

·         Poetic Style;

The Metaphysical poetry shows the authers scholarship and learning Dr. Johnson writes;

    “The metaphysical poets were men to learning and

     to show their learning was their chief endeavours.”

  The metaphysical poets like Browing are obscure their poetry is very difficult to understand. It is a great puzzle to the reader, Their poetry is highly original Unique and Revolutionar. They seek for originality and hearness and they achieve it in different wways.Sometimes their diction is simple words are combined in unexpected ways they use odd phrases or sentences as in the poem “A Feaver”.

    “Oh doe not die

        for I shall hate all woman,

     When thou are to gone,

        that thee I shall not celebrete,

      When I remember thou wast one.”

 To conclude with the view of Dr.Johnson;

  “For the straight forward,image and simile  out of which,the Elizabethan’s

   had found,beenety the metaphysical, Replace in by subtle and unexpected

   comparison, from discription the term to analysis from a healthy acceptance of the world to,a support morbit broding,on eliigion further for smothness,they  substitud roughness of,metre wrote realistic and cunical,and metaphysical developed more individual style.

  Metaphysical poetry began early in the Jacobean Age,that is in the last stage of the age of Shakespeare,Donne was the leader  and founder of the Metaphysical School of poetry.

    The title was given not by way of commendation,but in a derisive way because Dr.Johnson had no appreciation for the fantastic conceits whic these metaphysical poets displayed in their poetry..Dr.Johnson condemned this school of poets, becuase of the habit common to this school of poets, of always teeking to express something after.The following are the main characteristics of the Metaphysical feature in common their poetry is to a great extend lyrical,in theme it is chifiy religious or amatory,there is much metrical facility, even in complicated lyrical stanza,the poetic style is sometimes almost startling in its sudden beauty of phrase and melody of diction,but ther are un expected turns of language and figures of speech.

·         Display of Learning:

          The Metaphysical poets were men of learning and to show their learning was their chief object. In metaphysical poetry we come across obscureand recondite references and the vast learing is twisted in such a manner that it becomes very difficult for a reader to folllow what the poet really intunds to say.

·         Intellectual poetry; 

           Metaphysical poetry was purely intellectual and made an appeal to the intellectuals. The thoughts of the Metaphysical poets were often new,but seldom natural,;

       “They saw beneath the surface of life, and illuminated

the deeper places with revealing flashes,and devating                          their intellect and imagination to reflection to Him,they            produced what is by no means common in are literature,             great riligious poetry.for religious poetry of such  intensity               and spiritual insight as this group of poets wrate we am turn         elewhere only ta such isorated poets as franas Thompson             and Alice Meynell”

·         Far- Fetched image:

           Metaphysical poets raw about resemblance in things apparently unlike. Thues introduced far-fetehed images which could not be eusily underrtood loy tha reader. Their constant aim was ta produce. stories and for this purpose they introduced images of an extraordinary charaeter which could not be understood eusily.

·         Conceits;

    In the poem Autumnall Donne compares Mes.Herbert’s wrinkles to love’s graves.For love sits there like an anchorite in a French.He is of opinion that love is not there digging a grave but building a tomb because when she dies love will die consequently.He remarks about his wife “both the India of spice and mine”.

  His tears are the standars by which lovers can judge his fidelity.In the song he employs fantastic conceit:

     Ride on ten thousand days and night.

     Till age snow which hairs on thee”

·         Mystical and religious note:

  “It is not a little to the credit of the Metaphysicals that almost all the english religious verse,which is also poetry,is of their compositions.In George Herbert we have the orthodox Anglican add ressing with intimate tenderness. one who is the King of Kings. In Crashow the transcendental catholic flings his soul like so much hard and cassia on the mystic,almost Rosicrucian,loses.Himself in a dream of that shady city of palm trees under.whis the staggering spirit might sing down in an ecstacy and lose all sense of mortal disability.”

