Characteristic Styles of John Donne and other Metaphysical Poets

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Characteristic Styles of John Donne and other Metaphysical Poets:

The poet John Donne established a different style of poetry which has become known as the Metaphysical style of poetry. Metaphysical poetry is the whole experience of man and mankind, but the intelligence, learning and seriousness of the feelings and means that         poetry is about the profound areas of experience especially – about love, romantic

and sensual; about man´s relationship with God – the eternal perspective, and to a less extent, about pleasure, learning and art. Metaphysical poems are lyric poems. They are some type of brief but intense meditations, characterized by striking use of wit, irony and

wordplay. Beneath the formal structure, of rhyme, metre and stanza, is the underlying, and often less formal structure of the poem´s argument. Some of main characteristics in a poem by John Donne are: the abrupt opening  with a surprising, a dramatic line and the usage of coloquial language. The ideas in the poems are presented as a logical and persuasive argument , the purpose of which is to aid his wooing whether for a woman or God. Donne takes metaphors from all kind of spheres of life, especially from crafts and sciences, and makes frequent use of the “conceit“: a surprising, ingenious , far-fetched turn of ideas. Often a whole poem is an extended “conceit“ and frequently a poem ends ends with a final “conceit“ in the last two lines. Donne developed his technique writing love poetry, and later adapted it to the writing of religious poetry.

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Comparing  Donne to  Herbert:

The poetry of George Herbert shows that to a large extent he folowed the lead inititated by John Donne. But he also made contributions which were quite distinct. The distinguishing characteristic by Herbert is his simplicity of diction and metaphor. He retains the colloquial manner, and, to an extent, the logical persuasive presentation of ideas. But  his metaphors are drawn from everyday domestic experience. Employing a range of simple commonplace imagery in contrast to the sophisticated imagery of John Donne. “Conceits“

are not an important part of Herbert´s poetry, neither is his appeal not so ...

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