This blog task is paper of assignment of peper 101
:Literature of the Elizabethan and Restoration periods
⬛ Personal information:
Name: Shatakshi sarvaiya
Batch: M.A Sem 1 (2024-26)
Enrollment number:5108240030
E-mail Addres: Shatakshisarvaiya9@gmail.com
Roll number: 28
⬛ Assignment Details:
Topic: Genral characteristics of Metaphysical Portry
paper & subject code: 101 Literature of the
Elizabethan and Restoration Period
submitted to : SMT . Department of English,Bhavnagar
Date of submission: 20 November, 2024
⏹ Tabel of contens:
★ The turm
★ Characteristics
★ Metaphysical poetry
⏹ The turm:
In the beginning of the 17 century; between 1600
and 1635, a school of poets emerged whoes poetry came to be
known as "The Metaphysical Poetry" . a notebal poet and critic
and a great neo-classical, Dr. samuel johnson usedthis term for
the first time in his introduction to the life of Abraham cowley.
johnson's usage of this term, was derogatory to critics the poetry
of john Donne and his followers. with the passage of time, the
same term became a term of appraisal.
Nevertheless, the term, literally understood, refers to something
that is 'beyond physical' aka 'metaphysical'. thus, it denotes that the
poetry of Doone and his followers was characteristically diffrent -
or beyond the norms of the contemporary poetic style and subject
metters.
■ Characteristics:
✴Free from former artificial styles
Grierson attempted to characterise the main traits of Metaphysical poetry in the introduction to his anthology. For him it begins with a break with the formerly artificial style of their antecedents to one free from poetic diction or conventions.[19] Johnson acknowledged as much in pointing out that their style was not to be achieved "by descriptions copied from descriptions, by imitations borrowed from imitations, by traditional imagery and hereditary similes".
✴ European Baroque influences, including use of conceits
Another characteristic singled out by Grierson is the Baroque European dimension of the poetry, its "fantastic conceits and hyperboles which was the fashion throughout Europe".[20] Again Johnson had been partly before him in describing the style as "borrowed from Marino and his followers". It was from the use of conceits particularly that the writing of these European counterparts was known, Concettismo in Italian, Conceptismo in Spanish.[2In fact Crashaw had made several translations from Marino. Grierson noted in addition that the slightly older poet, Robert Southwell (who is included in Gardner's anthology as a precursor), had learned from the antithetical, conceited style of Italian poetry and knew Spanish as well
The European dimension of the Catholic poets Crashaw and Southwell has been commented on by others. In the opinion of one critic of the 1960s, defining the extent of the Baroque style in 17th-century English poetry "may even be said to have taken the place of the earlier discussion of the metaphysical".Southwell counts as a notable pioneer of the style, in part because his formative years were spent outside England. And the circumstance that Crashaw's later life was also spent outside England contributed to making him, in the eyes of Mario Praz, "the greatest exponent of the Baroque style in any language".
Crashaw is frequently cited by Harold Segel when typifying the characteristics of The Baroque Poem,but he goes on to compare the work of several other Metaphysical poets to their counterparts in both Western and Eastern Europe. The use of conceits was common not only across the Continent, but also elsewhere in England among the Cavalier poets, including such elegists of Donne as Carew and Godolphin. As an example of the rhetorical way in which various forms of repetition accumulate in creating a tension, only relieved by their resolution at the end of the poem, Segel instances the English work of Henry King as well as Ernst Christoph Homburg's in German and Jan Andrzej Morsztyn's in Polish. In addition, Marvell's "To His Coy Mistress" is given as a famous example of the use of hyperbole common to many other Metaphysical poets and typical of the Baroque style too
✴Wordplay and wit
The way George Herbert and other English poets "torture one poor word ten thousand ways", in Dryden's phrase, finds its counterpart in a poem like "Constantijn Huygens’ Sondagh (Sunday) with its verbal variations on the word 'sun'.Wordplay on this scale was not confined to Metaphysical poets, moreover, but can be found in the multiple meanings of 'will' that occur in Shakespeare's "Sonnet 135". and of 'sense' in John Davies’ "That the Soul is more than a Perfection or Reflection of the Sense". Such rhetorical devices are common in Baroque writing and frequently used by poets not generally identified with the Metaphysical style
Another striking example occurs in Baroque poems celebrating "black beauty", built on the opposition between the norm of feminine beauty and instances that challenge that commonplace. There are examples in sonnets by Philip Sidney, where the key contrast is between 'black' and 'bright';by Shakespeare, contrasting 'black' and various meanings of 'fair';[29] and by Edward Herbert, where black, dark and night contrast with light, bright and spark.[30] Black hair and eyes are the subject in the English examples, while generally it is the colour of the skin with which Romance poets deal in much the same paradoxical style. Examples include Edward Herbert's "La Gialletta Gallante or The sun-burn'd exotic Beauty" and Marino's "La Bella Schiave" (The Beautiful Slave). Still more dramatically, Luis de Góngora's En la fiesta del Santísimo Sacramento (At the Feast of the Blessed Sacrament)introduces a creole dialogue between two black women concerning the nature of their beauty
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| "Europe supported by Africa and America", William Blake, 1796 |
Much of this display of wit hinges upon enduring literary conventions and is only distinguished as belonging to this or that school by the mode of treatment. But English writing goes further by employing ideas and images derived from contemporary scientific or geographical discoveries to examine religious and moral questions, often with an element of casuistry.Bringing greater depth and a more thoughtful quality to their poetry, such features distinguish the work of the Metaphysical poets from the more playful and decorative use of the Baroque style among their contemporaries
✴Platonic influance:
.Ideas of Platonic love had earlier played their part in the love poetry of others, often to be ridiculed there, although Edward Herbert and Abraham Cowley took the theme of "Platonic Love" more seriously in their poems with that title.
