Metaphysical Poetry – John Donne
In brief the term ‘Metaphysical Poetry’ implies the characteristics of complexity, intellectual tone, abundance of subtle wit, fusion of intellect and emotion, colloquial argumentative tone, conceits (always witty and fantastic), scholarly allusions, dramatic tone, and philosophic or reflective element.
This is the major characteristic of metaphysical poetry. Donne often employs fantastic comparisons. The most famous and striking one is the comparison of the lovers to a pair of compasses in ‘A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning’.A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning
A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning
As virtuous men pass mildly away,
And whisper to their souls to go,
Whilst some of their sad friends do say
The breath goes now, and some say, No:
As virtuous men pass mildly away,
And whisper to their souls to go,
Whilst some of their sad friends do say
The breath goes now, and some say, No:
So let us melt, and make no noise,
No tear-floods, nor sigh-tempests move;
'Twere profanation of our joys
To tell the laity our love.
Moving of th' earth brings harms and fears,
Men reckon what it did, and meant;
But trepidation of the spheres,
Though greater far, is innocent.
Dull sublunary lovers' love
(Whose soul is sense) cannot admit
Absence, because it doth remove
Those things which elemented it.
But we by a love so much refined,
That our selves know not what it is,
Inter-assured of the mind,
Care less, eyes, lips, and hands to miss.
Our two souls therefore, which are one,
Though I must go, endure not yet
A breach, but an expansion,
Like gold to airy thinness beat.
If they be two, they are two so
As stiff twin compasses are two;
Thy soul, the fixed foot, makes no show
To move, but doth, if the other do.
And though it in the center sit,
Yet when the other far doth roam,
It leans and hearkens after it,
And grows erect, as that comes home.
Such wilt thou be to me, who must,
Like th' other foot, obliquely run;
Thy firmness makes my circle just,
And makes me end where I begun.
No doubt, the conceits especially display a formidable wit. So do the various allusions and images relating to practically all areas of nature, art and learning. Allusions to medicine, cosmology, ancient myth, contemporary discoveries, history, and art abound in Donne’s poetry. Such paradoxical statements are to be found in several other poems. In ‘Death be not Proud’, he says ‘Death thou shalt die’.Such is the display of Donne’s wit.
Combination of passions and thoughts is another form of wit. There is in Donne’s poetry an intellectual analysis of emotions. Every lyric arises out of some emotional situation, but the emotion is not merely expressed; it is analyzed. ‘A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning’ proves that lovers need not mourn at parting.
Argumentation And Reasoning
Argumentation and reasoning balance the passion in Donne’s poems. No one can deny the passion in ‘The Sun Rising’, but there is also a plenty of argumentation to prove that the sun has no power over the lovers, as love knows no season or clime.
Donne asserts our attention both by the content and the dramatic style of his poetry.
Because of these characteristics, Donne is entitled a metaphysical poet. Grierson aptly sums up:‘Donne is metaphysical not only by virtue of his scholasticism but by the deep reflective interest in the experiences of which his poetry is the expression, the new psychological curiosity with which he writes of love and religion.’
A conceit is basically a simile, or a comparison between two dissimilar things. In literature, a conceit is an extended metaphor with a complex logic that governs a poetic passage or entire poem. By juxtaposing, usurping and manipulating images and ideas in surprising ways, a conceit invites the reader into a more sophisticated understanding of an object of comparison. Dr. Johnson pointed out that in metaphysical poetry, ‘the most heterogeneous ideas are yoked by violence together’.
- Far-Fetched Images
Far-fetched images, departing from the conventional Elizabethan type, mark Donne’s poetry. An example is the comparison of the lovers to the two legs of a compass in ‘A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning’.
- From A Wide Range Of Subjects
The conceits employed by Donne are drawn from a wide range of subjects. They are learned—they display the poet’s thorough knowledge of a wide range of subjects, such as science, mathematics, astrology, and several others. The conceits, thus give the poetry an intellectual tone.
Donne’s conceits are functional and used to illustrate and persuade. They are as Helen Gardner asserts, ‘Instruments of definition in an argument or instruments to persuade’.The images are not merely a place of decoration; they serve to illustrate or convince.
And to quote Joan Bennet
‘The purpose of an image in Donne’s poetry is to define the emotional experience by an intellectual parallel.’
"Death be not proud, though some have called thee"DEATHbe not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadfull, for, thou art not so,
For, those, whom thou think'st, thou dost overthrow,
Die not, poore death, nor yet canst thou kill me.