·         Elizabethan Poetic Style:

           The Elizabethan style of poetry was clear. It was marked by a note of rich melody and beauty. The Metaphysical poets threw poetic style to the winds and made the style unduly rugged course and hard;

“For diffuseness they substituted compression; the straight                                                                          forword imagery and similes out of which the Elizabethan

            had wroght beauty, the Metaphysical replace bysubtel and

           unexpected comparisons;from  decription they turnd to analysis

           a healthy acceptance of the world to a somewhat morbid

           brooding on religion and a probing of their souls.”

   Summing up the characteristic of Metaphysical poetry,it can be said that in the poetry of this school ,there is very little that makes an appeal to the heart.It is the poetry of the intellect indulging in far fetched expressions and conceited thoughts wit predominates one who cannot see through their witty expressions,cannot enjoy Mrtaphysical Poetry,most Metaphysical poetry remains obscure and vague.Bennet has beautyful summed up the characteristics of metaphysical poetry in the following words:

 “in metaphisical poetry, emotions are shaped and expressed by logical reasoning and both sound and pictures are subservient to this end. like wordsworth they prefer words in everyday use, but their prectice goes even further than his theory wordsworth proposed to use the natural language of impossioned feeling. But, the metaphysical poets use the language of men when they are soberely engaged in commerce or in scientific speculation, so that the words themselves, apart from their meaning in the context...... have no repercussion...”

The rhymes of Donne and his followers are dictated by the meaning. The term metaphysics comes from Aristotle, it means a science which investigates being as being that is reality rather than poetic convention, exploring life through the senses we refer to Donne, Herbert.

                       Marvell etc. as metaphisical poets because they share common characteristics such as wit, inventiveness and elaborate style and a common approach- they investigate the world through rationality rather than mysticism. However, labelling writers is always problematic because it can give the impression that those we call metaphysical were part of a school of poetry. self-consciously working to metaphysical guide lines. AS with the romantic in the 19^th century, these poets were individuals. who were grouped together under one lable by other writers to reflact their commen concerns.

                       Donne was influential on the work of Herbert, Marvell etc. but he was the head of an organised group or school of poets, they were very much individual writers. Dryden was the first to use the term when he criticised Donne in 1693: ‘He affects the metaphysics.... in his amorous verses, where nature only should reign; and perplexes the minds of the fair sex with nice speculations of philosophy, when he should engage their hearts. It is true that Donne appeals to the intellect not the heart of the reader. Johnson commented in ‘The Lives of The Poets’ with referance to Cowley, that about the biginning of the seventeenth century appeared a race of writers that may be termed the metaphisical poets, highlighting on the self consciouse intellectualism of their work:

                       “ The metaphysical poets were men of learning,

                       and to show. Learning was their whole end endeavor”

                      

Dryden disaproved of Donne’s writing style, especially his use of conceits of comparisons and his extravagant abstraction. A ‘Metaphysical Conceit’ is an extended metaphor, making ingenious comparisions between two apperantly incongruous things or concepts. Samuel Johnson described the far fatched Nature of their poetic comparisions as ‘ a kind of discordia concors! a combination of dissimilar images or discoveries of occult resemblances in things apparently unlike’ eg.Donne’s extended comparision of the soul with a drop of dew.

                      

They are comparing things which are not at all alike but within the world of the poem they make sense, conceits have a crucial role in furthering the argument or persuading the reader.

Helen Gardner explains:

“Argument and persuation, and the use of the conceit as their instument,                                     are the elements or body of a metaphysical poem. Its quintenessence                    or soul is the vivid imagining of a moment of experience or of a situation out                of which the need to argue or persuade,or define arises.Metaphysical Poetry             is famous for its abrupt ,personal openings in which a man speaks to                    him mistress his God,or sets a scene,or calls us to mark this or see that.”

   Metaphysical Poetry is self-consciously difficult, demanding intellectual effort on the part of the reader.It unameshadely alients the intellectuly lazy,assuming a leval of the understanding on the part of its readership which it flatters as an elite able to understand its wit. Jasper Mayne summed this up in his elegy on Donne:

 “wee are thought wit,when this understood”

·         Donne and poetic Tradition:

  Dante had represented love as akin to riligion love for the idealised anglic woman led to a wakening of love for God.Petrach was unable to separate iove from the senses he saw this earthly element as nagetive ,dragging us down.He therefore regretted passion as vain and frivolous.By the end of the 16^th century this idealistic courtly love poerty had became full of litarary artifice, overloaded with cliches.

