We must understand that although there are literary periods, there are no strict rules about when one ended and another began.
Take for instance, Geoffrey Chaucer, the father of English Literature, although a medieval writer, he was by his work a Renaissance man!
Empiricist, Francis Bacon, although belonging to the Renaissance era, is grouped because of his work, under the era of Enlightenment.
Today, we look at a branch of Enlightenment called Metaphysics.
Baruch Spinoza and his systematic rationalist metaphysics which he developed in his Ethics (1677) is an important basis for Enlightenment thought. In the words of Immanuel Kant, the Enlightenment Philosophers “bequeath to society a battlefield of endless controversies.”
This is so true considering the various faces of the Enlightenment: skepticism, rationality, deism, atheism, empiricism, etc.
We deliberately left out the controversial works and life of Voltaire in order to focus on his achievements. Voltaire and many of the Enlightenment writers and philosophers paraded works both varied and controversial in nature.
Take for instance, the Age of Reason contradicts with religious faith, but not with the sense experience – this stance is crazy in itself. If you pause awhile here, you will understand or be confused about the point – chuckle!
So, the poetry called metaphysical poetry “were” not mainstream at the time they were written. Many thought that they went off course, not adhering to known rules.
At the time of Charles 1 of England (1625-1649), we did say that there were three separate schools of thoughts: Metaphysics, Cavalier and Puritans. All these belong to the Enlightenment Era.
From 1649 when King Charles died till 1666 when the Puritans reigned (a period called the Commonwealth Period or Puritan Interregnum) and beyond, we had men of thought churning out books.
We take a brief look at the Metaphysical Poets.
Metaphysics is coined by 18th century English essayist, poet and philosopher, Samuel Johnson while metaphysical poetry was founded by English poet, John Donne.
Johnson, a literary critic, coined the word to disparage the writing of such 17th century English poets whose writings were characterised by spoken rather than lyrical quality of their verse, and ‘metaphysical’ conceits. Their style was difficult and abstract (especially, as at that time, but not anymore at this time).
Later T. S. Eliot in his Essay “The Metaphysical Poets” touches on the way intellectual thought was separated from the experience of feeling in the works of these metaphysical poets. Their works are in direct contradiction to the later works of Romanticism.
The language of Metaphysics is natural and direct with emphasis on the argumentative (using questions); they employ hyperbole and allusion. Their subject matter is usually philosophical or divine.
The Metaphysical Poets are best represented by John Donne, Andrew Marvell, George Herbert, Henry Vaughn, etc.
The works of these 17th century Metaphysical poets greatly influenced 20th century poetry and this is why – Metaphysical poetry is flexible in metrical lines, it uses colloquial diction, it is incongruous but exhibits ingenious conceits while portraying philosophical exploration and irony.
Metaphysical poetry is characterized by religious themes focusing on love as the soul’s strings. It employs puns, metaphors, paradoxes and metre to produce tension and drama.
Incongruous imagery is one of the hallmarks of metaphysical poetry. The poets have the knack of using unrelated or strange imagery in their poems. Below are excerpts from some of the works of some more popular Metaphysical Poets:
The Flea by John Donne:
Mark but this flea, and mark in this,
How little which thou deniest me is;
It sucked me first, and now sucks thee,
And in this flea our two bloods mingled be;
Thou knowest that this cannot be said
A sin, nor shame, nor loss of maidenhead,
Yet this enjoys before it woo,
And pampered swells with one blood made of two,
And this alas, is more than we would do…
Andrew Marvell’s poem:
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…
Note the use of metaphysical conceits which is a major feature in Metaphysical poetry – this is simply the use of unlikely comparisons. Who could have thought of the imagery of the flea as a unifying object for two lovers? It was in a common flea that the love of two lovers was consummated! The two things compared in The Flea: physical love (sexual) and the mingling of two lovers’ blood in a flea are far-fetched.
Also, pause over the imageries used in To His Coy Mistress. If the lovers had time, they could sit all day just to decide on where to take a walk; they can also sit so far apart, the lady by the side of a large river that flows through most of India, and the speaker by the Humber, a small river that flows through the north of England to the North Sea.
The lover can love his coy mistress from ten years before Noah’s Flood, and the mistress can be coy until the Jews accept Jesus Christ as the Messiah.
According to Isaac Newton, “the conception of nature, and of how we know it, changes significantly with the rise of modern science. It belongs centrally to the agenda of Enlightenment philosophy to contribute to the new knowledge of nature, and to provide a metaphysical framework within which to place and interpret this new knowledge.”
More excerpts from the poetry of the Metaphysical Poets:
Love by George Herbert
Love *(III)
Love bade me welcome: yet my soul drew back,
Guilty of dust and sin.
But quick-eyed Love, observing me grow slack
From my first entrance in,
Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning
If I lacked anything…
*Theme based on I John 4:8
The Pulley by George Herbert
When God at first made man,
Having a glass of blessings standing by,
“Let us,” said he, :pour on him all we can.
Let the world’s riches, which dispersed lies,
Contract into a span…
… “Yet let him keep the rest,
But keep them with repining restlessness,
Let him be rich and weary, that at least,
If goodness lead him not, yet weariness
May toss him to my breast.”
In the above poem, it is strange to us that the great Creator would put His gifts for man in something like a glass… but, this is the unique characteristics of metaphysical poetry.
The Good Morrow by John Donne
I wonder, by my troth, what thou and I
Did, till we loved! Were we not weaned till then,
But sucked on country pleasures, childishly?
Or snorted we in the seven sleepers’ den?
T’was so; But this, all pleasures fancies be.
If ever any beauty I did see,
Which I desired, and got, t’was but a dream of thee…
Metaphysical poetry presents a radical departure from Elizabethan style. The flowery language, conventional imagery and smooth rhythm of Elizabethan poetry were shunned by the metaphysical poets.
Their poetry features irregular rhythm, puns, paradoxes and rigorous logic. Then, there is the metaphysical conceits which seemed a wonder and something to grapple with in earlier generations, but nothing to us in today’s language use.
These poets present an argument that love is a mystery just like religion. Their works also portray their belief that lovers should be contented with love and not be in the public world.
They have complex rhyme scheme and the structure portrays varying line lengths.
Metaphysical poems are highly intellectual borrowing words from terms (words) from different fields of learning like alchemy, law, philosophy, theology, geography (natural science), etc.
