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ENGLISH PROJECT WORK

METAPHYSICAL POETRY




Submitted to: Dr. Pratyush Kaushik
By: Sachin Kumar
B.A. LL.B.
Roll No. 959
IInd Semester
1
st
Year




CHANAKYA NATIONAL LAW UNIVERSITY



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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Writing a project is one of the most significant academic challenges I have ever faced.
Though this project has been presented by me but there are many people who remained in
veil, who gave their support and helped me to complete this project.
First of all I am very grateful to my subject teacher Dr. Pratyush Kaushik without the kind
support of whom and help the completion of the project was a Herculean task for me. He
gave his valuable time from his busy schedule to help me to complete this project and
suggested me from where and how to collect data.
I am very thankful to the librarian who provided me several books on the topic which proved
beneficial in completing this project.
I also acknowledge my friends who gave their valuable and meticulous advice which proved
to be very useful and could not be ignored in writing this project. I want to convey a most
sincere thanks to my seniors for helping throughout the project.

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Table of Contents
Introduction..................................................................................4
The Origin and Evolution Of Metaphysical Poetry.....................7
Characteristics of Metaphysical Poetry.......................................12
Some major metaphysical poets........................................15
Conclusion...................................................................................18
Bibliography................................................................................20















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CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
First of all let us begin by defining the word metaphysical, though the meaning of the word
has no relation to this branch of poetry. The word metaphysical means something relates to
metaphysics, which is a branch of philosophy basically concerned with two basic questions
1. What is ultimately there? , and
2.What is it like?
It concerns the fundamental nature of being and the world that it encompasses.
But this brand of philosophy has nothing to do with kind of poetry that we are going to
discuss in the project.
Metaphysical poetry was a term considered to be coined by the great English writer, poet and
critic Samuel Johnson to define a loose group of lyric poets whose writings were
characterised by whose work was characterized by the inventive use of conceits, and by
speculation about topics such as love or religion. These poets were not formally affiliated;
most of them did not even know each other or read each others work.
Now let us first give a short introduction about the terms lyric poets and conceits.
Lyric poets were those poets whose poems were characterised by an outpouring of personal
and often emotional feelings, especially in the present tense.
Conceits are basically extended metaphors with complex logic and have been known as the
signature if metaphysical poetry. Through conceits, the poet usually urges the reader to a
more sophisticated way of understanding the verses by juxtaposing and creating complex and
often surprising imagery.
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As mentioned above, since the term, metaphysical poetry was coined after the poems had
been written, and most of the poets were unknown to each other and probably to each others
work, there is none who has specifically written under this genre. The poets have been just
loosely classified on the basis of their writing style and the kind of poetry that they have
written.
Samuel Johnson popularised the term by using it in his book, Life of Great Eminent Poets
in a chapter on Abraham Cowley, the English poet. He was probably using the term from
John Drydens witticisms, who had first used the term metaphysical poetry to describe the

1
Conceit, available at http://www.poetryfoundation.org/learning/glossary-term/conceit
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works of John Donne, the English poet considered to be the first and the best metaphysical
poets. Dryden said of Donne while talking about Cowley, He affects the metaphysics, not
only in his satires, but 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, and entertain them with the softnesses of love. In this . . . Mr. Cowley has copied him
to a fault.
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It can be clearly seen that Dryden is not particularly favourable to metaphysical poets, and in
this thinly veiled satire of his, he refers to the poetry as being too complex while talking of
love, engaging the minds of the opposite sex, rather than engaging with their beauty.
Probably the only writer before Dryden to speak of a certain metaphysical school or group of
metaphysical poets is Drummond of Hawthornden (15851649), who in one of his letters
speaks of "metaphysical Ideas and Scholastical Quiddities."
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Nor was Johnson's assessment of 'metaphysical poetry' particularly flattering, since he wrote:
The metaphysical poets were men of learning, and, to show their learning was their whole
endeavour; but, unluckily resolving to show it in rhyme, instead of writing poetry, they only
wrote verses, and, very often, such verses as stood the trial of the finger better than of the ear;
for the modulation was so imperfect, that they were only found to be verses by counting the
syllables... 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
4

Although these two critics were sceptical of the nature of metaphysical poetry as being too
complex and demanding of the readers, there was a major section of critics who admired
these poets on that very basis. Their ability and dexterity of skill was largely praised and their
ability to engage the mind of the reader on a deeper level was highly admired. The
Metaphysical Poets were known for their ability to startle the reader and coax new
perspective through paradoxical images, subtle argument, inventive syntax, and imagery from
art, philosophy, and religion using conceit.

