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Metaphysical Poetry between Mannerism &
BaroqueRepresentatives:
John Donne; George Herbert; Andrew Marvell; Henry Vaughan;
Richard Crashaw; Abraham Cowley INGENUITY, INTELLECTUALITY,
OBSCURITY
subject matter [the relationship of spirit to matter or the
ultimate nature of reality] expression [putting forward a
particular philosophical world view] - ornate language, strange
syntax, far-fetched images, intellectual sophistication, artificial
(as opposed to naturalistic) qualities
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The evolution of the term 1. originally: DERISIVE LABEL by
DRUMMOND OF HAWTHORDEN: new metaphysical ideas and scholastical
odditiesRenaissance poetics - strong lines - intricate intellectual
quality, intentional obscurity, CRABBED, ECCENTRIC, CHAOTIC
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2. John Dryden (Discourse concerning the Original and Progress
of Satire, 1693):Donne 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
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3. Samuel Johnson (The Lives of the English Poets): described
the basis of metaphysical imagery as discordia concors
the most heterogeneous ideas are yoked by violence together
The metaphysical poets were men of learning, and to show their
learning was their whole endeavour
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20th century revaluation
Sir Herbert Griersons great ed. of Donnes Poetical Works (1912)
T. S. Eliot 1921 (The Metaphysical Poets) the polyvalent
sensibility of the metaphysicals
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T. S. Eliot, The Metaphysical PoetsSomething happened to the
mind of England between the time of Lord Herbert of Cherbury and
the time of Tennyson and Browning; it is the difference between the
intellectual poet and the reflective poet. Tennyson and Browning
are poets, and they think; but they do not feel their thought as
immediately as the odour of a rose. A thought to Donne was an
experience; it modified his sensibility. 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 the other, or
with the noise of the typewriter or the smell of cooking; in the
mind of the poet these experiences are always forming new
wholes[]
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T. S. Eliot, The Metaphysical Poets (ctd)[] 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
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for a poet with a unified sensibility: the sensory world =
saturated with meaning for a poet with a dissociated sensibility:
feeling = ungrounded
1. sentimentality SENTIMENTALIST emotional effusion2. rumination
REFLECTIVE philosophical speculation
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Characteristics Herbert Grierson Introduction to Metaphysical
Lyrics and Poems of the Seventeenth Century :lays stress on the
right thingsthe survival, one might say the reaccentuation, of the
metaphysical strain, the concetti metafisici ed ideali as Testi
calls them in contrast to the simpler imagery of classical poetry,
of mediaeval Italian poetry; the more intellectual, less verbal,
character of their wit compared with the conceits of the
Elizabethans; the finer psychology of which their conceits are
often the expression; their learned imagery; the argumentative,
subtle evolution of their lyrics; above all the peculiar blend of
passion and thought, feeling and ratiocination which is their
greatest achievement. Passionate thinking is always apt to become
metaphysical, probing and investigating the experience from which
it takes its rise
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1. the metaphysical strain, the concetti metafisici et ideali
METAPHYSICAL CONCEIT. (Lat. conceptus, concept) via It.
concetto)Strong unusual metaphors uniting contraries (discordia
concors) figure of speech which combines incongruous &
apparently contradictory words & meanings for a special effect
and which is intended to surprise and delight by its wit and
ingenuity e.g. honest thief, black snow, Miltons description of
hell, No light, but rather darkness visible)
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world - regarded as a vast divine system of metaphors; the
ability to realise that was wit. (constantly amalgamating disparate
experience, TS Eliot)explore far-reaching allusions to physiology,
astronomy, alchemy, chemistry, geography, biology. Antimimetic
Logic (their poems imitated nothing, neither nature nor life Dr.
Johnson). association with intense sensual and spiritual
experience
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e.g. Donnes A Valediction: forbidding mourningIf they be two,
they are two soAs stiffe twin compasses are two,Thy soule, the fixt
foot, makes no showTo move, but doth, if the other doe.And though
it in the center sit,Yet when the other far doth rome,It leanes,
and hearkens after it,And growes erect, as that comes home.Such
wilt thou be to mee, who mustLike th other foot, obliquely
runne;Thy firmnes makes my circle just,And makes me end, where I
begunne.
