...Metaphysical Poetry: Much More Than Wit The two main views of metaphysical poetry, as composed by poets A.E. Housman and T.S. Eliot, are vastly different. Eliot’s view of metaphysical poetry is a very positive and respectful one. He admires the uniqueness of the metaphysical poets when he describes them as “reflective poets” as opposed to merely intellectual ones. Eliot says they have the ability to “feel their thought as immediately as the odor of a rose,” compared to the strictly thought-driven traditional poetry of lyrical poets. Housman’s view is significantly more harsh and critical. In reference to metaphysical poetry, he says that “poetry, as a label for this particular commodity, is not appropriate.” According to Housman, similes and metaphors, which are primary factors in metaphysical poetry, are “things inessential to poetry.” He describes the far-fetched paradoxes of metaphysical poets as “wit,” not poetry. Despite Housman’s negative claims regarding metaphysical poetry, there are several works of metaphysical poets, such as John Donne, that have proven to be very effective. In Donne’s “Holy Sonnet 14,” often referred to as “Batter My Heart,” there is a plethora of evidence of the work’s overall effectiveness as a poem in the poet’s use of poetic devices. The poem is written in first person and the speaker is someone who is struggling with sin and is desperately seeking the guidance of God, who is intended to be the recipient of the speaker’s message. ...
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...Both ‘A Valediction’ and ‘The Anniversary’ as two poems written by John Donne possess certain similarities, largely through Donne’s use of extended metaphor in both to portray his feelings of love. However, elements of these poems can also be seen as to greatly juxtapose with ‘A Valediction’ focussing on the concept of ‘greater love’ enduring distance whilst ‘The Anniversary’ seems to portray the same love, though enduring time. Both poems convey a sense of ‘higher love’ - a highly spiritual experience. In ‘A Valediction’ Donne writes of ‘Dull, sublunary lovers’ in comparison to himself and his wife, using assonance to amplify the portrayal of these lovers as heavy-sounding and truly physical rather than anything more spiritual. The adjective ‘dull’ creates a lack of brightness about most lovers in comparison to Donne, whilst as he adds ‘Whose soul is sense’ Donne uses sibilance to continue the peaceful and gentle air of the poem in order to replicate his love, rather than to portray the love of the ‘Dull, sublunary lovers’. Donne’s ‘refin’d’ love (syntactically placed at the end of the line for further weight in describing the innate majesty of Donne’s love) connotes that of a diamond – a precious commodity in the 17th century – to describe the rich wealth of his love to his wife, but also its rarity, whilst Marxist literary theorists perceive this to be a reference to Donne’s ‘hardly attainable’ love, only truly expressible in the higher classes. In ‘The Anniversary’ , Donne...
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...English 178 - poetry | Donne’s “Language of Love” in Elegy XIX: “To His Mistress Going To Bed”. | Poetry Semester Essay | | Telan Hamer | 18184626Tutor : Tamsyn Allies | | The poetic works of John Donne has been afforded high acclaim when it comes to his use of language in the dominion of love. In his elegy “To His Mistress Going To Bed”, he beckons for his lover to be bedded with him, describing her beauty as he tries to influence her to disrobe. Donne, in this poem, makes visible the way in which love and desire can be expressed in language attiring his poems with extended metaphor, metaphysical conceit and masterful wit, to the extent to which one may re-read the poem simply to savour the way in which Donne has sculpted his imagery. “To His Mistress Going To Bed” is seen to fall under the poetic genre known as ‘the blazon’, a genre of poetry that glorifies a woman by focusing on certain desirable body parts whilst using appropriate metaphor. Hence, the main focus of this essay will be to provide a commentary on the use of “the language of love” with reference to Donne’s blazon, by highlighting a series of appropriate examples that will provide a platform to analyse what it is that Donne is trying to convey in his poem, and how he accomplishes its conveyance. The examples will be analysed with reference to how the poet incorporates certain aspects of language such as diction, form, style, tone, rhetoric, and his use of figures of speech. The opening lines...
