CONCEIT

Introduction
What is a conceit? A conceit is basically a simile, or a comparison between two
dissimilar things. In a conceit, the dissimilarity between the things compared is so great
that the reader is always fully conscious of it even while having to concede the likeness
implied by the poet. Thus Dr. Johnson pointed out that in metaphysical poetry, the most
heterogeneous ideas are yoked by violence together. The observation is valid even if
one does not agree with, the derogatory tone with which Dr. Johnson invests the
comment.
Far-fetched images, departing from the conventional Elizabethan type,
mark Donnes poems
Conceits may be brieflike a spark, made by striking two stones together as Helen
Gardner remarks; or they may be elaborate and extended. In the latter case, the
comparison is not confined to any single point; fresh points of likeness are drawn up
and brought to the attention of the reader. The poet sets out to prove the likeness. An
example is the comparison of the lovers to the two legs of a compasses inA Valediction:
Forbidding Mourning. Another clever conceit is in The Flea where the flea becomes the
marriage bed and marriage temple. The comparison is not obvious but the poet unfolds
the likeness logically.
Metaphysical conceits are drawn from a wide range of subjects
Indeed, Nature and art are ransacked for illustrations, comparison and allusions. The
images are not conventional: they do not reiterate the well-worn poetic devices of the
ladys cheeks looking like roses or her teeth like pearls. The conceits employed by Donne
are learnedthey display the poets thorough knowledge of a wide range of subjects,
such as science, mathematics, astronomy, and several others. The conceits thus gives the
poetry an intellectual tone. However, the intellectual conceits are not in disharmony
with the feeling in the poem; they actually add weight and illustrate that feeling giving
rise to the impression of what T.S. Eliot called the unification of sensibility.
In a single poem, we may have images drawn from cartography, geography, myth and
natural science. A Valediction: of Weeping employs images from a variety of sources.
The lovers tears are like precious coins because they bear the stamp of the beloved (an
image drawn from mintage), the tears are pregnant of theea complex image
conveying the impression of the beloveds reflection in the drop of tear along with the
meaning and life given to the tears by the beloveds reflection in them. Next, the
beloveds tears are compared to the moon which draws up seas to drown the lover in her
sphere (the image is drawn from geography). The images, espacially in the context of
love, are complex and surprising; but they are not devoid of giving pleasure.
In The Canonization, the lover and the beloved are flies and tapers in themselves. But
the poem is remarkable for the use of the Phoenix riddle. The lovers, says Donne,
provide a clue to the riddle because they are one, combing both sexes in one entity,
continually reviving after being consumed in the fire of their passion.
Reference to sea discoveries, new worlds and the hemispheres of the earth occur in most
of Donnes poems, reflecting contemporary explorations. In The Good Morrow there are
images of sea discoverers travelling to new worlds, maps showing worlds on worlds, and
the two hemispheres. In Hymn to God, my God again we have images of
cosmographers, maps, straits, and the Pacific sea; the language of exploration is used to
describe a spiritual condition. Ptolemaic doctrine is also woven into much of Donnes
conceits, as in A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning. In Good Friday, the soul is
compared to a sphere, and Donne treats the metaphor elaborately. Planetary motions
are brought into the poem to illustrate feeling.
War and military affairs also provide a source for Donnes conceits, not only in his love
poems, but in his religious poems as well. In Batter my heart, he compares himself to a
usurped town. At the same time there is an image drawn from the purification of metals
by knocking, blowing and shining it. Later on, imagery usually associated with love is
drawn upon to illustrate his spiritual prayerhe wants God to ravish him in order that
he may be chaste. In The Ecstasy there are several images which are startling for their
unconventionality. The lovers souls are compared to two equal armies confronting and
negotiating with each other. Again, love without an outlet in physical expression is like a
prince languishing in prison, says Donne.
Images cannot, however, be condemned for being farfetched
One can condemn images only if they are grossly out of place or irrelevalent in the
context in which they are used. In Donnes poems, very seldom is an image used without
relevance. Where it seems startling at first sight, the poet sets out to establish its validity
by logical steps. As a result, one feels admiration, an intellectual pleasure and a sense of
surprise at the originality and ingenuity of the poet. Donnes images stimulate one to
think. They bring one to an awareness of the new angles from which an experience can
be viewedin The Sun Rising, Donne calls the sun a saucy pedantic wretch and tells it to
go and scold late schoolboys and court huntsmen and country ants, and to leave the
lovers alone. Hours, days and months are regarded as rags of time. The attitude and
images may not be conventional but their propriety in the context is undeniable. In Go
and Catch a Falling Star a string of unconventional imagery is used to emphasise the
view that there is no woman in the world both beautiful and true. But again, one cannot
condemn the imagery.
Donnes conceits are functional and are used to illustrate and persuade
They are, as Helen Gardner asserts, instruments of definition in an argument or
instrument to persuade. The image is not a piece of decoration; it serves to illustrate or
convince. A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning employs the compasses image
elaborately. Donne sustains the comparison through the whole process of drawing a
circle, because he is trying to give proof by analogy of the lovers union. He thus wants
to persuade his mistress not to mourn. On a more frivolous level, inThe Flea he makes
use of the conceit to persuade his beloved to give in to his entreaties. In The Sun
Rising, the poet and his mistress symbolise the whole world and all its rulers. Thus the
sun, by shining on their small room, will be warming the whole world. That is a far-
fetched conceit, but we cannot deny the logical manner in which Donne has led up to it
He illustrates by means of it that love is supreme.
Conclusion
Donnes use of conceits is ingenious; it is also, in most cases, appropriate. It makes us
concede justness while we are admiring its ingenuity, as Helen Gardner says. The poet
has something to say which the conceit explicates or something to urge which the
conceit helps to forward. The purpose of an image in Donnes poetry is to define the
emotional experience by an intellectual parallel, observes Joan Bennett. It has been
pointed out by H.J.C. Grierson that Donnes imagery brings together the opposites of
life, all in one breath. But however far-fetched the conceits are, we cannot deplore them;
we can merely admire their novelty, realism, justness and range.