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2. the more intellectual, less verbal, the character of their
witMetaphysical Wit (INGENUITY, INVENTIVE, IMAGINATIVE FACULTY,
FLASH OF VERBAL INTUITION): pun, paradox and conceitplay of
intellect and the depth of emotion
feeling thought, sensuous apprehension of thought (TS
Eliot)passion is curbed by judgment, and judgment is illuminated by
passion
passionate ratiocination (Williamson)
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3. the finer psychology of which their conceits are often the
expressiondeep reflective interest in experiences new psychological
curiosity
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4. learned imagery startling imagery that associates incongruous
objectserudite and recondite analogies drawn from classical myth
(the Phoenix legend in The Canonization); references to scholastic
philosophy, Renaissance logic and rhetoric, alchemy, mathematics,
astrology, theology, anatomy, the law.the homeliest and most
prosaic imagery. Donne The Flea, whose body unites the blood of
lover and mistress, a marriage temple
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John Donne, THE CANONIZATIONFOR God's sake hold your tongue, and
let me love ; Or chide my palsy, or my gout ; My five gray hairs,
or ruin'd fortune flout ;With wealth your state, your mind with
arts improve ; Take you a course, get you a place, Observe his
Honour, or his Grace ;Or the king's real, or his stamp'd face
Contemplate ; what you will, approve, So you will let me love.
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Alas ! alas ! who's injured by my love? What merchant's ships
have my sighs drown'd? Who says my tears have overflow'd his
ground? When did my colds a forward spring remove? When did the
heats which my veins fill Add one more to the plaguy bill?Soldiers
find wars, and lawyers find out still Litigious men, which quarrels
move, Though she and I do love.
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Call's what you will, we are made such by love ; Call her one,
me another fly, We're tapers too, and at our own cost die, And we
in us find th' eagle and the dove. The phoenix riddle hath more wit
By us ; we two being one, are it ;So, to one neutral thing both
sexes fit. We die and rise the same, and prove Mysterious by this
love.
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We can die by it, if not live by love, And if unfit for tomb or
hearse Our legend be, it will be fit for verse ; And if no piece of
chronicle we prove, We'll build in sonnets pretty rooms ; As well a
well-wrought urn becomesThe greatest ashes, as half-acre tombs, And
by these hymns, all shall approve Us canonized for love ;
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And thus invoke us, "You, whom reverend love Made one another's
hermitage ; You, to whom love was peace, that now is rage; Who did
the whole world's soul contract, and drove Into the glasses of your
eyes ; So made such mirrors, and such spies,That they did all to
you epitomize Countries, towns, courts beg from above A pattern of
your love."
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John Donne, THE FLEAMARK but this flea, and mark in this,How
little that which thou deniest me is ;It suck'd me first, and now
sucks thee, And in this flea our two bloods mingled be.Thou know'st
that this cannot be saidA sin, nor shame, nor loss of maidenhead ;
Yet this enjoys before it woo, And pamper'd swells with one blood
made of two ; And this, alas ! is more than we would do.
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O stay, three lives in one flea spare,Where we almost, yea, more
than married are.This flea is you and I, and thisOur marriage bed,
and marriage temple is.Though parents grudge, and you, we're
met,And cloister'd in these living walls of jet. Though use make
you apt to kill me, Let not to that self-murder added be, And
sacrilege, three sins in killing three.
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Cruel and sudden, hast thou sincePurpled thy nail in blood of
innocence?Wherein could this flea guilty be,Except in that drop
which it suck'd from thee?Yet thou triumph'st, and say'st that
thouFind'st not thyself nor me the weaker now.'Tis true ; then
learn how false fears be ;Just so much honour, when thou yield'st
to me,Will waste, as this flea's death took life from thee.