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...scrupulous in reading the poem for great understanding and analysis. Nevertheless, this paper aims to analyze the literary piece using historical-biographical and moral-philosophical approaches. Specifically, this paper aspires to understand the relevance of the writer’s life to the poem, to know if the writer’s experiences were reflected in the poem, to identify the historical events or movements that influenced the poet to write the literary piece, to identify the speaker’s viewpoints in the poem, to know the morale present in the story, and things alike. Initially, Andrew Marvell was born on March 31, 1621. His father, Reverend Andrew Marvell, was a lecturer at Holy Trinity Church and a master of the Charterhouse. He was one of the metaphysical poets during his time. Along with John Milton, Thomas Browne and others, Andrew Marvell was considered as one of the prominent English writers in the seventeenth century. In fact, he was also the assistant of John Milton, Latin Secretary for the Commonwealth. John Milton could have also influenced Marvell in writing his masterpieces. As what I have learned in our English and American Literature subject, seventeenth century encompassed several events like the succession to the throne of James, son of Mary Stuart, an outsider, after the death of Queen Elizabeth; the execution of Charles I, the son of King James, because of his overindulgence in luxury; and other events. It was also discussed to us that the writers of this period took...
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...Answer : Metaphysical poetry, in an etymological sense, is poetry on subjects which exist beyond the physical world. In other words, it is a type of poetry dealing with abstract or philosophical subjects such as love, religion, God, beauty, faith and so on. But in reality the poetry which comprises the ideas or aspects that – physical love leading to spiritual union or religious, argumentative presentation of emotion, terseness of expression, use of conceit and wit in profusion, skillful use of colloquial language instead of Elizabethan lucid diction with the abrupt opening can be considered to be metaphysical. Originally the term ‘ Metaphysical Poetry ’ was coined by John Dryden and later popularised by Samuel Johnson and the features of the school which unite the various authors are quite numerous. As well as making widespread use of conceit, paradox and punning, the metaphysical poets drew their imagery from all sources of knowledge particularly from science, theology, geography and philosophy. However, John Donne is the founder of the school of metaphysical poetry and the other practitioners of the type of poetry are Crashaw, Cowley, Denham, Davenant, Herbert, Marvell , Vaughan and Waller . The most striking quality of Donne’s poetry is the use of metaphysical conceit which is a figure of speech in which two far fetched objects or images of very different nature are compared. It surprises its readers by its ingenious discovery and delights them by...
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...John Donne, a seventeenth-century English poet, was born in London in 1572 and known for his ingenuous style of writing (Bloom 10). According to Christopher Moore, an English writer, Donne’ poetry is colloquial in diction and has the flexibility and liveliness of spoken language which imparts an energy and force perfectly capturing his mercurial jumps in thought and description; his poetry is filled with unusual images and metaphor for the fact most of it deals with love and relations between the sexes (Moore 12). Besides “The Flea,” “The Good Morrow,” and others, “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning” is another famous masterpiece for which John Donne is recognized. Izaak Walton, a contemporary of John Donne, stated that “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning” was addressed to Donne’s wife, Anne More, on the occasion of his leaving for a continental trip in 1611 (Bloom 63). Donne’s poem is a good example that shows his metaphysical wit, a term was conferred on him along with his followers, George Herbert, Richard Crashaw, and others by Samuel Johnson, a critic and essayist in the eighteenth-century (Bloom12). To sum up, Donne’s “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning” (Apr 84) is such a love and farewell speech among which he uses a series of simile, symbolism, and analogy to express his feelings and comfort his wife while he is abroad. Donne, in the first two stanzas, uses the image of virtuous men’s death as a metaphor to his separation from his wife to tell her their love is so great...
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...q) Define Metaphysical poetry answer) Metaphysical poetry is a form of poetry that has its roots in the 17th century England. The term Metaphysical poets was coined by the 18th century poet Samuel Johnson to describe a loose group of English poets of the 17th century, who were not affiliated with each other in any way. These poets were generally interested in metaphysical issues and even though they never read or saw each others works but all of them had a common method of examining these issues, hence a common ground in regards to the theme or topic of their work . In simple terms, the term Metaphysics is comprised of two words: meta and physics, Meta means beyond and physical means physical nature. Thus, Metaphysical poetry means poetry that goes beyond the physical world of the senses and explores the spiritual world. Poetry which deals with correlation between the real world and the after-world, concrete and abstract, soul and being, as well as reality and perception using philosophical methodology is called Metaphysical Poetry." The work of metaphysical poets was characterized by wit and the innovative use of metaphors, known as Metaphysical Conceits (elaborate and far fetched comparisons of two dissimailar things which have very little in common) and by speculation about topics such as love, life, god, religion and afterlife. The use of conceit in this form of poetry was made to develop a comparison which is exceedingly unlikely but is nonetheless intellectually...