2
Gardner, Helen, The Metaphysical Poets, [London] Oxford University Press
3
Gardner, Helen, The Metaphysical Poets, [London] Oxford University Press
4
Samuel Johnson, Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets, vol. 1 (1779)
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John Donne, along with similar but distinct poets such as George Herbert, Andrew Marvell,
and Henry Vaughn, developed a poetic style in which philosophical and spiritual subjects
were approached with reason and often concluded in paradox. This group of writers
established meditationbased on the union of thought and feeling sought after in Jesuit
Ignatian meditationas a poetic mode.
This school is a very loose establishment of poets with no definite precursor. The major
luminary poets of this school are John Donne, George Herbert, Abraham Cowley and
Andrew Marvell. Some of the other lesser known poets whose writings have featured the
metaphysical style of poetry at some point in their poetry are Anne Bradstreet, Katherine
Philips, Richard Leigh and John Hall. All these poets belonged from the time period of 1550
to the late 1690s, so it is obvious that the European Renaissance had at least some sort of
effect on their writings.
In further chapters we shall elaborate more on the general characteristics of metaphysical
poets. We shall do a case study of the major metaphysical poets, look at the relevance of
metaphysical poetry in current times and finally conclude our project.









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CHAPTER 2
THE ORIGINS AND EVOLUTION OF METAPHYSICAL POETRY

Metaphysical poetry, unlike haiku, limericks or ballads, is not a separate genre of poetry. It is
simply a word used to describe an amalgamation on poetry which shared the same underlying
characteristics of exalted imagery and conceits rather than having a definite theme or a
certain definite style like limericks. The poems classified in this group do share common
characteristics: they are all highly intellectualized, use rather strange imagery, use frequent
paradox and contain extremely complicated thought. However, metaphysical poetry is not
regarded as a genre of poetry. In fact, the main poets of this group didn't read each others'
work and didn't know that they were even part of a classification.
Literary critic and poet Samuel Johnson first coined the term metaphysical poetry in his
book Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets (1179-1781). In the book, Johnson wrote
about a group of 17th-century British poets that included John Donne, George Herbert,
Richard Crashaw, Andrew Marvell and Henry Vaughan. He noted how the poets shared
many common characteristics, especially ones of wit and elaborate style.
Their work is a blend of emotion and intellectual ingenuity, characterized by conceit or
witthat is, by the sometimes violent yoking together of apparently unconnected ideas and
things so that the reader is startled out of his complacency and forced to think through the
argument of the poem. Metaphysical poetry is less concerned with expressing feeling than
with analyzing it, with the poet exploring the recesses of his consciousness. The boldness of
the literary devices usedespecially obliquity, irony, and paradoxis often reinforced by a
dramatic directness of language and by rhythms derived from that of living speech.
So what we can see is that metaphysical poetry goes out of its way to be unconventional in its
approach to the emotion at hand, expressing it in its complexity and using a more advanced
form of imagery in metaphors and other such literary devices, forcing the reader to actually
think about the analogies in their entirety and draw conclusions out of it. So they engage the
readers on an intellectual level. We can also say that the word metaphysical has been used in
reference to their poems in order to emphasise and extol the level of intellectual engagement
with their lyrical and socially engaging verse.
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Though metaphysical poetry was well received in its times, primarily due to the skills of the
poets rather than being a part of the genre, interest in pursuing and the expansion and further
evolution of metaphysical poetry largely remained stalled and it was largely forgotten by the
literary critics due to non-presence of such literature in the future.
