Metaphysical poetry

The Early Seventeenth

The Early Seventeenth

Century

Century

•

1603: Death of Elizabeth

1603: Death of Elizabeth

-

-

A

A

ccession of James I

ccession of James I

-

-

Religious tension during

Religious tension during

his

his

reign

reign

•

1605: The Gunpowder Plot

1605: The Gunpowder Plot

-

-

Catholic extremists to blow up

Catholic extremists to blow up

the

the

Pa

Pa

r

r

liament

liament

•

1620:

1620:

Settlement of the first pilgrims

Settlement of the first pilgrims

in the

in the

New

New

World

World

•

1625: Death of James; accession of Charles I

1625: Death of James; accession of Charles I

•

1642: Civil War

1642: Civil War

s

s

Changes in poetic fashion

•

Some

Some

Elizabethan genres

Elizabethan genres

and stylistic

and stylistic

features

features

no longer

no longer

prominent

prominent

–

sonnet sequences, pastoral poems, nature

sonnet sequences, pastoral poems, nature

imagery

imagery

•

The new norm

The new norm

–

poems

poems

written

written

in a witty style

in a witty style

–

uses rough, everyday language

uses rough, everyday language

–

engages with God, science, and the natural

engages with God, science, and the natural

world

world

The term ‘metaphysical’ –

its origins

•

John Dryden

John Dryden

– the first

– the first

to describe John

to describe John

Donne’s work

Donne’s work

in negative terms

in negative terms

–

Donne’s references to science and philosophy

Donne’s references to science and philosophy

–

“

“

unnatural” engagement with intellectual

unnatural” engagement with intellectual

ideas

ideas

–

“

“

Donne perplexes the minds of the fair sex

Donne perplexes the minds of the fair sex

with nice speculations of philosophy, when he

with nice speculations of philosophy, when he

should engage their hearts”

should engage their hearts”

•

Ben Johnson employed the ter

Ben Johnson employed the ter

m to imply

m to imply

–

'the most heterogeneous ideas…

'the most heterogeneous ideas…

[put]

[put]

by

by

violence together‘

violence together‘

Why are they valued?

•

Metaphysical poets are

Metaphysical poets are

valued

valued

for

for

–

their intricacy and their originality

their intricacy and their originality

–

a style in which philosophical and spiritual

a style in which philosophical and spiritual

subjects are approached with reason and often

subjects are approached with reason and often

conclude in paradox

conclude in paradox

–

the union of thought and feeling

the union of thought and feeling

–

“

“

poetry against the deliberately sweet tones of

poetry against the deliberately sweet tones of

much 16th-century verse”

much 16th-century verse”

•

the metaphysical poet adopted a style that is

the metaphysical poet adopted a style that is

energetic, uneven, and rigorous

energetic, uneven, and rigorous

•

roughness and violation of decorum, the deliberate

roughness and violation of decorum, the deliberate

mixture of different styles

mixture of different styles

•

T.S Eliot

T.S Eliot

highly praised them

highly praised them

–

“

“

saw in this group of poets a capacity for

saw in this group of poets a capacity for

‘devouring all kinds of experience’”

‘devouring all kinds of experience’”

Metaphysical concerns

• The common subject

– the world investigated by rational discussion of its

phenomena

– Intuition or mysticism – disregarded [F. Bacon]

Conceits

– a kind of extravagant metaphor
– a combination of dissimilar images
– instruments of persuasion

• argumentative principle

The character of this

poetry

• Personal and individual
• Confessional

– often set in room, study or office
– an embodiment of introspection

Religious turmoil

• the questions rising with new religious

identities

– debating with themselves and God

• the status of men and women
• the relationship with one another, and

with God

– necessitated a journey through one’s own

spirituality

The body and soul

• in metaphysical poetry the body was seen as

– a secular vessel fused with a spirituality of

the world

Colonialism

• Colonial expansion induced certain

imagery:

– exploring, discovering, conquering
– divine protection
– geography, navigation

The flea

MARK but this flea, and mark in this,
How little that which thou deniest me is ;
It suck'd me first, and now sucks thee,
And in this flea our two bloods mingled be.
Thou know'st that this cannot be said
A sin, nor shame, nor loss of maidenhead ;
    Yet this enjoys before it woo,
    And pamper'd swells with one blood made of
two ;
    And this, alas ! is more than we would do

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.

Cruel and sudden, hast thou since
Purpled thy nail in blood of innocence?
Wherein could this flea guilty be,
Except in that drop which it suck'd from thee?
Yet thou triumph'st, and say'st that thou
Find'st not thyself nor me the weaker now.
'Tis true ; then learn how false fears be ;
Just so much honour, when thou yield'st to me,
Will waste, as this flea's death took life from
thee.

Elegy XIX

Come, madam, come, all rest my powers defy,
Until I labor, I in labor lie.
The foe oft-times having the foe in sight,
Is tired with standing though he never fight.
Off with that girdle, like heaven's zone glistering,
But a far fairer world encompassing.
Unpin that spangled breastplate which you wear,
That th' eyes of busy fools may be stopped there.
Unlace yourself, for that harmonious chime
Tells me from you that now it is bed time.
Off with that happy busk, which I envy,
That still can be, and still can stand so nigh.
Your gown, going off, such beauteous state reveals,
as when from flowry meads th' hill's shadow steals.
Off with that wiry coronet and show
The hairy diadem which on you doth grow:
Now off with those shoes, and then safely tread
In this love's hallowed temple, this soft bed.
In such white robes, heaven's angels used to be
Received by men; thou, Angel, bring'st with thee
A heaven like Mahomet's Paradise; and though
Ill spirits walk in white, we easily know
By this these angels from an evil sprite:
Those set our hairs on end, but these our flesh upright.