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...John Donne the pre-eminent representative of the metaphysical poets. noted for their strong, sensual style and includesonnets, love poems, religious poems, Latin translations, epigrams, elegies, songs, satires and sermons. noted for its vibrancy of language and inventiveness of metaphor, especially compared to that of his contemporaries. Donne's style is characterised by abrupt openings and various paradoxes, ironies and dislocations. These features, along with his frequent dramatic or everyday speech rhythms, his tense syntax and his tough eloquence, were both a reaction against the smoothness of conventional Elizabethan poetry and an adaptation into English of European baroque and mannerist techniques. His early career was marked by poetry that bore immense knowledge of English society and he met that knowledge with sharp criticism. important theme in Donne's poetry is the idea of true religion, something that he spent much time considering and about which he often theorized. He wrote secular poems as well as erotic and love poems. He is particularly famous for his mastery of metaphysical conceits *metaphysical poets: work was characterized by the inventive use of conceits, and by speculation about topics such as love or religion. The Metaphysical Poets are known for their ability to startle the reader and coax new perspective through paradoxical images, subtle argument, inventive syntax, and imagery from art, philosophy, and religion using an...
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... an English poet was born in London, England in the year 1572.Due to his family believing in the Roman Catholic Tradition; he attended Trinity College at a very young age. Because of this tradition, John displayed the knowledge and laws of religion in majority of his works. However, in 1621, he converted to the Church of England, taking up teaching, thus becoming a famous preacher. Five years later he was appointed in St. Paul’s Cathedral in London Dean. Because of this knowledge and charismatic character, he was easily one of the most influential people in London. Throughout his works, John became known as the founder of the Metaphysical poetry; using vivid images and extended metaphors to portray thoughts and feelings. This theory also uses philosophy and religious as a platform, working in imagery from art as well. John Donne preferred to write poetry with strong rhythm, intense language, strange and bold imagination. ‘A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning’ is known as one of John’s calmest and understanding poems. Considering the fact that his marriage was not accepted by his father in law, the thought of distance between two lovers really occurred in his life. That allows this poem to have a universalized personal experience that he conveyed to his readers. The principal theme of the poem is that lovers remain united even when they are physically separated. Donne proves his idea by argument, conceits, passion, and thought. It is believed that Donne left for France in 1611...
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...Study Guide: Lesson 18 Arguments for the Existence of God Lesson Overview: In this lesson, we arrive at 1 of the most important questions of the course for Christians: Do we have good reasons to believe that God exists? Today, many are claiming that there is no evidence for God’s existence and those who believe in God are just deluding themselves. However, this lesson will show that some very interesting arguments have been developed throughout the history of philosophy that demonstrate that the theist is within his epistemic rights in believing in God. While the case is not 100% certain (few things are in philosophy), it is certainly reasonable in the absence of any contrary evidence to hold that God exists as the best explanation for certain effects we observe in creation. Tasks: View and take notes of the presentation: “Arguments for God’s Existence.” Read “The Absurdity of Life without God” by William Lane Craig. This reading by Christian philosopher William Lane Craig is titled the “The Absurdity of Life without God.” In this powerful argument, Craig seriously considers the ramifications for us if in fact there really is no God. I assign it to my students on campus and they always tell me it is their favorite reading of the semester. I think you will really enjoy it. It is not a difficult reading and is very powerful on a personal level. While it does not prove God's existence, it does add positive epistemic evidence for the cumulative case for God as...
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...Term Paper Position Defense Sheel Patel Question: Analyze and evaluate the two proofs of God’s existence that Descartes provides. Which is more successful and more relevant? Plausible alternative answers: a) Apparently, Descartes had identified more than one way to prove God’s existence. b) The existence of God is a very solid topic to debate on and to be completely sure and convincing, Descartes gives to different proofs of the existence of God. Arguments in favor of each answer: a) He may have found out the second way of God’s existence by thinking about his own existence and him being an imperfect being. b) Descartes did not want to be questioned about his views as there was or is no guaranteed proof of God’s existence. Possible objections to the arguments: a) He cannot give the proof of God’s existence because he would have known that he took birth from his mother’s womb and was not created by God. He had to have knowledge of the basic science behind it. b) Descartes could have given one, solid and an unquestionable argument for God’s existence and not two loose questionable proofs. Possible replies to the objections: a) Earlier, Descartes provided doubts for his existence itself. Therefore, he could not have completely known that he was not made by God and that there was science involved in his birth. b) Descartes thought of them to be solid and he was not...
