John Donne as A Metaphysical Poet
In the first decades of the 17th century, there was a revolt against the outdated and exhausted Elizabethan poetry. As. C.S. Lewis puts it, " Metaphysicarism in poetry is the fruit of the Renaissance tree becoming over ripe and approaching putrescene. " Metaphysical peltry, as Dr Johnson understood it is " the representation of a poetic idea through far fetched. conceits employed by the poet in his learning of wit. "
John Donne is the father and grandmaster of English metaphysical poetry. The first characteristic of his poetry is the tendency to express intense feelings through the production of reasoning by syllogism. In many cases, his blending of feeling and ratiocination is paradoxical. The second characteristic of his poetry is fantastic imagery.
In one poem for example he represents his beloved or " both the Indias of spice and mine. " In the same poem, he adds. " She is all states, and all princes, I Nothing else is " ( The Sun Rising ) Donne's fantastic images are called conceits they are sometimes brief and sometimes elaborated.
The most famous of them is the deification of the beloved because she can be defined only by the negative representation of the flame's body as " our marriage bed and marriage temple because it has sucked the blood of both the poet and his mistress. The third characteristic of Donne's metaphysical poetry is the intellectual character of his poetic talent with his wit. Here for itself an in a good number of rhetorical devices such as startling arresting phrases and statements, as
( a ) For God's sake hold your tongue and let me love
( b ) What merchant ships have me - sights drowned?
Donne's wit expresses all his moods and tones, ranging from gay and playful to dark, ironic and cynical. The fourth quality of Donne's poetry is a reflection of his wide learning. Prof. Grierson has identified its elements as scholastic learning and Catholic theology. Alchemy, Astrology, law, logic, metaphysics, legends the new learning of Copernicus and many others. For instance. In " A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning " he alludes to the " trepidation of the spheres " which is founded on the planetary theory of Ptolemy an ancient Greek philosopher.
The fifth characteristic of Donne's poetry is that it is linked to both the earthly and the sublime. The material and the abstract, his imaginative flights are, however, controlled by his full-blood temper and acute mind. The result is a blend of passion and thought in his poems.
Most of his poems are lyrics of exquisite lyrical strains the characteristic quality of his lyrics is the expression of emotion in a song-like form which is a product of the heart, not of conscious verification so Ben Jonson once remarked Donne, for not keeping of account deserved hanging " According to Prof. Grierson, " a lyric by Donne is rather the subtle elaboration of passionately conceived hyperbole or paradox. " His well-known lyrics are Sweetest Love, I Do Not Go, The Sun Rising the Extasic, etc.
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- English Comedy before Goldsmith
- Sentimental Comedy: Reaction of Goldsmith against it
- Character and role of Miss Neville
- Discuss She Stoops to Conquer as a Sentimental Comedy
- Discuss Goldsmith's View of Sentimental Comedy
- Give an estimate of Goldsmith as a dramatist
- Contribution of Goldsmith as a Dramatist
