Metaphysical Poetry:

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Metaphysical Poetry

• An Introduction to John Donne

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The Early Seventeenth Century

• 1603 Death of Elizabeth accession of James I,
  first Stuart king of England. Religious tension
  mounted during King Jamess reign
• 1605 The Gunpowder Plot, a failed effort by
  Catholic extremists to blow up Paliament and the
  King
• 1620 Arrival of the Pilgrims in the New World
  aboard the Mayflower
• 1625 Death of James accession of Charles I
• 1642 Outbreak of Civil War theaters closed

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Sound and Content (Norton)

• The early seventeenth century saw important
  changes in poetic fashion. Poetry no longer
  focused on nature imagery and florid ornament.
  The norm was coming to be short, very
  concentrated poems in a colloquial and often
  witty plain style.
• The major poets of these years, Donne, Jonson,
  and George Herbert, led this shift.
• The poetry itself uses rough everyday rhythms of
  language it is not gentle poetry and is often
  used as an argument Donne engages with God,
  himself, his spouse, science, and elements of the
  natural world.

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• John Donne was born in London 1572 into a devout
  Roman Catholic household
• They suffered heavily for their loyalty to the
  Catholic Church
• He was a Catholic growing up in Protestant
  England during decades when anti-Roman feeling
  reached new heights.
• At some point in the 1590s, having returned to
  London with travels abroad, he converted to the
  English church.

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John Donne1572-1631, London, EnglandRepresentati
ve metaphysical poet

• John Donnes poems are full of startling images,
  some of them exalting and others grotesque.
• Lovers eyeballs threaded on a string.
• A god who assaults the human heart with a
  battering ram.
• A teardrop that encompasses and drowns the
  world.

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What is metaphysical poetry?

• The term metaphysical was first used
  derogatively by John Dryden to describe John
  Donnes work. Drydens accusation was aimed at
  Donnes references to science and philosophy (a
  great departure from sing-song, lovey-dovey
  poetry), and his unnatural engagement with
  intellectual ideas.

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Religion

• Donnes early work, collected in Satires and
  in Songs and Sonnets, was released in an era of
  religious oppression The intensity with which
  Donne grapples with concepts of God and death is
  exemplified in Sonnet X Death, be not proud,
  Sonnet XIV Batter my heart, three persond
  God,

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Commentary

• Metaphysical poets are revered for their
  intricacy and their originality, as well as the
  way their poetry approaches philosophical issues
  with logic and wit.

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John Donne Poems

• We will read
• The Flea
• A Valediction Forbidding Mourning
• Meditation 17