Discuss the significance of the term metaphysical poetry in relation to three of the poems you have studied this term. You should also look up the word metaphysical in the OED and use some of the information given in your ess

The aforementioned ingenuity in creating metaphors, namely the metaphysical conceit, is very apparent in ‘A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning’. The list of different comparisons and metaphors is long, and it becomes more and more evident that John Donne is trying to create this conceit, which is more entertaining and apt than realistic and truthful. The speaker compares the ‘Moving of th’earth’ to ‘trepidation of the spheres,’ and he then compares the ‘dull sublunary lovers’ love’ and the love of the speaker and his beloved. So, the shallow lovers’ love is easily destabilised due to their need for physical contact, which is impossible through separation. The spiritual lovers’ love, however, does not rely on physical contact alone. The trepidation, or, in other words, the vibration of the spheres – i.e. the concentric globes that were believed to surround the earth in ancient astronomy – was enough for the spiritual love to stay alive. This past example of metaphysical conceit makes it abundantly clear that, in some cases, it was more important to make metaphors bombastic and verbose than relatable and sensible.

The speaker continues his description of spiritual love by declaring that the two lovers’ souls are one. Therefore, in relation to the fact that they are physically apart, the area that their unified soul covers will only expand. Should, however, their souls be divided in two, instead of entwining as one, then their souls would function like the feet of a pair of compasses. Hence, the outer foot will inevitably return to its point of departure. John Donne uses the image of pair of compasses to encapsulate his interpretation of spiritual love, specifically symmetry, intellect, balance, beauty and seriousness.

In ‘A Valediction: forbidding Mourning’ John Donne creates a dichotomy between the conventional and common love of the ordinary and mediocre world and the cultural and educated love of the speaker. Thereby, John Donne forms the basis for a kind of emotional aristocracy that can differentiate itself from ‘the laity’ – the common people. One could argue that this emotional aristocracy is only for a selected few: the speaker and his lover; however, the reader is also a part of this emotional and philosophical enclave. Consequently, there are endless possible members of this group of emotional aristocrats.

The poems ‘Holy Sonnet X’ by John Donne and ‘To his Coy Mistress’ by Andrew Marvell have death as their primary subject matter. Though the poets use very different forms and methods, they both manage to put forward their views and opinions on society.

In ‘Holy Sonnet X’, John Donne uses a distinctive combination of tone, rhythm and figurative language. The tone, which appears confidant, defiant and bold, contributes to the notion that death is not an inevitable natural occurrence, but rather an adversary that mankind can defeat. This notion that death is not invincible permeates the poem. Tone, rhythm and figurative language are also used in ‘To his Coy Mistress’; however, here Andrew Marvell uses the tone to enhance the notion that death is glorious, and a symbol of closure.

The difference between John Donne and Andrew Marvell’s approach to death, namely John Donne’s insistence that he does not fear death ‘though some have called thee/Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so’ and ‘nor yet canst thou kill me’ and Andrew Marvell’s perception that death is an ‘quaint honour’ that will turn ‘into ashes all my lust’, stands in sharp contrast. Andrew Marvell’s usage of ash as an image of death illustrates distinctively his idea that once something has turned to ashes, it has been burned; it cannot be reversed to a previous state.

Andrew Marvell primarily uses an eight-syllable iambic line in ‘To his Coy Mistress’. The rigid structure seems to be in alignment with the persuasion of the mistress. It is elegant and has symmetric rhyming couplets. Near the end of the poem, however, he uses seven-syllable lines, such as ‘Through the iron gates of life’. This variation adds to a sense of urgency and vigorousness – the end is getting nearer. Andrew Marvell’s rigid form, with its developing sense of urgency, heightens the perception of resignation and despair. John Donne, contrary to Andrew Marvell, is more varied in his structural disposition. ‘Holy Sonnet X’ contains primarily iambic pentameters but also some eleven-syllable lines. In many ways, the structure of ‘Holy Sonnet X’ resembles that of the Petrarchan sonnet. With its ABBAABBACDDCAA-rhyme scheme it deviates slightly from the conventional Petrarchan rhyme scheme. The diversity in the rhythm enhances the perception of a free way of thinking and confidence in death’s vulnerability. The volta can arguably be determined to be in two places: either at the conventional Petrarchan position – at the beginning of line 9, where John Donne starts calling death names – or in the middle of the last line, where John Donne turns aggressive on death: ‘Death, thou shalt die.’

