Metaphysical Poetry and John Donne Essay

Define metaphysical verse, its characteristics and conjuration Donne as a metaphysical poet. The concept metaphysical deals with the philosophical view of the nature of things. metaphysical numbers is a lot menti unmatchedd as poetry inspired by a philosophical concept of the universe and the business office assigned to the hu humanity spirit in the coarse free rein of existence. Metaphysical poetry is involved with the whole ca example of man, precisely the intelligence, learning and seriousness of the poets. Metaphysical poetry has an amazing advocate to explore and express ideas and feelings round the mankind and its diverse phenomena in a rational way to captivate the readers.Metaphysical poems atomic number 18 lyric poems. A group of 17th-century poets, whose work is characterized by the use of complex and elaborate im whiles or self-loves, typically using an intellectual form of argumentation to express ruttish states ar de noned as metaphysical poets. Members of this group let in ou gigabytese Donne, George Herbert, hydrogen Vaughan, Andrew Marvell, Robert Herrick and Richard Crashaw who explored the nature of the world and human life, and who employ images that were surprising at that time.Their poetical whole kit and caboodle have been abundant with the various perspectives of human life in voxicular exchangeable love, romance and sensuality rough mans kind with God the eternal perspective, and to a less extent, about pleasure, learning and art. The metaphysical poetry pre displaces innovative and wondrous use of puns, paradoxes and employs cunning logical propositions Metaphysical poem is brief b bely intense and embodies a style that is nimble and vigorous. A metaphysical poem is an expanded epigram, characterized by the striking use of wit and irony.Metaphysical poetry demands concentration. Moreover a metaphysical conceit makes the poetry more vibrant and note costy. It is largely used to make a comparison of wilyn ess and arbitrator and its invention is a great deal more moving than its justness. A metaphysical conceit is used to persuade, or to define, or to rousevas a point thats why the metaphysical poetry is unremarkably argumentative and persuasive. A metaphysical poet attempts to establish a logical connective between his emotional feelings and intellectual concepts with the help of far-fetched resource.The clever placement of conflicting imagery, thought and emotions, contrasting pair of statements and unifying altogether makes it extraordinary. According to Ben tooshieson the metaphysical poets showcase their knowledge and intelligence in their poetry. The metaphysical poets play with thoughts as the Elizabethans had played with words which clearly show the wit and intellect of poets. The controlled menstruation of emotions is the exhibition of the potential the poets carry to express feelings in controlled language. Metaphors, similes and personifications ar noteworthy elements of metaphysical poetry.In addition to this a combination of sensibility portrays the tremendous fusion of head and heart, of intellect and emotion, of thought and passion. The metaphysical poets harmonized thoughts, reasoning, feelings and images. universe successful at merging diverse fields, metaphysical poetry withal contains a sense of humour though it is not laughable but it brings a smile to the readers face. Metaphysical poetry is comm all a salient monolog, the poet is addressed to the audience like in drama and every idea is for the audience. furthermore the abrupt openings of metaphysical poetry are t herefore an attraction which creates an interest for the readers. The metaphysical poets were more interested in the use of intricate rhythm, realism and obscurity. Joan Bennet observes that in the case of Donne and his circle, the bourn that metaphysical actually refers to the style rather than subject matter. John Donne (1572-1631) was inclined to the person al and intellectual complexity and concentration that is displayed in his poetry. He is acknowledged as the master of metaphysical poetry.John Donne was Born in London into a prosperous Roman Catholic family, at a time when England was staunchly anti-Catholic, Donne was forced to leave Oxford without a degree because of his religion. He studied law and, at the same time, read widely in theology in an attempt to decide whether the Roman or the Anglican Church was the true Catholic Church . In the meantime, he became cognise as a witty man of the world and the author of original, often dense, erotic poems. Donne participated in two naval expeditions, he was briefly sent to prison for secretly marrying his patrons niece.In 1615, at the age of forty-two, Donne accepted ordination in the Anglican Church. He quickly acquire a reputation as one of the greatest pr to each oneers of his time. He was dean of St. Pauls since 1621 until his destruction. John Donne is regarded as both(pren ominal) the pioneer and the master(prenominal) spokesman of metaphysical poetry. The importance of his innovation was recognized by Thomas Carew, who praised Donne as the monarch of wit who purged /The Muses tend, threw away the loose seeds / Of Servile take-off And fresh invention planted.But his poetry is also onerous and complicated. Donne adopts different oles and postures the libertine rake, the devoted and constant lover and the cynic who feels cheated by his experience in love, the despairing sinner fearing damnation, and bold suitor, claiming his right to salvation. His poetry expresses radically