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5. the argumentative subtle evolution of their lyricsstrenuous
(powerful, forceful) argument in poetry; the ratiocinative,
argumentative development, persuasive stratagemsStrategy of address
= typically DRAMATIC (interaction between speaker, audience,
reader), rather than narrative and descriptive dramatic and
colloquial mode of utterance
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6. direct, unconventional, colloquial speech complex syntax,
vivid and abrupt speech patterns instead of Elizabethan smoothness,
mellifluous harmony
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7.IRONY & PARADOX Helen Gardner: the Metaphysical Poem = an
expanded epigram
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8. Themes baroque world view I.LOVE: Original attitudes toward
sexual love: hedonistic, epicuristic perspective.
new sexual realism, together with introspective psychological
analysisCARPE DIEM, DEATHII.Religious theme: devotional, mystical
death, love, God, human frailty
Amatory and religious melancholy, a mannerist preoccupation with
the pains and anguish of love and faith
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JOHN DONNE (1572-1631) well spring of the metaphysicals age of
religious polemic (a Roman Catholic who later became an Anglican),
strong Jesuit teachingfamily - a long history of martyrdom
(Pseudo-Martyr, 1610)Songs and sonnets, the satires, elegies and
verse letters - chiefly love poetry: psychological penetration, a
wide range of mood from ecstatic passion to flippant cynicism1604
Biathanatosanti-Catholic polemics took Holy Orders 1615; Dean of St
Pauls Cathedral 1621
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- five satires, - twenty elegies & - the Songs and Sonnets -
occasional poems- religious poems- sermons
19 Holy Sonnets: combine passion and argument (Batter my Heart,
Death be not proud): man searches the right relationship with
divinityuse of contemporary imagery for profane love to make
concrete and shockingly personal the impact of divine
loveexcruciating trials undergone by a believer in search of
faith.
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Batter My Heart, Three Persond GodHoly Sonnet, XIV Batter My
Heart, Three Persond God; for youAs yet but knocke, breathe, shine,
and seeke to mend;That I may rise, and stand, oerthrow me, and
bendYour force, to breake, blowe, burn and make me new.
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I, like an usurpt town, to another due,Labour to admit you, but
Oh, to no end,Reason your viceroy in mee, mee should defend,But is
captivd, and proves weake or untrue.
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Yet dearly I love you, and would be loved faine,But I am
betrothd unto your enemie:Divorce mee, untie, or breake that knot
againe,Take mee to you, imprison mee, for I
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Except you enthrall mee, never shall be free,Nor ever chast,
except you ravish mee.
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Andrew Marvell, To His Coy Mistress Had we but world enough, and
time,This coyness, lady, were no crime.We would sit down and think
which wayTo walk, and pass our long love's day;Thou by the Indian
Ganges' sideShouldst rubies find; I by the tideOf Humber would
complain. I wouldLove you ten years before the Flood;And you
should, if you please, refuseTill the conversion of the Jews.My
vegetable love should growVaster than empires, and more slow.An
hundred years should go to praiseThine eyes, and on thy forehead
gaze;Two hundred to adore each breast,But thirty thousand to the
rest;An age at least to every part,And the last age should show
your heart.For, lady, you deserve this state,Nor would I love at
lower rate.
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But at my back I always hearTime's winged chariot hurrying
near;And yonder all before us lieDeserts of vast eternity.Thy
beauty shall no more be found,Nor, in thy marble vault, shall
soundMy echoing song; then worms shall tryThat long preserv'd
virginity,And your quaint honour turn to dust,And into ashes all my
lust.The grave's a fine and private place,But none I think do there
embrace.
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Now therefore, while the youthful hueSits on thy skin like
morning dew,And while thy willing soul transpiresAt every pore with
instant fires,Now let us sport us while we may;And now, like
am'rous birds of prey,Rather at once our time devour,Than languish
in his slow-chapp'd power.Let us roll all our strength, and allOur
sweetness, up into one ball;And tear our pleasures with rough
strifeThorough the iron gates of life.Thus, though we cannot make
our sunStand still, yet we will make him run.
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Sources Eliot, T. S. (1932) The Metaphysical Poets in Selected
Essays London: Faber & Faber LimitedGrierson, HJ (1921)
Introduction to Metaphysical Lyrics and Poems of the Seventeenth
Century Hammondsworth: Penguin BooksHolloway, John (1960) The
Charted Mirror: Literary and Critical Essays London: Routledge
& Kegan PaulKermode, Frank (1973) Renaissance Essays Collins
Fontana BooksNelson, Lowry (1966) Baroque Lyric Poetry, New Haven:
Yale University PressWarnke, Frank (1978) Versions of the Baroque,
New Haven: Yale University Press