Both Andrew Marvell and John Donne use metaphysical conceit to create a long list of images in the head of the reader. Though they both use comparisons and metaphors, the consequences of the usage are quite different across the two poems. The images handed to the reader in ‘To his Coy Mistress’ rapidly changes and often skirt around the disturbing and frightening subject of death. It is as if it is unbearable to dwell too long on certain aspects of death, and, therefore, a new image or metaphor is quickly handed to the reader. For instance, Andrew Marvell states that: ‘The grave’s a fine and private place, / But none I think do there embrace’ and then proceeds to state: ‘Now therefore, while the youthful hue / Sits on thy skin like morning dew’. This example excellently portrays the subtle and uncomfortable insinuations of the grave, only to swiftly turn to a new topic; thus, Andrew Marvell avoids dwelling too much on the unpleasant imagery of the grave. It’s no surprise that John Donne’s approach is quite different. John Donne uses his images to create an obvious and continuous link to death: ‘Thou’rt slave to Fate, chance, kings, and desperate men’.

Though, at first sight, these two poems seem diverse and at opposite ends of the spectrum, there are, after further scrutiny, a large number of similarities. Both ‘To his Coy Mistress’ and ‘Holy Sonnet X’ present strong images, which provoke feelings in regard to death. Andrew Marvell’s tone is high-flown, and it possesses an almost fanciful note, which shows itself in its use of hyperbole: ‘then worms shall try / That long preserv’d virginity’. Despite John Donne’s images having a more restrained tone, they are equally effective: ‘And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell,’. All of the images presented in this example are easily relatable, unpleasant and closely affiliated with death. The way they are listed one after another contributes effectively to the portrayal of death.

Notwithstanding that John Donne and Andrew Marvell are widely known and famous for their use of metaphysical conceit, they should also be acknowledged for their willingness to ponder on highly complicated subjects within the boundaries of science and philosophy. Their exaggerated way of creating metaphors – or conceits – makes it possible for a less learned person to grasp what they are pondering and why it is relevant and interesting. They both take complicated subjects and dissect them into more digestible fragments; consequently, they make scientific and philosophical contemplation more widely accessible. ‘A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning’ by John Donne also has a great example of a highly philosophical topic, which is exemplified by the pair of compasses.

The two poems present death in two quite different perspectives. However, it is valid to suggest that both Andrew Marvell and John Donne, in fact, fear death. Andrew Marvell is, of course, more obvious and straightforward about his fears. These selected extracts show very well his dismay concerning the pending deadline: ‘Now, let us sport while we may’ and ‘Time’s winged chariot hurrying near’. John Donne’s fear of death, on the other hand, is subtler. In the text, rhythm and tone the fear is not apparent. One has to investigate his motives for writing a poem like ‘Holy Sonnet X’. John Donne personifies death by calling it ‘thee’, thou’ and ‘thy’. Why does he have the need to personify a concept? By humanising death, it seems more susceptible of defeat, and the notion of death’s vulnerability appeases him. To both John Donne and Andrew Marvell, victory seems to be a vital aspect of their relationship with death. At the very end of ‘To his Coy Mistress’, Andrew Marvell appears ready to pick up the gauntlet: ‘Thus, though we cannot make our sun / Stand still, yet we will make him run.’ John Donne also seems ready to fight back: ‘And Death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die.’

Where Andrew Marvell uses subtle images to present a convincing and valid argument, John Donne uses a more aggressive and straightforward approach. Arguably, John Donne also succeeds in his presentation of his argument. Andrew Marvell’s presentation of death, time and love seems to be timely in his persuasion of the ‘coy’ mistress. In ‘To his Coy Mistress’, Andrew Marvell manages to make subtle sexual insinuations to the mistress without appearing a libertine or Casanova. To an extent, his arguments about time’s inevitable elapse seem reasonable. Andrew Marvell succeeds in portraying time as a tyrannous concept whose horrendous effects can only be mended with love and sex.

John Donne’s thought-provoking readiness to fight death serves the notion that the fear of death is actually a sensation that one can control. This ability of controlling fear stands in sharp and humorous contrast with this essay’s previous statement; namely, that John Donne wrote ‘Holy Sonnet X’ because, in fact, he feared death.

