The Metaphysical Poetry |1

ABOUT METAPHYSICAL POETRY

The term metaphysical is applied to a group of poets who wrote under the
influence of John Donne. It was John Dryden who used this term in his dedication to
A Discourse Concerning the Original and Progress of Satire. Dryden while saying
about Donne to the Earl of Dorset points out He affects the metaphysics not only in
his amorous verses where nature should only reign; and perplexes the minds of the
fair sex with nice speculations of philosophy, when he should engage their hearts
and entertain them with the softnesses of love. Applied to poetry, the term
metaphysical was first used by Dr. Samuel Johnson who borrowed it from Drydens
famous phrase about Donne He affects the metaphysics. Dr. Johnsons idea about
the metaphysical school of poetry is worth quoting as he says:

About the beginning of the seventeenth century there appeared a race of writers that may be
termed the Metaphysical poets...The Metaphysical poets were men of learning, and to show
their learning was their whole endeavour...If the father of criticism (Aristotle) has rightly
dominated poetry and imitative art, these writers will, without great wrong, lose their right to
the name of poets, for they cannot be said to have imitated anything; they neither copied
nature nor life, neither painted the forms of matter, nor represented the operations of
intellect. Their thoughts are often new but seldom natural. The most heterogeneous ideas
are yoked by violence together; nature and art are ransacked for illustrations, comparisons,
and allusions; their learning instructs, and their subtlety surprises; but the reader commonly
thinks his improvement dearly bought, and, though he sometimes admires, is seldom pleased.
They were wholly employed on something unexpected and surprising. They never
inquired what, on any occasion, they should have said or done, but wrote rather as
beholders than partakers of human nature; without interest and without emotion. Their
courtship was void of fondness, and their lamentation of sorrow. Their wish was only to
say what they hoped had been never said before...Their attempts were always analytic;
they broke every image into fragments; and could no more represent, by their slender
conceits and laboured peculiarities, the prospects of nature, or the scenes of life, than
he who dissects sunbeam with a prism can exhibit the wide effulgence of a summer
noon.

The metaphysical style was established by John Donne, early in the 17 th century. Dr.
Johnson describes Donne as the first poet in the world in some things. But the
most important thing about John Donne was his obscurity or strangeness. Donne
inspired many and among them were Sir John Suckling, John Cleveland, George
Herbert, Richard Crashaw, Henry Vaughan and Abraham Cowley.

When we meet the poetry of the seventeenth century particularly the Metaphysical
Poetry we get ourselves challenged in a different way that we had never experienced
before. In this genre, emotion and intellect is fused with one another and
inextricably. In this type of poetry the approach or style of presentation seems
unusual and thereby appears to be difficult for a common reader. This sort of poetry
is familiar with the use of science of alchemy (transformation of base metal into
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gold with the process of distillation). Thus poets writing under this genre are not just
emotional or nor just intellectual but composed of body, mind and soul. The sense of
wholeness of human life is strong in Metaphysical poetry. Human beings are not
isolated from their sensory appeals; they are seen to be affected by their emotions,
their knowledge and their beliefs. In this connection Metaphysical poetry bases on
wit, an intellectual force that helps in accumulating disparate experiences and which
illumine our understanding. The meaning of the word metaphysics in the COD
(Concise Oxford Dictionary) is the theoretical philosophy of being and knowing and
the metaphysical something that is based on abstract general reasoning,
incorporeal. However Donne and his followers cannot ever be labelled with these
meanings because they do not write philosophical speculations and their focus is not
altogether an exemption from the body. Yet they are intensely interested in the
speculations of their time and they used philosophy, theology and popular science in
their images. Their themes were created from medicine, psychology, scientific
discovery and geographical exploration and they debated and discussed on
these. Donnes lyrics are less song-like; they have less regular rhythms, often being
colloquial in movement; they can be weighty in content, with intricate argument and
the use of wide ranging philosophical and scientific knowledge; they use startling
comparisons and they are highly dramatic.

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE METAPHYSICAL SCHOOL OF POETRY:

Delight in novel thought and expression

The metaphysical did not feel obliged to follow the traditional path. They had their
own thoughts and they worked out their own manner of expressing them. To
describe them, thus, Dr. Johnson rightly says to say what they hoped had been
never said before. They endeavoured to be singular in their thoughts and were
careless of their diction. Additionally, as Walter Scott says, the metaphysical
played with thoughts as the Elizabethans with words. Noted critic J.B Leishman draws
our attention to the element of playfulness with the use of puns and conceits in
Donnes poems. This playfulness is to maintain the witty expressions and novel ideas
in order to fulfil the poetic purpose. Readers who expect poetry to reverberate with
sense impressions as in Romantic poetry or memories of familiar literary contexts of
the Elizabethans might find this type of poetry to be untraditional. The metaphysical
poet seeks to work out a logical connection between the abstract and the
concrete, the remote and the near in rendering his experience of emotional
reality. The best poetry of this kind is an intermixture of intellectual passion
and passionate intellectuality that calls attention to a genuine truth. To
describe this feature T.S. Eliot calls this a unified sensibility.
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Far fetched images

The metaphysical poet is fond of using wild conceits. The poet ransacks all fields
of knowledge, science as well as nature, for comparisons. The purpose of the
technique is not merely to show how seemingly contradictory things can be
joined together. For example John Donne compares the flea to be a marriage
bed. Dr. Johnsons famous statement about the nature of conceits is the most
heterogeneous elements are yoked by violence together.

Affectation and Hyperbole

The Metaphysicals use hyperbole or extended comparisons. This is slyly a feature

of medieval and Petrarchan verse. For example the fair lady is fairer than the
moon, or the eyes of the beloved are so bright that it can blind the sun, etc.

Obscurity

Unfamiliarity is another feature of the metaphysical verse. The real obstacle to

understanding the metaphysical verse is its novelty.

Dramatic Realism

One of the most important features of a metaphysical poem apart from its use of
conceits is its clarity of speech in a direct mode, colloquial style and general
dramatic realism. Dramatic vividness is a striking feature in this type of a poem.

Learning

Metaphysical verse is full of scholasticism or learning. The metaphysical

sometimes draw their conceits from areas which are unfamiliar to common
readers of poetry. The poet always maintains a sphere in order to share
knowledge from different branches.

Finally, there are two types of schools of Metaphysical poetry; one is the Cavalier,
following the tradition of Ben Jonson (Bens Tribe) and the other, followers of
John Donne (Donnes Tribe).