               Metaphysical poetry is the term used to refer to a trend in the 17^th century english verse. More than anyone also John Donne initiated the trend. Andrew Marvell, George Herbert, Richard Crashw and Henry Vaughan were his chief successors. Cowley reprensteds the final stage in it’s history. Litarally Meta means beyond and physics means physical nature.Dryden used the word in connection with Donne’s poetry , he said ....

“Donne affects the metaphysics ,Dr.Johanson’s confirmed the Judgement of Dryden. since then the word has been used for Donne and his followers”

·         Metaphysical poetry is complex and defficult most varied concepet are brought together.

·         Metaphysical poetry is intellectual in tone. There is an analysis of the most delicate shareds of psychological experiences.

·         There is mixture of emotion and intellect , as there is intellectual analysis of emotions personally experienced by the poet.

·         It is full of concept which are learned, intellectual and over laborated.

·         It is argumentative. There is subtle evalution of thought as the poet advnces argument after argument to prov his point. He is often like a lawyer chosing the fittest argument for the case.

·         Originality is achived by the use of a new vocubulary dram from the world of trade and commarce. The arts and the science.

·         In order to arrest attention often a poet begins abruptty from and colloquially,and unusual rhythms are used.unasual,compound words are used for the same purpose.

·         It is often dramatic in form.As has been well said this poetry presents a drama of Ideas,Metaphysical lyrics are dramatic.

Ø  Metaphysical Poetry in english literature what is our place within the world and how to best define that place?Taking up the philosophy of Metaphysical poets wrote of experience,including love,romance ,beauty,imagination and man’s relationship with God.Less concerned with expressing feeling thanwith anylyzing it metaphysical poetry is marked by  bld and ingenious concient metaphor ,drowing something forced parelles between apparently dissimilar ideas or things complax and subtle thought,prequent use of paradox and a dramatic directness of language.

      Although in no sence a school or movement proper,they share comman characteristics of wit,inventiveness,and alove of elaborate stylistic maneuvers.Metaphysical concerns are the comman subject of their poetry,which investigate the world  by rational discussion of its phenomena rather than by intuition or mysticism.

  Metaphysical poetry to aless extend, about pleasure,learning and art Metaphysical means dealing with the relationship between spirit to matter or the ultimate nature of reality.Metaphysical poems are lyric poems.They are brief but intence meditations,characterized by striking use of wit,irony and word play.beneath the formal structure is the underlying structur of the poem’s argument.

     The out word livity conceals a deep seriousness of intent.you would be able to show how this theme of carpe diem is made clear in the third section ofthe poem.

    At the end of the 19^th century and in the beginning of the 20^th century,interest in this group piked up, and especially important was T.S.Eliot’s famous essay “The Metaphysical Poets”.Interest peaked this century with the new critics school around mid-century,and now is tempering off a bit,though Donne,the original ‘Big Name’is being superceded now by interst in George Herbert,who’s religious seeking and questioning seems to be hitting a critical nerve.The poems are from the activities of every spheres of life especially from craft, all the school of science alchemy, Aristotle’s theory, philosophy, history, mythology,law, religion and different beliefs.

       Donne is considered the master of the metaphysical poetry. In his poem we get some unique versatility. Such as, He yoke together two entirely opposiet ideas and told very serious metter with the help of playfulness.Intellectuality, cleverness, unique diction sparklingly express through his poem. He draws the material of his figure of speech from highly unpoetical sources. The material is abstract but Donne gives it full poetic concrete pictures.Specially his imagistic writing,use of cconceit abrupt opening with a dramatic style and colloquial diction made his poems highlighted.

·         Andrew Marvell:

    There is also complete devotion displayed in this first stage of the argument, namely

    “  I would love you ten years before the flood.And you should,

       if you please,refuse till the conversion of the jews.”

   Metaphysical poetry takes an important place in the history of english literature for its unique versatility and it is popular among thousand of peoples till now.