metaphysical poetry unknown artist (ehglish school). portrait of john donne, 1631. national portrait...
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Metaphysical poetryUnknown artist (Ehglish School).
Portrait of John Donne, 1631. National Portrait Gallery, London.
Metaphysical poets
• The term "metaphysical," is applied to English poets of the seventeenth century. It was used by Augustan poets John Dryden and Samuel Johnson to reprove those poets for their "unnaturalness."
• They include: John Donne, George Herbert, and Andrew Marvell
concerned with the fundamental
problems of the nature of the
universe and man’s function or
place in life
1. Meaning of metaphysical
Metaphysical poetry
METAPHYSICAL
Then and now…
• The Metaphysicals were looked down upon and kicked out of the literary canon.
• Now Metaphysical poets constitute the highest achievement in English verse.
• Reflected the intellectual and spiritual crisis of the 17th century
2. Main characteristics
John Donne, after a miniature by Isaac Oliver, 1616.
Metaphysical poetry
• The poet was a man of “wit”, displaying his sensitivity, his knowledge and cleverness
• The leading poet was John Donne
• A particular type of metaphor or simile called conceit
2. Main characteristicsMetaphysical poetry
If they be two, they are two soAs stiff twin compasses are two,Thy soul the fixed foot, makes no showTo move, but doth, if th’other do. (John Donne, A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning)
The poet compares the souls of lovers to compasses
2. Main characteristicsThe conceit
Illustrates and develops ideas in a detailed and over-complex way, often with an effect of shock
or surprise
Insists on the relationship between A (the tenor) and B (the vehicle)
Metaphysical poetry
• Unusual images taken from all fields of knowledge: history, geography, astronomy, alchemy, mathematics, etc.
Look, and tomorrow late, tell me,Whether both the Indias of spice and mineBe where thou left’st them, or lie here with me.Ask for those kings whom thou saw’st yesterday,And thou shalt hear, All here in one bed lay.
(John Donne, The Sun Rising)
2. Main characteristicsMetaphysical poetry
Take me to you, imprison me, for IExcept you enthral me, never shall be free,Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.
(J. Donne, Batter my heart)
2. Main characteristicsParadox:
• A statement which is apparently contradictory though in some sense true
Metaphysical poetry
• Dramatic quality
• Most poems begin in medias res
Go and catch a falling star,
Get with child a mandrake root,
Tell me where all past years are,
Or who cleft the Devil's foot,
Teach me to hear mermaids singing,
Or to keep off envy's stinging,
And find
What wind
Serves to advance an honest mind.
(John Donne, Song)
2. Main characteristicsMetaphysical poetry
‘The Sun Rising’, John Donne
• BUSY old fool, unruly Sun, Why dost thou thus,Through windows, and through curtains, call on us ? Must to thy motions lovers' seasons run ? Saucy pedantic wretch, go chide Late school-boys and sour prentices, Go tell court-huntsmen that the king will ride, Call country ants to harvest offices ;Love, all alike, no season knows nor clime, Nor hours, days, months, which are the rags of time.
‘Love's Diet’ John Donne
To what a cumbersome unwieldiness
And burdenous corpulence my love had grown,
But that I did, to make it less,
And keep it in proportion,
Give it a diet, made it feed upon
That which love worst endures, discretion
‘Virtue’ by George Herbert
Sweet day, so cool, so calm, so bright,
The bridall of the earth and skie:
The dew shall weep thy fall to night;
For thou must die.
‘A Wreath’ by George Herbert
• A wreathed garland of deserved praise,Of praise deserved, unto thee I give,I give to thee, who knowest all my wayes,My crooked winding wayes, wherein I live,Wherein I die, not live : for life is straight,Straight as a line, and ever tends to thee,To thee, who art more farre above deceit,Then deceit seems above simplicitie.Give me simplicitie, that I may live,So live and like, that I may know thy wayes,Know them and practise them : then shall I giveFor this poore wreath, give thee a crown of praise.
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