In 1921, the great Scottish scholar editor and essayist, Herbert John Clifford Grierson
published Metaphysical Lyrics and Poems of the Seventeenth Century, which collected
poems by Donne, Herbert, Vaughan, Marvell, and Carew.
Helen Gardner's Metaphysical Poets anthology, published in 1957, contained work by many
more writers, including 'proto-metaphysical' poets such as William Shakespeare and Sir
Walter Ralegeih. Here, by proto metaphysical poets, it is meant that the poets here wrote
what can be considered a primitive form of metaphysical poetry. It can be said that these
poets did not extensively use conceit and other such literary devices characteristic of
metaphysical poetry extensively, but did use some form or the other in one or more of their
works. Lets see Shakespeare making use of conceit in his play in the Act 3, Scene 5 of his
play Romeo and Juliet. Capulet comes to Juliets room after Romeo has left. He finds her
weeping and says:
Thou counterfeitst a bark, a sea, a wind;
For still thy eyes, which I may call the sea,
Do ebb and flow with tears; the bark thy body is,
Sailing in this salt flood; the winds, thy sighs;
Who, raging with thy tears, and they with them,
Without a sudden calm, will overset
Thy tempest-tossed body.
In the above monologue, Shakespeare compares Juliet to a boat in the storm. The comparison
is an extended metaphor where he compares her eyes to a sea, her tears to a storm, her sighs
to the stormy winds and her body to a boat in a storm. But looking at Gardner's anthology and
her definition and inclusion of proto- metaphysical poets and writers, Burrows says that The
all-thinking, all-feeling metaphysical poets were becoming virtually coextensive with
seventeenth-century poetry'.
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5
Example of Conceit available at http://literarydevices.net/conceit/
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But the real attention to metaphysical poetry as a significant entity in the otherwise complex
world of poetry was when the prominent litterateur T. S. Eliot wrote an essay on
metaphysical poetry entitled The Metaphysical Poets. In this essay he discusses the relation
of intellectual thought with the expression of feelings in poetry. In this essay he tried to
establish a proper evolution of lyrical poetry from the metaphysical kind to the purely
emotional, as in through an analysis of poetry from John Dunne and Lord Herbert to
Tennyson and Browning. In this essay, Eliot attempts to define the metaphysical poet and in
doing so to determine the metaphysical poets era as well as his discernible qualities.
We may express the difference by the following theory: The poets of the seventeenth
century, the successors of the dramatists of the sixteenth, possessed a mechanism of
sensibility which could devour any kind of experience. They are simple, artificial,
difficult, or fantastic, as their predecessors were; no less nor more than Dante, Guido
Cavalcanti, Guinicelli, or Cino. In the seventeenth century a dissociation of sensibility set
in, from which we have never recovered; and this dissociation, as is natural, was
aggravated by the influence of the two most powerful poets of the century, Milton and
Dryden.
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This essay renewed interests in 17
th
century poetry in general and the metaphysical aspects
in particular. In this essay, Elliot has also discussed the concept of theory of dissociation.
In it he discusses the disparity that existed between metaphysical poets of the early 17
th

century and the later poets. In The Metaphysical Poets, Eliot claims that the earlier
grouping of poets were constantly amalgamating disparate experience and thus
expressing their thoughts through the experience of feeling, while the later poets did not
unite their thoughts with their emotive experiences and therefore expressed thought
separately from feeling. He explains that the dissociation of sensibility is the reason for the
difference between the intellectual and the reflective poet. The earlier intellectual poet,
Eliot writes, possessed a mechanism of sensibility which could devour any kind of
experience. When the dissociation of sensibility occurred, [the] poets revolted against
the ratiocinative, the descriptive; they thought and felt by fits, unbalanced; they reflected.
Thus dissociation of sensibility is the point at which and the manner by which this change

