Metaphysical Poetry

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Metaphysical Poetry
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METAPHYSICAL POETRY

• Term used to group together a selection of 17th
  century poets, including Donne, Marvell and
  Vaughan.
• Share common characteristics of wit,
  inventiveness, and a love of elaborate stylistic
  maneuvers.

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METAPHYSICAL POETRY

• Known for their ability to startle the reader and
  coax a new perspective through paradoxical
  images, subtle argument, inventive syntax, and
  imagery pulled from art, philosophy and religion
  to be used as a conceit (an extended metaphor).
• Investigate the world by rational discussion of
  its phenomena rather than by intuition or
  mysticism.

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METAPHYSICAL POETRY

• Initially, Donne was criticized for his stylistic
  excesses, particularly his extravagant conceits
  and his tendency towards hyperbolic abstractions.
• Love to astrology (Donne)
• Soul to a drop of dew (Marvell)
• Metaphysical poets adopted a style that is
  energetic, uneven and rigorous as a reaction
  against the deliberately smooth and sweet tones
  of much of the 16th century verse.

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METAPHYSICAL POETRY

• Philosophical and spiritual subjects were
  approached with reason and often concluded in
  paradox.
• Established meditation as a poetic mode
• Based on the union of thought and feelings sought
  after in the Jesuit Ignatian meditation.

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METAPHYSICAL POETRY

• Donnes personal relationship with spirituality
  is the center of most of his work, and the
  psychological analysis of his work marked a
  dramatic departure from traditional, genteel
  verse.
• Metaphysical poets were eclipsed in the 18th and
  19th centuries by Romantic and Victorian poets.

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METAPHYSICAL POETRY

• In 1921, T.S. Eliots significant essay The
  Metaphysical Poets helped bring the poetry of
  Donne back into the limelight.
• Suggested their work fuses reason with passion.
• Suggested their work created the unification of
  thought and feeling.