Cavaliers and Metaphysical Poets

1
Cavaliers and Metaphysical Poets

• The Jacobean Period and the Commonwealth

2
The Later Cavaliers

• A group of young men loyal of the king
• Poetry characterized by great wit and intended to
  entertain the audience
• Conversational style
• Elaborate conceits
• Admiration for the classics regular rhythm and
  simple language
• Themes of love and sometimes sarcastic
  commentaries on pursuit of fickle women

3
Robert Herrick

• To the Virgins to Make Much of Time
• Gather ye rosebuds while ye may carpe diem
• Identify the metaphor inline 5.
• (the sun compared to a lamp)
• What age does Herrick consider to be the best?
  Why?

4
Sir John Suckling

• The Constant Lover
• What conclusion can you draw about the speaker
  after reading the first stanza?
• The image of time shedding its wings is a play
  on words (Time flies). What is the speaker
  saying about his constancy?

5

• Why So Pale and Wan Fair Lover?
• What is the condition of the person described in
  the poem?
• What advice does the speaker give the lover?
• Do you think the lover will see the logic of his
  argument?

6
Richard Lovelace

• To Lucasta, Going to the Wars
• What contrast is being made in the first stanza?
• What is suggested about Lucastas first reaction
  to his leaving?
• Identify the paradox in the third stanza

7

• To Althea, from Prison
• To what is the speaker contrasting himself in the
  third stanza?
• Can you put lines 25-28 in your own words?
• What is the paradox in the last stanza?

8
Andrew Marvell

• To His Coy Mistress
• Why is the suggestion in the first 7 lines of how
  they would spend time seem ridiculous?
• Lines 8-10 hyperbole and allusion
• What is the speaker urging his beloved to do ?

9
The Metaphysical Poets

• Philosophical approach to everyday subjects
• Striking comparisons
• Conversational style
• Poetry takes the form of an argument appealing
  to both intellect and emotion subject matter is
  serious and complex.

10
The metaphysical conceit

• Witty comparison between two dissimilar things
• Takes thought and imagination to unravel
• Is important to understanding the poets argument

11
John Donne

• Song
• Written on the occasion of his parting from his
  wife
• Identify the conceit in the second stanza
• The tight rhyme scheme reinforces the logical
  organization of the argument
• Lines 21-24 What are his reasons?
• Lines 33-36 What is he asking of her?

12

• A Valediction Forbidding Mourning
• A song of farewell
• What is happening in the first four lines?
• In the second stanza, what is he asking of his
  beloved? What hints do we see of Donnes
  religious conversion?
• What is the purpose of the comparison in lines
  13-20?

13

• Death Be Not Proud
• Personification or apostrophe? Line 1
• What assumptions does the speaker make about
  death in this poem?
• Meditation 17
• What comparisons does Donne make in this
  meditation? What does this say about man and his
  fate?

14
Ben Jonson

• On My first Son
• Written after his sons death
• What does Jonson consider his best piece of
  poetry? (His son)
• To Celia
• What is Celias reaction to his gift? (she
  rejects him)