6
Eliot, T. S. "The Metaphysical Poets available at http://personal.centenary.edu/~dhavird/TSEMetaPoets.html
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in poetic method and style occurred; it is defined by Eliot as the loss of sensation united
with thought.
Eliot uses John Donnes poetry as the most prominent example of united sensibility and
thought. He writes, [a] thought to Donne was an experience; it modified his sensibility.
Eliots apparent appreciation of Donnes ability to unify intellectual thought and the
sensation of feeling demonstrates that he believes dissociation of sensibility to be a
hindrance in the progression of poetry. Eliot asserts that despite the progress of refined
language, the separation between thought and emotion led to the end of an era of poetry
that was more mature and that would wear better than the poetry that followed. So
basically Elliot sees the poetry as a separation of intellect and emotion rather than an
intelligent combination of both. He says that intellectual imagery used by the metaphysical
poets might dilute the sense and emotions that are sought to be portrayed through the verse
to the reader due to too much intellectual exertion.
So basically we can say that metaphysical poetry was a product of the post-renaissance era
literary revolution which saw the emergence of many influential genres of poetry emerge
such a lyrical poetry, dramatic-lyrical, and finally the metaphysical. These writers
flourishing of an erudite group of poets whose poetic reputation rested on a powerful
mingling of the intellect and the emotion in the form of metaphysical poetry. Chagrined by
the much trodden track of Petrarchan sonnets coupled with pompous words and emotional
exuberance, this new circle of poets, known as metaphysical poets, set a new fashion of
composing poems, which provided intellectual parallels to a spectrum of emotional
experience, a sudden transmission from playfulness to high-pitched passion, interplay of
levity and sincerity, and a wide range of imagery, both starkly realistic and startlingly
cunning. John Donne, the pioneer of this metaphysical school of poetry, and his compeers
like Andrew Marvell, Henry Vaughan, George Herbert and Richard Crashaw significantly
contributed to this new poetic field to draw the attention as well as animadversion from
various corners. A more comprehensive list of metaphysical poets would like to include
Abraham Cowley, Traherne and Thomas Carew who were either directly or indirectly
influenced by Donne, the lynchpin of this group.
Metaphysical poetry was in its heyday up to mid-17th century until neo-classicism entered
to reign the literary realm and in the next two centuries metaphysical poetry went into total
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eclipse whereby Donne and his successors were discarded for displaying intentional
obscurity. But 20
th
century ushered an unexpected revival of the metaphysical tradition
where Donne and his group regained their lost favour and were studied with renewed
interest and veneration as mentioned before by virtue of the modernist poet-critic T. S.
Eliots celebrated essay The Metaphysical Poets in which Eliot vehemently admired
their stunning capacity for devouring and merging all kinds of experience: When a poets
mind is perfectly equipped for its work, it is constantly amalgamating disparate
experience; the ordinary mans experience is chaotic, irregular, fragmentary. The latter
falls in love, or reads Spinoza, and these two experiences have nothing to do with each
other, or with the noise of a typewriter or the smell of cooking; in the mind of the poet
these experiences are always forming new wholes.












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CHAPTER 3
THE CHARACTERISTICS OF METAPHYSICAL POETRY
Metaphysical poem primarily hinges on, to say in Eliotean phrase, a unification of
sensibility the marvellous fusion of head and heart, of intellect and emotion, of thought
and passion. Unlike poets in the Petrarchan and Spenserian tradition, a metaphysical poet
attempts to establish a logical connection between his emotional feelings and intellectual
concepts so that readers are compelled to think afresh, exercising their wit in lieu of a
passive reading of poems. In this regard, metaphysical poets utilize striking images and
conceits which are considered the hallmark of any metaphysical poem.
For instance, Donne in A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning compares the lovers with a
pair of compasses:
If they be two, they are two so
As stiff twin compasses are two
Thy soul the fixed foot, makes no show
to move, but doth, if thother do.
Such a far-fetched comparison to show the mutuality and interdependence of the lovers in
terms of compasses is indeed astounding for which Samuel Johnson describes
metaphysical conceit as a kind of discordia concors a combination of dissimilar
images or discovery of occult resemblances in things apparently unlike (Life of Cowley).
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

