Gülşah Kazancı – 150206071

Characteristics of Metaphysical Poetry and Examples from the 17 th Century Poets

The 17th century is known as Restoration Period and is considered as the age of dualism. There
are two major schools of poetry: Metaphysical and Cavalier Poetry. In the early 17th century
poetics, the style of the poets used has changed, and revolution in form and content resulted in
freer poems than the sonnets. The poets preferred to write with an ordinary language. The
duality in the themes also was important, and both secular and religious poems were penned.
In this study, the focus will be on the metaphysical poetry and the characteristics of this poetry
with certain examples will be examined.

The era of metaphysical poetry is considered to be between 1610 and 1680s. The term
“metaphysical poetry” was invented in the 18th century by Dr. Samuel Johnson. However, T.S.
Eliot and his essay The Metaphysical Poets helped to the rebirth of the metaphysical poetry
(Kemaloğlu, 44). The word “metaphysical” is a combination of the words meta, which means
beyond in Greek, and physical, which means worldly. Therefore, the metaphors had a profound
function, and the poets combined the emotions and the intellectuality in a rational sense (Abacı,
slide 15). In the metaphysical poetry, the themes are often theological and divine; love as the
union of soul is mostly on the focus. The literary devices such as extended metaphors,
paradoxes, puns (double entendres), and hyperbole are often used to produce emotion. The
imagery comes from all sources of knowledge such as science, theology, and geography. The
most outstanding characteristic of the genre is considered as the use of metaphysical conceits,
in other words extended metaphors. Comparison of two different objects which are barely
similar is considered as a conceit, and these conceits are extremely artistic, logically complex,
and very intellectual. Metaphysical wit is significant as conceits, which shows analytical
thinking and refers to relating the ideas in a comprehensive way. With the help of literary
devices, these intellectual ideas give pleasure to the readers (Abacı, slide 20). The philosophies
of carpe diem, seizing the day, and tempus edax rerum– time, devourer of all things1 are
frequently used in the metaphysical poetry as complementary tools, which are also examples
for wit (Çeliker, 2020). Considering these characteristics of metaphysical poetry, the poems of
John Donne, George Herbert, Andrew Marvell, and John Milton will be on the focus of the
paper.

1
“Tempus edax rerum.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-
webster.com/dictionary/tempus%20edax%20rerum. Accessed 24 Apr. 2020.
 This part will be analysing John Donne and some of his important poems. John Donne is
labelled as the father of metaphysical poetry. His most known poem is A Valediction:
Forbidding Morning and the famousness of this text comes from his imagery of a twin compass
which is a scientific tool. This conceit is a metaphor for manifesting the ideal spiritual love.
The centre foot (lady) is fixed while the outer foot (lover) encircles her (Kemaloğlu, 45). Within
this argument, the narrator suggests that their love is permanent. If one considers the circle as
a marriage journey, it can be understood that their love is united like compasses, and compass,
as an extended metaphor, helps them to stay together despite of distances (Çeliker, 2020). In
the three-stanza poem The Flea, the narrator connects the flea to a marriage bed because blood
of both persons is mingled. This can be considered as an example of wit which is highly unusual
and intellectual. In The Canonization, the imagery of Phoenix represents that their love will be
reborn and will be immortal like the bird. Their love will be blessed like saints because their
love is beyond physical love. As one can see from these examples, the poems of Donne is an
excellent example of metaphysical poetry (Chaudhary, 488).

In this part, the focus will be on the poetry of George Herbert. Herbert’s poems are religious
and have lots of imagery from religious subjects. He practiced “hieroglyphic” or emblem/shape
poetry in which shapes of the texts are resembling the meanings of the poems (Kemaloğlu, 48).
The poems, Easter Wings and The Altar, are examples for this genre that one can see one of the
characteristics of metaphysical poetry which is freedom of form. The shape of Easter Wings
emphasises the idea of the poem; humankind’s fall and rise are similar to the skylark’s wings.
In The Altar, altar is a way to reach god and for achieving salvation, one has to repent (Golban,
16).

This section’s concentrate is on Andrew Marvell and his love poem, To His Coy Mistress.
In this poem, he mostly explores human condition by using two significant classical motifs:
carpe diem and tempus edax rerum. While trying to seduce the lady, the narrator suggests that
time is cruel and destroys everything. As it is impossible to stop time and death is inevitable,
their youth are not everlasting. Within this context, the narrator emphasises the solution for
time’s devouring impact is to seize the day and to focus on carnal desires. This poem has a
significant place in the metaphysical poetry as a brilliant example of the usage of carpe diem
and tempus edax rerum themes (Çeliker, 2020).

In this last section, the focus will be on John Milton. John Milton is not recognised as a
metaphysical poet because of his diversity in subject matters. However, his poems have the
characteristics of metaphysical poetry such as conceits, and wits. L’Allegro and Il Penseroso
are free in terms of structure and also, they are quite short. The pleasures of Melancholy come
from intellectuality, and the pleasures of Joy come from earthly things. Within this context, one
is secular and the other one is mental/spiritual. Milton expresses the conflict between body and
soul as the other poems of metaphysical poets. In order to show the usage of literary devices
from both poems, the following examples can be given. For example, for the lines from
L’Allegro, “Mountains on whose barren breasts / The laboring clouds do often rest” (73-74),
one can say that this is a conceit for creating lovers from mountains and clouds as both things
touch each other and unite in nature. The other example is from Il Penseroso: “These pleasures,
Melancholy, give, / And I with thee will choose to live” (175-76). This is an example of paradox
because in the very beginning of the poem the narrator banishes joy and pleasure. However, in
the last two lines of the poem, the narrator says that he will enjoy the pleasures of Melancholy.
These are the reasons that these two poems are considered as a metaphysical poetry.

To sum up, in this essay, the metaphysical poetry is studied by focusing on its characteristic
properties. These characteristics were explained by using some important metaphysical poems
from the 17th century literature. The works of John Donne, George Herbert, Andrew Marvell,
and John Milton were studied to see the freeness of the style, the usage of extended metaphors,
paradoxes, and wits. Moreover, as examples of important motifs, carpe diem and tempus edax
rerum were discussed which were (and still are) influential themes of the poetry and crucial
motivations for individuals.

References

1. Cengiz Çeliker, Öznur. “John Donne”. IDE 2002. 2020. Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart
University. Lecture.
2. Chaudhary, Karishma. “Discuss John Donne as a Love Poet with Reference to His “The
Canonization”, His One of the Best Love Poem.” International Journal of Applied
Research, vol. 2, no. 1, 2016, pp. 487-488.
3. Kemaloğlu, Azer Banu. “A Study of English Literature”. 2018. PDF file.
4. Türe Abacı, Özlem. “Week 2: The 17th Century England: Politics and Literature”. IDE
202, 2018, Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University. Microsoft PowerPoint Presentation.
5. Greenblatt, Stephen, and M. H. Abrams. The Norton Anthology of English Literature.
8th ed., vol. 1, W.W. Norton, 2006.
6. Golban, Petru. “Peculiarities of English Baroque in Its Literary Expression.”
Dumlupınar University Journal of Social Sciences, vol. 8, no. 14, 2006, pp. 1-19.