License my roving hands, and let them go
Before, behind, between, above, below.
O my America! my new-found-land,
My kingdom, safeliest when with one man manned,
My mine of precious stones, my empery,
How blest am I in this discovering thee!
To enter in these bonds is to be free;
Then where my hand is set, my seal shall be.
Full nakedness! All joys are due to thee,
As souls unbodied, bodies unclothed must be
To taste whole joys. Gems which you women use
Are like Atlanta's balls, cast in men's views,
That when a fool's eye lighteth on a gem,
His earthly soul may covet theirs, not them.
Like pictures, or like books' gay coverings made
For lay-men, are all women thus arrayed;
Themselves are mystic books, which only we
(Whom their imputed grace will dignify)
Must see revealed. Then, since that I may know,
As liberally as to a midwife, show
Thyself: cast all, yea, this white linen hence,
There is no penance due to innocence.
To teach thee, I am naked first; why than,
what needst thou have more covering than a man?

A VALEDICTION

FORBIDDING

MOURNING

AS virtuous men pass mildly away, 

    And whisper to their souls to go, 
Whilst some of their sad friends do say,
    "Now his breath goes," and some say, "No."                     

So let us melt, and make no noise,                                       5

    No tear-floods, nor sigh-tempests move ;
'Twere profanation of our joys 
    To tell the laity our love. 

Moving of th' earth brings harms and fears ;

    Men reckon what it did, and meant ;                             
10
But trepidation of the spheres, 
    Though greater far, is innocent. 

Dull sublunary lovers' love 
    —Whose soul is sense—cannot admit 
Of absence, 'cause it doth remove                                    
15
    The thing which elemented it. 
But we by a love so much refined,
    That ourselves know not what it is, 
Inter-assurèd of the mind, 
    Care less, eyes, lips and hands to
miss.                           20
Our two souls therefore, which are one, 
    Though I must go, endure not yet 
A breach, but an expansion, 
    Like gold to aery thinness beat. 

If they be two, they are two so                                         
25
    As stiff twin compasses are two ; 
Thy soul, the fix'd foot, makes no show 
    To move, but doth, if th' other do. 
And though it in the centre sit, 
    Yet, when the other far doth roam,                               
30
It leans, and hearkens after it, 
    And grows erect, as that comes home. 
Such wilt thou be to me, who must,
    Like th' other foot, obliquely run ;
Thy firmness makes my circle just,                                   
35
    And makes me end where I begun. 

 

To his coy mistress

Had we but world enough, and time,
This coyness, Lady, were no crime
We would sit down and think which way
To walk and pass our long love's day.
Thou by the Indian Ganges' side
Shouldst rubies find: I by the tide
Of Humber would complain. I would
Love you ten years before the Flood,
And you should, if you please, refuse
Till the conversion of the Jews.
My vegetable love should grow
Vaster than empires, and more slow;
An hundred years should go to praise
Thine eyes and on thy forehead gaze;
Two hundred to adore each breast,
But thirty thousand to the rest;
An age at least to every part,
And the last age should show your heart.
For, Lady, you deserve this state,
Nor would I love at lower rate.

But at my back I always hear
Time's wingèd chariot
hurrying near;
And yonder all before us lie
Deserts of vast eternity.
Thy beauty shall no more be
found,
Nor, in thy marble vault, shall
sound
My echoing song: then worms
shall try
That long preserved virginity,
And your quaint honour turn
to dust,
And into ashes all my lust:
The grave's a fine and private
place,
But none, I think, do there
embrace.

Now therefore, while the youthful hue
Sits on thy skin like morning dew,
And while thy willing soul transpires
At every pore with instant fires,
Now let us sport us while we may,
And now, like amorous birds of prey,
Rather at once our time devour
Than languish in his slow-chapt power.
Let us roll all our strength and all
Our sweetness up into one ball,
And tear our pleasures with rough strife
Thorough the iron gates of life:
Thus, though we cannot make our sun
Stand still, yet we will make him run.

The pearl

I Know the wayes of Learning; both the head
And pipes that feed the presse, and make it runne;
What reason hath from nature borrowed,
Or of it self, like a good huswife, spunne
In laws and policie; what the starres conspire,
What willing nature speaks, what forc’d by fire;
Both th’ old discoveries, and the new-found seas,
The stock and surplus, cause and historie:
All these stand open, or I have the keyes:
Yet I love thee.
 
I know the wayes of Honour, what maintains
The quick returns of courtesie and wit:
In vies of favours whether partie gains,
When glorie swells the heart, and moldeth it
To all expressions both of hand and eye,
Which on the world a true-love-knot may tie,
And bear the bundle, wheresoe’re it goes:
How many drammes of spirit there must be
To sell my life unto my friends or foes:
Yet I love thee.

 
I know the wayes of Pleasure, the sweet strains,
The lullings and the relishes of it;
The propositions of hot bloud and brains;
What mirth and musick mean; what love and wit
Have done these twentie hundred yeares, and more:
I know the projects of unbridled store:
My stuffe is flesh, not brasse; my senses live,
And grumble oft, that they have more in me
Then he that curbs them, being but one to five:
Yet I love thee.
 
I know all these, and have them in my hand:
Therefore not sealed, but with open eyes
I flie to thee, and fully understand
Both the main sale, and the commodities;
And at what rate and price I have thy love;
With all the circumstances that may move:
Yet through these labyrinths, not my groveling wit,
But thy silk twist let down from heav’n to me,
Did both conduct and teach me, how by it
To climbe to thee.