Definition

"Meta" means "beyond" and "physics" means "physical nature". Metaphysical

poetry means poetry that goes beyond the physical world of the senses and
explores the spiritual world. Metaphysical poetry refers to the highly
intellectualized poetry marks by bold and ingenious conceits, incongruous
imagery, complex and subtly of thought, frequent use of paradox.

Context

Elizabethan conventions, genres and topics survive into Jacobean times but there
appears a new style and frame of thinking in poetry. The ’New Science’ of the age,
following Copernicus’ (1473-1543), Galileo’s (1564-1642), Bruno’s (1548-1600)
and Sir Francis Bacon’s ideas challenges age old assumptions and promotes, in
poetry, genres marked with distance, scepticism and self-doubt, like satire,
meditative verse, or epigram. The new poetry exhibits an almost modern interest
in psychology and a zest to show the world as it is, not as much as it should be. A
small but influential group of 17th century English poets, later to be called by
Samuel Johnson ’Metaphysicals poets’ choose to break free from Tudor
conventions and engraft poetry anew by extreme exploitation of the capacities of
language through conceits, elaborate puns, far-fetched similes, intellectual wits,
learned and serious imageries, subtle arguments etc.

John Donne is the leader and founder of the Metaphysical school of poetry. His
poetry is a revolt against the popular current. He set the metaphysical mood by
writing poems which are sharply opposed to the rich mellifluousness and the
idealized view of human nature and of sexual love which had constituted a central
tradition in Elizabethan poetry. First of all Dryden used the term ' Metaphysical'
for Donne's poetry. He said,' Donne affects the metaphysics'. Later on Dr. Johnson
called Donne and his followers 'the metaphysical poets'. Since then the word
metaphysical has been used for Donne and his followers.

Characteristics of Metaphysical Poetry:

"Meta" means "beyond" and "physics" means "physical nature". Metaphysical

poetry means poetry that goes beyond the physical world of the senses and
explores the spiritual world. Metaphysical poetry refers to the highly
intellectualized poetry marks by bold and ingenious conceits, incongruous
imagery, complex and subtly of thought, frequent use of paradox.

The most common characteristic is that metaphysical poetry contained large

doses of wit. Metaphysical wit implies a constant inspection and criticism of
experience, and involves a recognition, implicit in the expression of every
expression of every experience, of other kinds of experience which are possible.
Metaphysical poetry is also argumentative in the sense that it has syllogism,
paradox, paradoxical argument, paradoxical turns of thought etc. This poetry also
has conciseness of expression and that is why it is called "expanded epigram". A
significant feature of metaphysical poetry is the use of metaphysical conceits. It is
the unique quality of metaphysical poetry. A conceit is a comparison of two
dissimilar things, which may have very little in common. Metaphysical poetry is
considered highly ambiguous & obscure due to high intellect & knowledge of
metaphysical poets. The poetry is greatly challenging to understand at the first
reading. It needs full concentration & full attention to getting to the roots of the
matter. Metaphysical poetry is highly intellectual because it demonstrates an
abundance of learning. The poetry has references to and illusions from myths,
religion, politics, war, alchemy, astrology, navigation, biology, mathematics,
physics etc. Metaphysical poetry includes a wide range of personal feelings like
sensuality, fascination and scornful anger, joy of mutual and contended ove,
pathos of temporary separation, mystical heights and depths of love, religious
experience etc. This poetry brings up vivid imagining of a situation as originator
and argument as process. This type of poetry is dramatic, colloquial, bizarre and it
has poetic diction and metrical effects. A prominent feature of metaphysical
poetry is "unified sensibility" which is the combination of feeling and thought.

Donne as a Metaphysical Poet:

Metaphysical poetry is a distinct type of poetry that flourished in the 17th century
introduced by John Donne. Metaphysical poetry is a revolt against the Elizabethan
poetry of conventional form and theme. By metaphysical poetry we mean that
type of new school of poetry which implies some salient characteristics of abrupt
and striking beginning, complexity, dramatic quality, blending of passion and
intellectuality, argument and wit, conceits and images, philosophic and reflective
tone, the use of colloquial language etc. we need to analytical discussion of
Donne’s major poems and their characteristics in order to evaluate Donne as the
precursor of metaphysical poetry.

Abrupt and striking beginning is an important aspect of metaphysical poetry. For

example, we can quote the opening line of “The Canonization”:
“For God’s sake hold your tongue and let me love”.
Undoubtedly, all of Donne’s poems have such kind of striking beginning that
arrest our attention instantly.

Another important aspect of metaphysical poetry is dramatic quality. In Donne’s

poems have always a dramatic development and atmosphere that attract the
readers and create dramatic suspension in their mind. For example
“Go and catch a falling star
And swear
No where
Lives a woman true and fair”.

The abundant use of conceits and farfetched imagery is a fundamental trait of

Donne’s metaphysical poetry which is a comparison between two dissimilar
things. The most famous conceit is the comparison of a man who travels and his
beloved who stays, to a pair of compasses in his poem “A Valediction: Forbidding
Mourning”.

Wit is the dominant feature of Donne’s metaphysical poetry. Donne’s wit may be
found in his use of puns, wordplay, oxymoron, paradox, etc. For example in “The
canonization” his wit is seen:
“Observe His Honour, or His Grace
Or the king’s real, or his stamped face”.

In Donne’s love poetry, we find a peculiar blend of passion and thought, feeling
and ratiocination. Each of his love poems arises out of a particular emotion but he
explains that emotion with the help of his intellect.

To conclude, we can say that Donne is metaphysical both in the treatment of

theme and technique. He is perfectly a metaphysical poet by virtue of his learning
and intellect, displaying an abundance of wit and conceits and above all, his blend
of passion and thought.
Themes in Donne’s Poetry:

John Donne is a prominent literary figure mainly for his metaphysical poems and
the most recurring themes of John Donne’s poetry are love, religion, spirituality.