Although Dr. Johnson pejoratively says that in metaphysical poetry heterogeneous ideas
are yoked by violence together, it is evinced that such blend of discordant elements is
quintessential to prove and persuade the readers about the point, the poet wishes to
highlight. Eschewing hackneyed phrases and worn-out images of conventional
Elizabethan lyrics, these metaphysical poets telescope images and draw references from
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diverse spheres of cosmology, geography, science, philosophy, alchemy, theology, law
and even from colonial enterprise so far as Britain was then emerging as the greatest
empire through colonial expansion in different countries.
The easy equation between lovers triumph and territorial conquest is perhaps nowhere so
tellingly exemplified than in Andrew Marvells To His Coy Mistress- My vegetable Love
should grow/ Vaster than Empires . . .
In a similar vein, Donne charts loves course in tandem with his races charting of the
new world
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Let sea-discoverers 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
(The Good Morrow).
While the following lines from Donnes The Good Morrow Where can we find two
better hemispheres / Without sharp north, without declining west?, compare the world of
the lovers with the geographical world; the concluding couplet of The Sun Rising: Shine
here to us, and thou art everywhere/ This bed thy centre is, these walls, thy sphere brings
forth a cosmic imagery to show how the microcosmic world of the lovers emblematizes
the macrocosmic world.
Marvells The Definition of Love, which is an abstraction on perfect love, culminates with
an astrological allusion Therefore the Love which us doth bind/ But Fate so enviously
debars/ Is the Conjunction of the Mind/ And Opposition of the Stars.
In Loves Growth Donne draws his imagery from mediaeval science, and scholastic
philosophy to illustrate the true nature of love . . . this medicine, love, which cures all
sorrow/ With more, not only be no quintessence, / But mixed of all stuffs, paining soul, or
sense. . .
The speaker in Loves Alchemy, on the contrary, derives his imagery from alchemy to

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Metaphysical Poetry available at
http://www.zenithresearch.org.in/images/stories/pdf/2012/Feb/ZIJMR/35_ZEN_VOL2ISSUE2_FEB12.pdf
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suggest that it is not possible to fathom the mystery of love I should not find that hidden
mystery/ . . . as no chemic yet the elixir got.
Another distinct feature of metaphysical poetry, as practised by Donne and his successors,
is a strange coalescence of passionate thinking and subtle ratiocination. For example, The
Flea presents a desperate lover, trying to woo his beloved with logical and earnest
solicitation for physical consummation And in this flea, our two bloods mingled be/
Confess it . . . . . . / This flea is you and I, and this/ Our marriage bed, and marriage
temple is. . . The metaphysical poetry is also characterized by a sudden dramatic
beginning and superb utilization of colloquial language in lieu of specific poetic terms, as
evinced in the abrupt, conversational 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
ruined fortune flout.
So the basic characteristics of metaphysical poetry are best summarised as in
Use of ordinary speech mixed with puns, paradoxes and conceits (eg. Lovers and
compass, soul and timber)
The exaltation of wit, which in the 17
th
century meant a nimbleness of thought; a
sense of fancy, an imagination of the fantastical or whimsical kind; and originality
in figures of speech.
Abstruse terminology often drawn from the science of law.
Poems are often presented in the form of arguments.
In love poetry, the metaphysical poets often draw on ideas from Renaissance Neo-
Platonism to show relationship between the soul and the body and the union of
lovers souls.
They also try psychological realism while describing the tensions of love.
Those poems are usually full of obscurity, resulting in the drawing of a bit hazy
conclusions by the readers.


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CHAPTER 4
SHORT NOTES ON MAJOR METAPHYSICAL POETS
JOHN DONNE
He is often regarded as the pioneer in metaphysical poetry. John Donne is regarded as both
the pioneer and the chief spokesperson of metaphysical poetry. Robert Browning rightly
complemented on Donnes poetic proliferation by the words Who was the Prince of wits,
amongst whom he reignd / High as a Prince, and as great State maintaind?
Donne had a prosperous literary life, garnished with numerous love poems, songs,
sonnets, elegies, satires, sermons, religious verse and treatises but a majority of Donnes
poetical works were published posthumously, barring a few like The Anniversaries (1612)
and Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions (1623). By his glorious poems, Donne helped
the readers to taste the metaphysical flavour of his poetic expressions. In his major love
lyrics like The Sun Rising, The Canonization, The Good Morrow, The Anniversary, A
Valediction: Forbidding Mourning, The Ecstasy, Lovers Infiniteness, The Flea, The
Indifferent, A Nocturnal Upon St. Lucys Day, A Valediction: Of Weeping, The
Undertaking, The Relic, The Apparition, Loves Growth, The Dream, The Triple Fool,
Song: Go And Catch A Falling Star etc., Donne critically sketched human love to
differentiate it from the conventional concept of love given by others.
John Donne also made his remarkable performance by employing sparkling wit and
jarring language in his writings. Having been disgruntled with the soft and melting phrases
of the followers of Petrarch, Donne devised a language, terse and vigorous all of which
contribute to lend a masculine aura to metaphysical poetry. The strange and uneven
opening of Donnes Song (Go and Catch a Falling Star) strikes a dissonant tone Go, and
catch a falling star,/ Get with child a mandrake root,/ Tell me, where all past years are/
Or who cleft the Devils foot. . .. In this Song, Donne has critically compared the
impossible task of catching a falling star with the impossibility of getting a faithful
woman: ..And swear / No where / Lives a woman true, and fair.

