"Metaphysical poetry"

Thinking activity:

       💠METAPHYSICAL POETRY💠

Hello Beautiful People,

      Today we discuss about 'Metaphysical poetry'.This blog is about Metaphysical poetry and  this is also  part of my thinking activity assigned by Prof. Dr. Dilip Barad sir, Head of the English Department of Maharaja Krishnkumarsinhji Bhavsinhji Bhavangar University (MKBU). Also I thanked Prof. Dr. R.K.Mandilya sir, Head of the English Department of S.P.University for teaching this beautiful concept

🌀 What is Metaphysical poetry? :

   What is metaphysical poetry? And who were the metaphysical poets? In this post about metaphysical poetry we’re going to take a closer look at the origins of the term and some examples of this curious and enigmatic school of early modern poetry.

   Poets associated with metaphysical poetry include John Donne, George Herbert, Andrew Marvell, and Henry Vaughan: Donne is often said to be first metaphysical poet, and Donne’s genius for original, intellectually complex poetry certainly helped to set the trend for the poetry that followed him.

🌀 Metaphysical Poet introduction :

     The term Metaphysical poets was coined by the critic Samuel Johnson to describe a loose group of 17th-century English poets whose work was characterised by the inventive use of conceits, and by a greater emphasis on the spoken rather than lyrical quality of their verse. These poets were not formally affiliated and few were highly regarded until 20th century attention established their importance. 

🌀 Critical Notes about Metaphysical poetry:

   The term ‘metaphysical poets’ was popularised (though not invented) by Samuel Johnson (1709-84) in his critical biography of the seventeenth-century poet Abraham Cowley, in Johnson’s Lives of the Poets (1779-81). Before Johnson, John Dryden had written (in 1692) of the ‘metaphysics’ of Donne’s poetry, and before Dryden, William Drummond of Hawthornden had used the term in relation to a group of poets in a letter of around 1630. Samuel Johnson employed the term disparagingly: he disliked the ‘conceits’ used by metaphysical poets and complained that their poetry ‘stood the trial of the finger better than of the ear’. Johnson went on to write:  

"The most heterogeneous ideas are yoked by violence together; nature and art are ransacked for illustrations, comparisons, and allusions; their learning instructs, and their subtlety surprises; but the reader commonly thinks his improvement dearly bought, and, though he sometimes admires, is seldom pleased. […] Yet great labour, directed by great abilities, is never wholly lost: if they frequently threw away their wit upon false conceits, they likewise sometimes struck out unexpected truth: if their conceits were far-fetched, they were often worth the carriage. "

🌀 CHARACTERISTICS OF THE METAPHYSICAL POETRY : 

    Short notes to know about characteristics of metaphysical poetry by slides …..

🌀 Metaphysical poetry' theme :

        Short notes to know about themes of metaphysical poetry by slides …..

                         ✨✨✨

⏩And now we discuss about John Done and other poet's poetry…..

✴️THE FLEA ✴️

    The poem uses the conceit of a flea, which has sucked blood from the male speaker and his female lover, to serve as an extended metaphor for the relationship between them. The speaker tries to convince a lady to sleep with him, arguing that if their blood mingling in the flea is innocent, then sexual mingling would also be innocent. His argument hinges on the belief that bodily fluids mix during sexual intercourse. 

  According to Laurence Perrine, this poem, along with many other of Donne's poems, solidifies his place in the literary movement, creating what is now known as Metaphysical poetry. Although the term was not found until after his death, it is still widely used and will continue to be traced back to work such as "The Flea".  

✴️HOLY SONNET :10✴️

  (Death ,be not proud)

   Death Be Not Proud" presents an argument against the power of death. Addressing Death as a person, the speaker warns Death against pride in his power. Such power is merely an illusion, and the end Death thinks it brings to men and women is in fact a rest from world-weariness for its alleged “victims.” The poet criticizes Death as a slave to other forces: fate, chance, kings, and desperate men. Death is not in control, for a variety of other powers exercise their volition in taking lives. Even in the rest it brings, Death is inferior to drugs. Finally, the speaker predicts the end of Death itself, stating “Death, thou shalt die."

✴️THE SUN RISING ✴️

    Stanza one begins with the speaker in bed with his lover, complaining about sun's beaming rays. Donne uses expressions such as, "Busy old fool" and "Saucy Pedantic Wretch"to describe his annoyance with it. The speaker of the poem questions the sun's motives and yearns for the sun to go away so that he and his lover can stay in bed.

     Donne is tapping into human emotion in personifying the sun, and he is exhibiting how beings behave when they are in love with one another. The speaker in the poem believes that, for him and his lover, time is the enemy. He asks, "Must to thy motions lovers' seasons run?" or, in other words, 'why must lovers be controlled by the sun?'. The speaker then tells the sun to bother someone else, "go chide late schoolboys and sour prentices, Go tell court huntsmen that the king will ride..."and that love knows no season, climate, hour, day, nor month. 

“The Sun Rising” is one of John Donne’s most famous metaphysical poems. It is written with a humorous style and lots of exaggeration."

✴️TO HIS COY MISTRESS ✴️

     The speaker of the poem starts by addressing a woman who has been slow to respond to his romantic advances. In the first stanza he describeshow he would pay court to her if he were to be unencumbered by the constraints of a normal lifespan. He could spend centuries admiring each part of her body and her resistance to his advances (i.e., coyness) would not discourage him. In the second stanza, he laments how short human life is. Once life is over, the speaker contends, the opportunity to enjoy one another is gone, as no one embraces in death. In the last stanza, the speaker urges the woman to requite his efforts, and argues that in loving one another with passion they will both make the most of the brief time they have to live. 

✴️THE COLLAR ✴️

  "The Collar" portrays a man who is relaying a previous struggle he's had with his faith. The poem begins with the speaker striking a board, most likely a pulpit or altar. The physical outburst is then followed quickly by a verbal one, as the speaker declares that he "...will abroad!", or leave his current place.  

 The speaker then decides to abandon this state of pining and misery, to no longer worry about living a pious life. He chooses instead to live only for himself, instead of occupying his "cage" that he has seemingly made of his own doing; he claims his cage was built upon “petty thoughts”, meaning that God himself did not place the speaker in the cage, but rather the speaker placed himself there by believing in a false spirituality. 

  The speaker again tells himself to "abroad", to leave this life behind. He assures himself that he will make preparations by “tying up” his fears, so that they do not hang over him any longer. He claims that anyone who would serve to God the way he chose "deserves" the load he bears as a result. 

   The speaker suddenly hears a voice call, "Child!" and the man immediately calms himself, replies to the voice with the simple acknowledgement: "My Lord". The speaker has recognized God's presence, feels chided and immediately submissive to a greater One than himself alone, once again. His ravings are forgotten once God shows himself to the speaker, suggesting that his commitment to his faith has not been fruitless after all, or is at least ongoing. 

                        ✨✨✨

 🌀 Conclusion :

     In summary, then, metaphysical poetry often uses elaborate imagery, complex conceits, and colloquial speech to explore ‘big’ topics, or frequently to argue a position about them – whether it’s love, death, sex, the afterlife, or even what lies beyond our own world (Donne was particularly fond of using planetary imagery and the idea of space travel in his work). It’s often challenging but, as Johnson acknowledged, worth sticking with. It’s little wonder that the modernist poet ..

I hope you all enjoy this blog and also known that Metaphysical poetry. 😊

Reference:

What is metaphysical poetry?...

(https://youtu.be/SZ5_42Zh74s)