Metaphysical Poetry The Metaphysical poets were a loose group of similarly-minded poets working in the 16 th and 17 th centuries. They rebelled against the strict, structured nature of the sonnet form and began working in their own ways, expressing novel ideas in inventive poetic forms. These poets also aimed at a less polite, more colloquial and playful, entertaining style of writing. Some of them wrote in a distinctly secular manner, focussing on love, sex and relationships. Other poets considered religious life and love in great detail. “Metaphysical” is drawn from two Greek words: “Meta”, meaning beyond and “Physika”, meaning of the physical. This form of poetry aims to think and speak beyond the physical world. Most of these poems therefore begin in the very real, visceral, physical world and then extend beyond this to deal with life, love, morals, religion, time and existence. The poetry is very often compact in its ideas and images; it employs analogy and has been described, over the years, as being very difficult and dense in its content, images and ideas. Indeed, Jonson complained that many of Donne’s poems are excessively difficult to understand. Jonson felt that Donne’s poems, some written to women, are too difficult for women to understand! Metaphysical poetry has several important features: 1] the conceit--"farfetched," "combination of dissimilar images," "heterogeneous ideas yoked by violence together"—the conceits show far greater intellectuality than Petrarchan conceit. 2] complexity & obscurity: 3] paradox: 4] exaggeration, hyperbole: 5] rebellion against Petrarchan and Elizabethan poetic conventions: 6] colloquial language: 7] natural speech rhythms or extreme distortions of metrical patterns--"modulation so imperfect that they were only found to be verses by counting the syllables": 8] irregular lines and stanzas: 9] argumentative form and content: 10] persona & situation--like dramatic monologue in many cases. (http://post.queensu.ca/~cjf1/10_Metaphysical_Characteristics.pdf)
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Metaphysical Poetry The Metaphysical poets were a loose group of similarly-minded poets working in the 16th and 17th
centuries. They rebelled against the strict, structured nature of the sonnet form and began working
in their own ways, expressing novel ideas in inventive poetic forms. These poets also aimed at a less
polite, more colloquial and playful, entertaining style of writing. Some of them wrote in a distinctly
secular manner, focussing on love, sex and relationships. Other poets considered religious life and
love in great detail.
“Metaphysical” is drawn from two Greek words: “Meta”, meaning beyond and “Physika”, meaning
of the physical. This form of poetry aims to think and speak beyond the physical world. Most of
these poems therefore begin in the very real, visceral, physical world and then extend beyond this to
deal with life, love, morals, religion, time and existence. The poetry is very often compact in its ideas
and images; it employs analogy and has been described, over the years, as being very difficult and
dense in its content, images and ideas. Indeed, Jonson complained that many of Donne’s poems are
excessively difficult to understand. Jonson felt that Donne’s poems, some written to women, are too
difficult for women to understand!
Metaphysical poetry has several important features:
1] the conceit--"farfetched," "combination of dissimilar images," "heterogeneous ideas yoked by
violence together"—the conceits show far greater intellectuality than Petrarchan conceit.
2] complexity & obscurity:
3] paradox:
4] exaggeration, hyperbole:
5] rebellion against Petrarchan and Elizabethan poetic conventions:
6] colloquial language:
7] natural speech rhythms or extreme distortions of metrical patterns--"modulation so imperfect
that they were only found to be verses by counting the syllables":
8] irregular lines and stanzas:
9] argumentative form and content:
10] persona & situation--like dramatic monologue in many cases.