Metaphysical poetry

Metaphysical poetry

1. Renaissance period- 1550-1660

   • emphasis on ideal Christian existence
     • essential religious view begins to disappear
   • covers a time of tremendous change
   • language also becomes recognisable
   • conflict between old religious views and the idea that man controls his own destiny

2. examples

   • 'A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning' by John Donne
     • language
       • 'trepidation of the spheres'
         • religious aspect
       • elements of nature used as a religious conceit to represent his love
         • Dull sublunary lovers' love/ (Whose soul is sense) cannot admit
           • assonance to emphasise this
           • isolated in his ideal of true love
             • theirs is more passionate than others
         • 'Our two souls therefore, which are one'
       • juxtaposition to project wit
         • 'As stiff two compasses are two'
           • sex/ phallic imagery
       • Yet when the other far doth roam,/ It leans and hearkens after it,/ And grows erect, as that comes home.
         • when they are apart they are still together
           • love beyond physicality
           • sexual imagery
       • 'They firmness makes my circle just,/ And makes me end where I begun.'
         • cyclical nature
           • parallel phrase of the compass imagery
         • cathartic
           • pathos- enveloping everything
           • can rely on each other
           • becomes almost philosophical
     • structure and form
       • title- a goodbye
       • ABAB rhyme scheme
         • consistent throughout the poem
           • similar to beats per line- mostly 8 per line
         • represents his consistency of love and assurance of safety
       • only uses pronouns when talking about themselves
         • adds to this aspect of isolation and safety within their love
       • argument/ persuasive
       • 9 stanzas long
         • long- indicates depth of love
     • context
       • 1611
       • left pregnant wife to go to France, she had premonitions and lost the baby while he was away
         • poem filled with assurance
   • 'The Flea' by John Donne
     • language
       • title
         • misleading
         • humorous
       • imperative repetition of 'mark' within first line
         • too commanding?
           • dominering
       • wit/ intelligence of 'flea' conceit
         • key features of metaphysical poetry
         • 'flea' metaphor for a moment of passion/ love/ sex
         • 'our two bloods mingled be'
           • intelligent comparison
       • 'Oh stay, three lives in one flea spare,/ Where we almost, nay more than married are
         • enjamberment in first line of every stanza
           • reveals Donne's desire for cnotinuity
             • link to the context of the Elizabethan renaissance
     • structure and form
       • 9 lines in each stanza
         • represents consistency of love
       • AABBCCDDD rhyme scheme
         • consistency of love
         • 3 sets of rhyming couplet in each stanza
           • melodramatic or satiricaly presentation of love?
       • use of ceasura to add a rhythm and a desire for continuity
       • last 3 lines of each stanza are inverted
         • add a sense of importance
         • sense of time most prominant in these sections