When trying to comprehend the metaphysical poets’ significance to posterity, Thomas Stearns Eliot’s 1921 essay ‘The Metaphysical Poets’ is a valid and thorough source. Albeit the essay was initially intended to be a review of J. G. Grierson’s ‘Metaphysical Lyrics and Poems of the 17th Century’, it proved to have immense impact on the twentieth century’s revaluation and reassessment of the metaphysical poets’ significance to English poetry. Until then, metaphysical poetry had been neglected, but T. S. Eliot managed to pull the genre back into the spotlight and throw new light on its poets. Eliot claimed that the metaphysical poets were neither ‘quaint’ nor ‘fantastic’, however, their quality lay in their ability to be ‘great’ and ‘mature’. Bearing their claimed abilities in mind, they, according to Eliot, represented a continuation of English poetry, rather than the deviation and digression of which they had previously been accused.

T. S. Elliot continues with the statement that the poets of the seventeenth century ‘were the direct and normal development of the precedent age’. and that their characteristic virtue was something valuable which, unfortunately, disappeared. According to Eliot, Samuel Johnson was right when he argued that the metaphysical poets were too analytical and too focused on dissecting specific emotional circumstances. What Samuel Johnson failed to mention, however, was metaphysical poetry’s ability to unite and create new wholes. This ability is, according to T. S. Eliot, is the true virtue of metaphysical poetry, the ability to fuse heterogeneous material into a new unity after dissociation. In other words, what distinguished metaphysical poetry from other poetry was its ‘unification of sensibility’.

Following the passing of the great metaphysical poets such as John Donne and Andrew Marvel, English poetry, according to T. S. Eliot, lost its capacity to unite thought and feeling. The ‘unification of sensibility’ was lost, and ‘dissociation of sensibility’ set in. Eliot argues that after the time of metaphysical poetry’s glory, poets were only able to think or to feel. Not both. The poets of the eighteenth-century Enlightenment were intellectuals and could not feel, and the Romantics of the nineteenth century could feel but not think. In this following extract, T. S. Eliot thoroughly explains how metaphysical poets’ ability to work on multiple planes distinguished them from the eighteenth-century poets such as Robert Browning and Alfred Tennyson:

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 poet’s mind is perfectly equipped for its work, it is constantly amalgamating disparate experience; the ordinary man’s experience is chaotic, irregular, and fragmentary. The latter falls in love, or reads Spinoza and these two experiences have nothing to do with each 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.

T. S. Eliot carries on with an examination the similarities of John Donne and the modern age. Consequently, he ends up discussing the similarities of sensibility between the metaphysical poets and the modern poets. Eliot states that the use of conceit is apparent in both genres and that that both genres rely on the transmutation of ideas into sensations and feelings into states of mind. With unsubtle self-praise, T. S. Eliot attributes these characteristics to his own poetry and to that of Charles Baudelaire and Jules Laforgue.

In conclusion, T. S. Eliot draws a straight line from the metaphysical poetry to the modern English poetry of the early twentieth century and, consequently, he and his peers are direct descendants of John Donne and his cohesive. The eighteenth and nineteenth centuries had merely been an unfortunate pause in the inevitable evolvement of metaphysical poetry. T. S. Eliot argues that in order to be a complete and proper poet, one must achieve a unification of sensibilities, and must express this unified sensibility in poetry. He continues, stating that though it is difficult and complex to attain these abilities, the metaphysical and the modern English poets possess this complexity, and, thus, they have completeness and maturity.

Bibliography

Primary Sources

Donne, John. ‘A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning’ in Poems of John Donne. vol I., E. K. Chambers, ed., London, Lawrence & Bullen, 1896. 51–52.

Donne, John. ‘Holy Sonnet X’ in Poems of John Donne. vol I., E. K. Chambers, ed., London: Lawrence & Bullen, 1896. 162-163.

Marvell, Andrew. ‘To his Coy Mistress’ in Complete Poetry. London: J.M. Dent & Sons, Ltd., 1984.

References and databases

Gardner, Helen, The Metaphysical Poets (Oxford University Press), 1961, ‘Introduction’ p. 23.

"metaphysical, adj. and n.". OED Online. December 2011. Oxford University Press. 15 December 2011 <http://www.oed.com.ep.fjernadgang.kb.dk/view/Entry/117349?redirectedFrom=metaphysical>.

Monographs

Johnson, Samuel, ‘The Life of Cowley’, Lives of the most Eminent English Poets, (1779–81).

Articles

Eliot, T. S. ‘The Metaphysical Poets’. (Times Literary Supplement 1921) Published in 20th October 1921. From

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