In the poetry of Henry Vaughan, as in that of another of the late discoveries, Thomas Traherne, Neo-Platonic concepts played an important part and contributed to some striking poems dealing with the soul's remembrance of perfect beauty in the eternal realm and its spiritual influence.
◾Metaphysical Poetry: Definition and Characteristics of Metaphysical Poetry
Definition of Metaphysical Poetry
Samual Johnson was the first person, who invented the term Metaphysical poetry while talking about the life of Abraham Cowley in his book, "Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets" (1779–81). He says that, at the beginning of the 17th century, a race of writers appeared, who may be regarded as Metaphysical Poets.
Etymologists are of the view that the expression Metaphysical is a derivative of the Latin word Metaphysica, which is a combination of two words: Meta and Physica. The word meta means ‘beyond’ or ‘after’. It is a prefix and is equally used in English. It refers to things or concepts, which are abstract. Literally, Physica means ‘work’, but in this case, it is considered as something, which is having a concrete shape.
So, the term Metaphysical may be defined as ‘Beyond physical work’. In this regard, R.S Hillyer asserts that "the Metaphysical deals with the notion of existence, with the existing universe and man’s place therein. Roughly, it has taken such implications as these- philosophical, difficult, ethereal, obscure, supercilious, ingenious, odd, and bizarre. Poetry, which deals with the correlation between the real world and the after-world, concrete and abstract, soul and being, as well as reality and perception using philosophical methodology is called Metaphysical .
Now, let’s move ahead and probe into the characteristics of Metaphysical Poetry. Following are some of its features, which may help you understand the nature of metaphysical poetery.
10 Characteristics of Metaphysical Poetry
- Obscurity
- Brevity
- Aphorism
- Metaphysical Conceits
- Unified Sensibility
- Colloquialism
- Originality
- Wit
- Platonic Love
- Spirituality.
1. Obscurity in Metaphysical Poetry
2. Brevity in Metaphysical Poetry
3. Aphorism in Metaphysical Poetry
No where
Lives a woman true, and fair.
4. Metaphysical Conceits
5. Unified Sensibility
We are all aware of the fact that in the Age of Pope, poets tried to set aside their emotions and wrote poetry purely a product of their reason and intellect. hey just overemphasized reason and judgment and did not give any importance to the feelings of a person. On the other hand, the fusion of thoughts and feelings is called the unification of sensibility. Unification of Sensibility is the most imperative feature of Metaphysical poetry.
Metaphysical poets didn't dissociate feelings and reasons from one another. They tried their best to fuse them together. Their poetry indicates an amazing amalgam of spiritual and physical, ethereal and earthly, abstract and concrete, thoughts and emotions. This feature is also called the juxtaposition of opposite things. That is why their poetry is difficult to understand. Their love for philosophy has a prodigious impact on their poetry.
6. Colloquialism
7. Originality
Originality is the hallmark of metaphysical poets. All the metaphysical poets were unique and original in their ideas and thoughts. They didn’t follow the trodden path of their contemporary poets. They stood in rebellion against them and followed their own way of writing poetry.
They wanted to startle their readers by presenting unique and unheard and unseen ideas before them. They desired to differentiate themselves from the outmoded poets in every respect. That is why they are called original poets in the history of English literature.
For example, John Donne in his poem ‘The Flea’ forbids his wife from killing a flea because he has the feeling that this killing of a flea will cause the murdering of three souls. Look at the following lines taken from The Flea:
O stay, three lives in one flea spare,
Where we almost, yea, more than married are.
This flea is you and I, and this
Our marriage bed, and marriage temple is.
Though parents grudge, and you, we're met,
And cloister'd in these living walls of jet.
Though use make you apt to kill me,
Let not to that self-murder added be,
And sacrilege, three sins in killing three.
8. Wit
Wit is also a noteworthy feature of Metaphysical Poetry. Metaphysical wit is the expression of one’s idea and thoughts, using aptly and technically the words and various figures of speech in such a manner as to provide pleasure to the readers. Johan Donne is called the ‘Monarch of Wit’ in the history of Metaphysical poetry.
He uses informal, argumentative, and simple language in such a way that the reader gets wondered at the ideas of the poet. Pope has rightly said about John Donne, “Donne had no imagination, but as much wit, I think, as any writer can possibly have.” Have a look at the following lines taken from John Donne’s poetry, which proves him a monarch of wit
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