contradictory views of women, the body, and love. Donnes poetry about love and about his coition to God invites connections with his personal life, yet it resists attempts to read it biographically. His seventeenth-century biographer, Izaak Walton, assigned the unsanctified love poetry to the youthful Donne and the religious poetry to the mature priest.His notable works are The Good-Morrow, The Sunne hike, Death Be Not Proud, cream My Heart, The canonisation, A Valediction Forbidding Mourning, A Nocturnall upon S. Lucies Day , Twicknam Garden and The Anniversarie . The Songs and Sonnets explore mans relation with woman, seeing erotic love as one of the most important experiences of life. Donnes love poetry describes passionate intimate love with vigor and intensity. there are far too more suitable poems to consider all in detail, but The Good-Morrow and The Sunne Rising fail together.Whereas the Elegies in their political language and analogies often connect love and the political world, here there is a sharper opposition between the two spheres. The private little room of love (the microcosm) contrasts with the outside world of princes, explorers, lawyers, and merchants, who are all preoccupied with material concerns. The Good-morrow is a complex poem which moves around two central metaphors, of a pair of lovers walking into a sweet life toget her and of new world created by their mutual love. John Donne gave a poetic status to a simple idea in an argumentative way in a three stanza structure.But the blandness of the stanza is leading to the brief penultimate line and final Alexandrine with its stately, measured quality. On (line-4) there is a deferred payment to bible to the seven sleepers, /or snorted we in seven sleepers den/ metaphorically may be Donne and his dear(p) were sleeping. Furthermore in (lines 8-14) he claims that his experience of mutual love builds him a new perspective from which the rest of the world looks insignificant. The world of love contains everything of value it is the only if one worth exploring and possessing.Donne uses conceits and metaphors to exhibit his knowledge of geography, which is evident by the reference to the sea voyagers, that the lovers are not interested in the new worlds and discoveries, they are happy with each other and they dont want anything else. / allow sea-discover ers to new worlds have gone, / Let maps to others, worlds on worlds have shown, / Let us possess one world, each hath one, and is one/.While the following lines /Where can we find two better hemispheres/Without sharp north, without declining west? Compares the world of the lovers in the geographical world that our world is full of love and our love for each other is true and never ending. Love creates its own perfect world, unite of two better hemispheres. Donnes keen interest in discovering, colligate him with important concerns of his age. The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were a time of exploration, both scientific and geographical. England also saw the emergence of modern, experimental science. The New World was universe explored, and astronomical observations by Copernicus, Kepler, and Galileo led to the discovery of a new crop of the heavens.Donne telescoped images and draws references from diverse spheres of cosmology, geography, science, philosophy, alchemy, theolog y, sea-voyages, mythology, religion, law and even from colonial enterprise so far as Britain was then emerging as the greatest imperium through colonial expansion in different countries. Certain images or ideas recur so often as to seem typical kingship and regularisation subjectivism (one little room an everywhere nothing else is) alchemy especially the mystical beliefs associated with elixir and quintessence and cosmology, both ancient and modern (references both to spheres and to the world of sea-discoverers).Another love sonnet by Donne The Sun Rising is a dramatic monologue addressed to the solarize and the beloved. Here Donne uses personification metaphors and similes to make it interesting and attractive. Sun and ants are personified and different images are used (lines 5-10) like schoolboys, factory workers, huntsman, life of London and the royal class. There is a conceit where beloveds beautiful eyes are compared to India (undiscovered beauty) and the sun can see that i f India is as beautiful as his beloveds eyes or his beloveds eyes are more beautiful, this far-fetched conceit illustrates Donnes wit and intellect.There is a metaphor where the beloved is compared to the states and princess/she is all states, and all princes, I, nothing else/ it gives the idea that for the poet, the beloved is the entire world, royalty, knightly and grand and maybe the sun also believes that. Hence the microcosmic world of love becomes larger and more important than the macrocosm. /Princes doe. All wealth alchimie/ here poet says that his beloveds beauty is copied by princess and further a metaphor express that she is more honorable and worthy than wealth and fortunate and their love is all the wealth for them.The concluding couplet/ Shine here to us, and thou art everywhere/ This bed thy centre is, these walls, thy sphere/ brings forrard a cosmic imagery to show how the microcosmic world of the lovers symbolizes the macrocosmic world. Donnes providential Poems explore the mans relation with God, often describing it in terms of human love, and seeking to discover the true relation between mans love for God that promises salvation. Even with his Divine Poems exploring religious experience, Donne