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So we can say that John Donne was one of the most powerful intellects of metaphysical
poetry who carved his own niche and made a departure from classical to a more personal
style that led to the emergence of metaphysical poetry. Intellectuality and a cleverness of
diction are his characteristics. His ability to put together the most beautiful figures of
speech from the most unpoetic materials and to give abstract things a sense of concrete
poetic imagery made him one of the trendsetters with many later poets to be influenced by
his literary style.
GEORGE HERBERT
George Herbert was born in Montgomery, Wales, on April 3, 1593, the fifth son of
Richard and Magdalen Newport Herbert.
His poetry shows that to a large extent he followed the lead offered by Donne, but he also
made contributions which were quite distinct. Herbert's poems are characterized by a
precision of language, a metrical versatility, and an ingenious use of imagery or conceits
that was favoured by the metaphysical school of poets.

Herbert's distinguishing characteristic is his simplicity of diction and metaphor. He retains
the colloquial manner, and, to an extent, the logical persuasive presentation of ideas, but
he draws his metaphors from everyday domestic experience, employing a range of simple
commonplace imagery in contrast to the sophisticated imagery of Donne. A technique
Herbert introduced was the ending of a poem with two quiet lines which resolve the
argument in the poem without answering the specific points raised by it. . Herbert
occasionally explores his doubts in intellectual terms, but answers them with emotion.
Herbert's poetry is certainly about struggles of a religious kind. In these respects Herbert
can be considered to have broken new ground, into which Henry Vaughan followed later.



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HENRY VAUGHN
Henry Vaughan was born in 1621 to Thomas Vaughan and Denise Morgan. He is considered
one of the major Metaphysical Poets, whose works ponder one's personal relationship to God.
He shares Herbert's preoccupation with the relationship between humanity and God. He saw
mankind as restless and constantly seeking a sense of harmony and fulfilment through contact
with God. Vaughan, in contrast, has the arrogance of a visionary. He feels humility before
God and Jesus, but seems to despise humanity. In contrast, Vaughan's images are more
universal, or cosmic, even to the point of judging man in relation to infinity. The term
'visionary' is appropriate to Vaughan, not only because of the grand scale of his images, but
also because his metaphors frequently draw on the sense of vision.
ANDREW MARVELL
Andrew Marvell was born at Winestead-in-Holderness, Yorkshire, on March 31, 1621. The
life and work of Andrew Marvell are both marked by extraordinary variety and range. Gifted
with a most subtle and introspective imagination. His technique of drawing upon philosophy
to illustrate his argument gives the poem an intellectual appeal, not just a visual one.
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."

In Marvell we find the pretence of passion (in To His Coy Mistress) used as a peg on which
to hang serious reflections on the brevity of happiness. The Definition of Love is an ironic
game - more a love of definition let loose; the poem is cool, lucid and dispassionate, if gently
self-mocking. Marvell considers whether the poetic skill which has formerly (and culpably)
served to praise his "shepherdess" can "redress that Wrong", by weaving a "Chaplet" for
Christ.