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...British Lit / Test Two Review Essay Questions 1. The genre of “The Fairie Queen” is a romantic epic. Epic poetry is the highest form of poetry; long and episodic. It is a narrative that contains many adventures, a central character, journey to hell, gods and goddesses, and it starts in the middle (in medias res). The Fairie Queen is allegorical of the Protestant Reformation. It contains many biblical allusions supporting the Protestant faith and criticizing Catholicism. It is written in Spenserian stanza, stanzas of nine iambic lines; the first eight are pentameters and the ninth is hexameter with the rhyme scheme ababbcbcc. 2. The term Renaissance translates into “rebirth”. This was a great revival of art, literature, and learning in Europe; marking the transition from the medieval to the modern world. The Renaissance began in Europe around 1390; this was around the same time of the Canterbury Tales. The Renaissance did not begin in England until1485. It was so late coming to England because of the civil war due to the “power struggle” between the House of York and the House of Lancaster. This Civil War was called the War of the Roses. The two houses fought until they killed each other off and in 1485, King Henry took crown and this was the beginning of the Tudor Dynasty. England finally had a level of peace allowing its people to acknowledge and then take part in this renewal of life, vigor, and interest. 3. The difference in doctrine between Protestantism...
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...Robert Frost (1874-1963) was the leading modern American poet of nature and rural life. He found beauty and meaning in commonplace objects, such as a drooping birch tree and an old stone wall, and drew universal significance from the experiences of a farmer or a country boy. Most of his poems have a New England setting and deal with the theme of man's relationship to nature. The influence of nature in Robert Frost's works creates a palette to paint a picture filled with symbolism for the reader to interpret. In the analysis of Frost's The Road Not Taken, Tree At My Window, Two Trumps In The Mud Time and Stopping By The Woods On A Snowy Evening we can pick out specific examples to illustrate Frost's overall use of nature. In the first stanza of Robert Frost's Stopping by the Woods on A Snowy Evening we find the speaker reflecting on the beauty of a wooded area with snow falling. Whose woods these are I think I know. His house is in the village though; He will not see me stopping here To watch his woods fill up with snow. You can feel the speakers awe and reflective peace when looking into the woods that night. He doesn't know the owner of the land but is still drawn to the beauty of the scene. Nature poet Robert Frost gives a scene that is taken into the reader and digested for a time in the speaker's mind. It shows us that it is all right to take a minute out of a hurried hour and reflect upon what is around you, whether it is a snowy wood or a quite room....
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...The Surreal painter that I would compare myself and my dreams to would be the Italian painter, Giorgio De Chirico. Chirico combines everyday objects that do not make any logical sense when placed together, and make the painting more mysterious. I would consider this all the dreams I have. Each dream that I can remember, have some strange connections to each other. Some parts in the dream don’t make sense but it is still part of the dream. One example of a dream that reminds me of the painter or his works would be the one about how my family was in town for a holiday and there were cows in our backyard that kept making horse sounds every time someone said cow. Then outside the window as we were eating there were two birds looking in as if it was cold outside and they needed a warm place to sleep. Toward the end of my dream (or before I woke up) my mom went to the window to feed the birds some rice and bread. But I was never able to make out any of the faces of the people in the dream which I found to be extremely weird. With other dreams I was able to make out faces and remember the faces for a later dream. To execute the painting about my dream I would first paint a window in the middle of painting in the background and then paint the family, without faces around a table with all the fixings for a feast. Then off to the left of the painting, I would paint pictures of the cows in the backyard and the by the window paint the 2 birds inquiring about the food inside the home....
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...Sexual Persuasion "The Flea" by John Donne, and “To His Coy Mistress” by Andrew Marvel, are two greatly similar poems about expressing love through sex. In both poems the speakers propose a sinful offer that they back up with reasonable arguments. In “The Flea”, the narrator is trying to persuade a woman to have sex with him by symbolizing a flea, while the narrator in “To His Coy Mistress” is using the idea of carpe diem to convince his lover that she must take advantage of her youth and surrender her virginity. The men design the arguments to induce thoughts of sensual nature that can be used to trick the women into accepting their sexual offers. Though the poems display their themes in different styles, both poems use clever metaphors, symbols and imagery to present a persuasive approach. While “The Flea” seems to be a rather shallow attempt to get a lover into bed, the powerful imagery and symbolism lends the poem to a much deeper analysis. Donne utilizes the most common yet filthy creature, a flea, in an attempt to bestow upon his lover a feeling of not only unity, but, ultimately, an obligation to sleep with him. The flea represents an imaginative metaphor that extends throughout the poem and incorporates great irony as the creature bites both of the lovers and feasts on the mingling of their blood. The speaker uses this imagery of the physical merging of the two lovers’ blood to evoke a sense of literal unity. He states, “And in this flea our two bloods mingled be” and...
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