seeks to understand the relation between erotic and spiritual love.In Donnes Divine Poems the sense of sinfulness is so great that the talker insists it will take extraordinary efforts on Gods part to save him. The demands for an intense, intimate relation with God are often couched in erotic language. Perhaps the most startling poem is the sonnet Batter my heart, three persond God, in which the speaker metaphorically says that he is like a woman who loves one man (God) but is betrothed to another (Satan), and wants to be rescued, even by force. Its a paradoxical poem with conceits and metaphors and one of the best known in his holy sonnets.On (line 5-8) a conceit is used where the poet is comparing himself to a townsfolk which is conquered by en emies and he wants God to come to him and dominate him. Donne took ideas from the bible and the Nazareneian priests in his holy sonnets. Death Be Not Proud is Donnes another argumentative poem, that death is not all-powerful, since it must eventually give way to eternal life, we fear as death is (for Christian believer) only form of sleep from which we have to awake on the day of judgment, when death will be abolished.There is a reference to (Jesus Christ) in furthermost 3 lines of (Death Be Not Proud) and the idea is taken from bible as he wants forgiveness with blood as each drop of Christs blood is salvation /why swellst thou death, thou shalt die/. The argument of the poem is that. There is another reference to the outpouring in Noahs time/from rest and sleepe, rest of their soules deliverie/(lines5-9). Donne in A Valediction Forbidding Mourning compares the lovers with a pair of compasses.Such a far-fetched comparison to show the affinity and relationship of the lovers in t erms of compasses is then astounding for which Samuel Johnson describes metaphysical conceit as a combination of conglomerate images or discovery of occult resemblances in things apparently. Again in Twicknam Garden Donne makes another brilliant use of conceit whose ingenuity, Helen Gardner considers, is more striking than its justice ? The spider Love, which transubstantiates all/ And can convert manna to gall.In Donnes poetry we will also examine a sudden dramatic beginning and finer exertion of colloquial language, as exemplified in the abrupt, colloquial opening of The Canonization where the poet-lover admonishes the intruder in a colloquial tone for hampering their privacy ? For Gods sake hold your tongue, and let me love, / Or chide my palsy, or my gout/ My five gray hairs, or destroy fortune flout?. If we keenly observe, we will find that many of the tensions and contradictions in Donnes poetry can be seen as deriving from absentminded to satisfy conflicting human needs and desires.Some poems like The absent-minded or Community insist on male independence and shore leave in erotic relations. Others like The Sun Rising or The Canonization show a strong desire for intimacy. Donnes poetry hence expresses the instability and infinity of human desire. For all its various attitudes, what is so marvelous about Donne is that, for all his realistic assessment of those limits, and for all the admissions of guilt about his immoderate desires, he never gives up wanting and asking for -more. There are some other well-known contemporaries of John Donne like Andrew Marvell (162178), who is one of the English metaphysical poets.Among his best-known poems is To His Coy Mistress, a clever and entertaining attempt to persuade a young woman to go to bed with him there is an explicit argument of this poem. Other works of Andrew Marvell include The Coronet, Bermudas, The Definition of Love and The Garden. Henry Vaughan (1621-1695) is another metaphysical poet, who wrote The Retreate, The World, Man and They be All Gone into the World of Light. In The Retreate, Vaughan notes that shadows of eternity are seen by him in natural phenomena such as clouds or flowers. His works express ones personal relationship to God.George Herbert another worth mentioning English poet and priest, is one of the metaphysical poets who dealt with religious themes such as doubt, measly and joy, using simple language and metaphors. Herberts poetry is elegant as the result of art as a cultivated expression, but not forced, spiritual humility. He wrote Jordan in which there is religious devotion versus profane love, other works are The Pearl, The Collar, Discipline and Love. Following the steps of John Donne, Richard Crashaw (1613-1649) wrote many metaphysical poems like EpigrammaticumSacrorum Liber, Steps to the temple, Delights of the Muses, Carmen Deo Nostro and thats why he is also short listed among the brilliant and illustrious metaphysical poets. His collecti on The Temple was published after his death. All these legends have played an important role in the survival of metaphysical poetry. Lastly, I will mention that metaphysical poetry gives us a new dimension to create a far-fetched link with the help of metaphysical conceits, which stimulates us to think beyond the erupt level and show our wit and shrewdness.I would praise all the metaphysical poets, for their commendable job and setting a new trend in English poetry. The tremendous versatility of Donne and his contemporaries paved the way for future generations to claim something as grand as metaphysical poetry. Metaphysical poetry has its great importance in English literature due to its vivacious imagery and attractive techniques. Indeed, metaphysical poetry is a milestone achievement for metaphysical poets its worth reading and worth admiring.