Donne explores the theme of love and romance in the majority of his poems. The
Good Morrow, The Canonization, A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning hold love as
its primary theme. In "The Good-Morrow" after the souls walking up the lover and
the beloved are consumed with the passion of love and they became one. In “The
Canonization” He says that love has been the hunting ground for the poets and if
their love has no place for tombs, it would find its place in verses.

Then comes the theme of religion and spirituality. This theme is strongly found in
“Batter My Heart”. Apart from this, “The Good Morrow”, “Death Be Not Proud”
contains the theme of religion and spirituality. For example, In “Batter My Heart”
The speaker boldly commands God to force his way into the speaker's soul.

Sex is also a dominating theme of Donne’s poetry. Donne tries to glorify physical
love by comparing its spiritual aspects. The Good Morrow embraces the theme of
sex perfectly in this manner. In this poem he tries to make sex a spiritual issue.

Donne’s poems are metaphysical not only in style but in theme as well and these
are the main theme he embraces in his poems.
Donne’s Metaphysical Poetry as an “Expanded Epigram”

In poetry, an epigram is usually a short and witty statement that conveys a single
observation or thought. Such lines end with punch lines which are usually a twist.
Donne’s metaphysical poetry is composed in a similar fashion. Though the
content matches the ideas of epigram, the length of poetry is longer than regular
epigram. This is why such poetry can be termed as “expanded epigram”.

“Valediction: A Forbidding Mourning” is a good example of an expanded epigram.

Here the whole poem is about a single idea. It exclusively deals with the nature of
the poet’s romantic relationship with his lover that they will never be separate
mentally even the speaker dies. He goes on to explain this nature with the
example of a compass. Here he says that similar to the compass handles, the
poems and his lover are affected by each other’s actions. Donne’s description
ends with a punchline that says,
“Thy firmness makes my circle just,
And makes me end where I begun.”
Here the poet says that the stability of his lover brought him back to her. This is
the twist of this poem.

Thus with this, we can say that Donne’s metaphysical poetry acts as an “expanded
epigram”.
“Unified Sensibility” in Donne’s Poetry

Unified sensibility means the combination of emotion and thought and in poetry,
John Donne’s power of fusing intellectual thoughts and sensational feeling was
remarkable.

It was T.S. Eliot who made the phrase “unified sensibility” popular. According to
Eliot, the two faculties, that of feeling and of thinking came to be dissociated from
each other on account of one-sided emphasis placed since the time of Milton on
intellect. But in the early part of seventeenth century feeling and thought were
combined, they were one operation of the mind. It was not possible to think
without feeling and to feel without thinking. This is called a unified sensibility (or
unification of sensibility). Donne as a metaphysical poet, had a unified sensibility.
His poetry expressed through thinking and feeling at the same time. Here is a
direct apprehension of thought, or a recreation of thought into feeling. Donne
had the knack of presenting different objects together.

Donne’s poetry is chiefly remarkable for the range and variety of mood and
attitude. By dint of the variety of mood, Donne has been able to blend thought
and emotion in a bizarre way that has been designated as a “mechanism of
sensibility” which can devour any kind of experience. For example, Donne’s ‘A
Validation: Forbidding Mourning’ in which Donne moves from thought to thought
with measured and weighty music.

Thus, Donne achieves the power of unification and sensibility very successfully
and artificially.
Imagery, Stylistic Features in Donne’s Poetry:

Donne shows great originality in using imageries in his poetry. On one hand,
Donne’s love poetry is philosophical in its nature and characterized by a texture of
religious imagery; and on the other hand, his devotional poetry makes
unexpected, bold use of erotic imagery. It is through the use of imagery that
Donne achieves the unification of sensibility.
Examples of imagery are to be found in 'Good Morrow', 'Canonization, 'A
Valediction Forbiding Mourning' etc. In 'A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning', we
get the imagery of compass and here the parted lovers are compared to the two
legs of a compass. In ‘The Good Morrow’, image like-“snorted we in the seven
sleepers den” takes us to the cave in where seven young Christians took refuge
and slept for two centuries. Then we find the images of “sea discoverers”,
traveling to new worlds, and two hemispheres. In ‘The Canonization’ we get
imagery that consists in the analogies where the lovers are liked first to flies and
tapers and then to eagle and Dove and finally to the Phoenix.

Donne’s poetry has many stylistic features which emphasized the intensity and
sensibility of the situation of the poetry and those are features are apostrophe,
personification, rhyme scheme, anaphora, paradox, metaphor, allusion,
hyperbole, alliteration, symbolism etc.
Examples of stylistic features can be found in every poetry of John Donne. In his
poem “Death, be not proud,” John Donne uses literary devices such as
apostrophe, personification, rhyme scheme, anaphora, and paradox. He uses
these devices to diminish Death’s power, so people will not fear Death as much as
they do. The figures of speech that Donne uses in "The Good-Morrow" are
metaphor, allusion, hyperbole, and sound devices like consonance and
alliteration. The poem's extended metaphors of sleep and travel allow the
allusion to the Seven Sleepers and the hyperbole that the speaker's love is as
balanced as two hemispheres of a world. Sound devices like the consonance of s
and d sounds and the alliteration of w sounds place emphasis on the speaker's
confidence in his love. In ‘The Apparition” Donne uses extended metaphor,
imagery, and symbolism to emphasize the intensity of the situation. Metaphor is
used to play off the idea that he was "killed" by his ex-lover's scorn, referring to
himself as a ghost. He refers to the woman as an aspen to suggest that she is pale
with fear.