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CHAPTER 5
CONCLUSION
Metaphysical poets created a new trend in history of English literature. These poems have
been created in such a way that one must have enough knowledge to get the actual meaning.
Metaphysical Poets made use of everyday speech, intellectual analysis, and unique imagery.
The creator of metaphysical poetry John Donne along with his followers is successful not
only in that Period but also in the modern age. Metaphysical poetry takes an important place
in the history of English literature for its unique versatility and it is popular among thousands
of people till now.
They were the first poets who introduced a new concept of the intellectual analysis of
emotional poems. The poems of this age required the readers to look at the logicality of the
words and to draw relations between the abstract imagery supplied to and the emotions
sought to be conveyed through the poem.
Critical reception of these poets has been mixed, with Johnson and Dryden being sceptical of
this genre whereas it met with silent intellectual applause by the renowned T. S. Elliot and
Helen Gardner.
Dryden criticises Cowley and Donne on the basis that instead of engaging the fairer sex in
emotional poems of love and amour, these poets had tried to make them exert their minds on
what he called nice speculations of philosophy which perplex the imagery that a reader has
in mind for a lyrical poem. The use of abstract and often entirely unexpected extended
metaphors, also called conceit, also made the understanding of poem a logical process,
thereby diluting the emotional appeal of the poetry.
Similarly Samuel Johnson says that the metaphysical poets were no doubt learned people, but
their poetry sounded as if it had been written to exalt and expound their intellect only. He also
says that the verses written by these poets had no proper rhyming scheme, and were called
poems just because of the number of syllables in each line. He also criticised the use of too
much conceit in metaphysical poetry, saying that images and art were often violently put
together just to create a sense of surprise, and though the reader might admire such surprises,
hell never love them.
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But the metaphysical poets have more or less got praise for the same use of conceit. The use
of conceit is considered highly intellectual and the major praise goes to these poets for
creating a new trend of thinking while reading poetry, forcing people to draw out logical
analogies and step-by-step analysis of the metaphors to get a hang of what has been written.
As we know, this form of poetry emerged in the post-Renaissance period, so the age of
questioning and its concepts were very much in vogue. This form of poetry also employs the
use of neo-Platonic philosophies and the use of imagery to deal with questions on God,
religion and morals. They used theoretical and logical reasoning to solve arcane and evasive
questions concerning theology and morality.
John Donne is one of the most genius and versatile English poets. He is admired for his
colossal contribution in metaphysical poetry. In his numerous writings he has added lots of
witty approaches full of satire, passionate feelings, striking conceits etc. to highlight the
nature and reality revolving around human lives. The new era of writing in the form of
metaphysical poetry starkly attracted the readers through ages although many eminent writers
like Dryden, Dr. Johnson strongly discarded his writings on the plea that Donne
unnecessarily used metaphysical aspects to perplex the natural phenomena of love, sex etc.
Although Andrew Marvell, Henry Vaughan, George Herbert and others have evinced their
astuteness and sharpness in representing common subject matters like love, religion etc. with
a new-fangled approach, John Donne shines amongst them like a luminous star for his
stunning and unrivalled genius in rationalizing his daring imagination. It is Donne who blows
the trumpet of change in the clichd pattern of poetry, teeming with emotion, by inaugurating
intellectualized poetry the metaphysical poetry. At the same time, scarcely can one deny
how Donnes immense contribution to this domain of poetry facilitates and felicitates the
meteoric rise and development of metaphysical poetry.
So the researcher would like to conclude by saying that metaphysical poetry was a child of
the post Renaissance age of questioning, ideas and unconventional imageries. The popularity
of metaphysical poetry showed that the masses were ready to take on more intellectualised
and logical forms of literature, rather than just being concerned with artful mastery of words
and beautiful lyrics.


20

REFERENCES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. http://www.zenithresearch.org.in/images/stories/pdf/2012/Feb/ZIJMR/35_ZEN_VOL
2ISSUE2_FEB12.pdf
2. http://englishhelp4.blogspot.in/2009/12/metaphysical-poetry.html
3. http://www.gavaksha.org/article-pdf/Studying-Metaphysical-Poetry.pdf
4. Gardner, Helen, The Metaphysical Poets, [London] Oxford University Press, 1961,
1967
5. Grierson, Sir Herbert J.C., Metaphysical Lyrics & Poems of the Seventeenth Century,
Oxford at the Clarendon Press, 1921
6. Samuel Johnson, Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets, vol. 1 (1779)
7. Ceri Sullivan, The Rhetoric of the Conscience in Donne, Herbert, and
Vaughan (Oxford University Press, 2008)
8. Johnson, Samuel. Selected Writings, Penguin, 1968.