From rest and sleepe, which but thy pictures bee, / 5
Much pleasure, then from thee, much more must flow,
And soonest our best men with thee doe goe,
Rest of their bones, and soulesdeliverie.
Thou art slave to Fate, Chance, kings, and desperate men,
And dost with poyson, warre, and sicknesse dwell, / 10
And poppie, or charmes can make us sleepe as well,
And better then thy stroake; why swell'st thou then;
One short sleepe past, wee wake eternally,
And death shall be no more; death, thou shalt die.
Analyzing the metaphysical poem
- In this poem, Donne uses wit, a conceit, and oblique observations to create an argument. Explain how these characteristics are used and explain the argument Donne is trying to make, and speculate why he would make such an argument. Write all of your observations below.
Valediction, Forbidding Mourning
AS virtuous men pass mildly away,
And whisper to their souls to go;
While some of their sad friends do say,
Now his breath goes, and some say, No;
So let us melt, and make no noise, / 5
No tear-floods, nor sigh-tempests move;
’Twere profanation of our joys
To tell the laity our love.
Moving of th’ earth brings harms and fears
Men reckon what it did and meant; / 10
But trepidations of the spheres,
Though greater far, are innocent.
Dull sublunary lovers’ love,
Whose soul is sense, cannot admit
Absence; for that it doth remove / 15
Those things which elemented it.
But we, by a love so far refined,
That ourselves know not what it is,
Inter-assurèd of the mind,
Careless, eyes, lips and hands to miss, / 20
—Our two souls therefore, which are one,
Though I must go, endure not yet
A breach, but an expansion,
Like gold to airy thinness beat.
If they be two, they are two so / 25
As stiff twin compasses are two;
Thy soul, the fixt foot, makes no show
To move, but doth if th’ other do.
And though it in the centre sit,
Yet when the other far doth roam, / 30
It leans and hearkens after it,
And grows erect as that comes home.
Such wilt thou be to me, who must,
Like th’ other foot, obliquely run;
Thy firmness makes my circles just, / 35
And makes me end where I begun.
Sunne Rising
BUSIE old foole, unruly Sunne,
Why dost thou thus,
Through windowes, and through curtaines call on us?
Must to thy motions lovers seasons run?
Sawcypedantique wretch, goe chide / 5
Late schooleboyes, and sowre prentices,
Goe tell Court-huntsmen, that the King will ride,
Call countrey ants to harvest offices;
Love, all alike, no season knowes, nor clyme,
Nor houres, dayes, moneths, which are the rags of time. / 10
Thy beames, so reverend, and strong
Why shouldst thou thinke?
I could eclipse and cloud them with a winke,
But that I would not lose her sight so long:
If her eyes have not blinded thine, / 15
Looke, and to morrow late, tell mee,
Whether both the'India's of spice and Myne
Be where thou leftst them, or lie here with mee.
Aske for those Kings whom thou saw'st yesterday,
And thou shalt heare, All here in one bed lay. / 20
She'is all States, and all Princes, I,
Nothing else is.
Princes doe but play us; compar'd to this,
All honor's mimique; All wealth alchimie.
Thou sunne art halfe as happy'as wee, / 25
In that the world's contracted thus;
Thine age askes ease, and since thy duties bee
To warme the world, that's done in warming us.
Shine here to us, and thou art every where;
This bed thy center is, these walls, thy spheare.
No man is an island,
Entire of itself,
Every man is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less.
As well as if a promontory were.
As well as if a manor of thy friend's
Or of thine own were:
Any man's death diminishes me,
Because I am involved in mankind,
And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls;
It tolls for thee.
Good Morrow
I wonder, by my truth, what thou and I
Did, till we loved; were we not weaned till then,
But sucked on country pleasures, childishly?
Or snorted we in the Seven Sleepers' den?
'Twas so; but this, all pleasures fancies be.
If ever any beauty I did see,
Which I desired, and got, 'twas but a dream of thee.
And now good morrow to our waking souls,
Which watch not one another out of fear;
For love, all love of other sights controls,
And makes one little room, an everywhere.
Let sead discoveries to new worlds have gone,
Let maps to others, worlds on worlds have shown,
Let us possess our world; each hath one and is one.
My face in thine eye, thine in mine appears,
And true plain hearts do in the faces rest;
Where can we find two better hemispheres,
Without sharp North, without declining West?
Whatever dies, was not mixed equally;
If our two loves be one; or thou and I
Love so alike that none do slacken, none can die.