Thinking Activity: Metaphysical poetry
Here is my blog in regards to thinking Activity given by Dr Dilip Barad sir on Metaphysical Poetry.
The word ‘Metaphysical Poetry’ is a philosophical concept used in literature where poets portray the things/ideas that are beyond the depiction of physical existence. Etymologically, there is a combination of two words ‘meta’ and ‘physical in word “metaphysical”.’ The first word “Meta” means beyond. So metaphysical means beyond physical, beyond the normal and ordinary. The meanings are clear here that it deals with the objects/ideas that are beyond the existence of this physical world. Let us look at the origin of word metaphysical poetry in more detail.
Origin of the Word Metaphysical Poetry
In the book “Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets (1179-1781)”, the author Samuel Johnson made the first use of the word Metaphysical Poetry. He used the term Metaphysical poets to define a loose group of the poets of 17th century. The group was not formal and most of the poets put in this category did not know or read each other’s writings. This group’s most prominent poets include John Donne, Andrew Marvell, Abraham Cowley, George Herbert, Henry Vaughan, Thomas Traherne, Richard Crashaw, etc. He noted in his writing that all of these poets had the same style of wit and conceit in their poetry.
Definition of Metaphysical Poetry
Metaphysical poetry is a genre of poetry that deals with deep and profound subjects like spirituality, religion, etc. It is highly intellectual form of poetry and presents the world to its readers in a different way. It asks questions that science cannot answer. Metaphysical poetry prompts the readers to question their reality and existence. It takes one beyond the physical world and gives new perspectives through its imagery, wit and paradox.
Definition in Merriam Webster Dictionary
“Highly intellectualized poetry marked by bold and ingenious conceits, incongruous imagery, complexity and subtlety of thought, frequent use of paradox, and often by deliberate harshness or rigidity of expression” .
Characteristics of Metaphysical Poetry
(1) Dramatic manner and direct tone of speech is one of the main characteristics of metaphysical poetry. In the starting line of the poem “The Canonization” – there is given a dramatic starting –
"For God’s sake hold your tongue, and let me love”.
(2) Concentration is an important quality of metaphysical poetry in general and Donne’s poetry is particular. In his all poems, the reader is held to one idea or line of argument.
(3) Fondness for conceits is a major character of metaphysical poetry. Donne often uses fantastic comparisons. The most striking and famous one used by Donne is the comparison of a man who travels and his beloved who stays at home to a pair of compasses in the poem “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning” –
“If they be two, they are two so
As stiff twin compasses are two,
Thy soul fixt foot makes no show
To move, but doth, if th’other do”.
We find another conceit in the very beginning couple of lines of “The Exctasy.” –
“Where like a pillow on a bed,
A pregnant bank swel’d up, …”
(4) Wit is another characteristic of metaphysical poetry. So, here we find various allusions and images relating to practicality all areas of nature and art and learning-- to medicine, cosmology, contemporary discoveries, ancient myth, history, law and art. For instance, in “The Extasie”, Donne uses the belief of the blood containing certain spirits which acts as intermediary between soul and body –
“As our blood labours to get
Spirits, as like souls, as it can,
Because such fingers need to knit
That subtle knot, which makes us man:”
In the same poem, the Ptolemaic system of astrology is also used when he says –
“… We are
The intelligences, they the sphere”.
(5) Metaphysical Poetry is a blend of passion and thought. T. S. Elliot thinks that “passionate thinking” is the chief mark of metaphysical poetry. There is an intellectual analysis of emotion in Donne’s Poetry. Though every lyric arises out of some emotional situation, the emotion is not merely expressed, rather it is analyzed. Donne’s poem “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning” proves that lovers need not mourn at parting. For instance,
“So let us melt, and make no noise,
No tear-floods, nor sigh-tempests move,
‘Twere profanation of our joys
To tell the laity our love”.
(6)Platonic Love: Platonic love is another feature of meta physical poetry. Platonic love means, spiritual love, which is free from elements of physical love.
Famous Metaphysical Poems:
1.'Death,be not Proud' by John Donne
2.'The Flea by John' Donne
3.'The Sun Rising' by John Donne
4."The Collar' by George Herbert
5."To His Coy Mistress' by Andrew Marvell
- Death, be not proud' by John Donne:
Death, be not Proud,” also referred to as Sonnet X, is a fourteen-line sonnet written by John Donne, an English metaphysical poet, and Christian cleric. It is one of the nineteen Holy Sonnets which were published in 1633 within the first edition of Songs and Sonnets.
The speaker personifies and addresses Death directly. He tells Death not to be arrogant and proud of snatching people’s lives away. He converses with Death that just because people are scared of Death and find it powerful and monstrous, it shouldn’t be proud. He tells Death that it is not as people perceive it because people do not die when it comes to killing them. The speaker pities Death and says that even the speaker will not truly die when Death will arrive for him.
The speaker compares Death to rest and sleep. He calls them the other images of Death. He predicts Death to be more pleasant and delightful than rest and sleep. The speaker calls those people “best men” who are taken away by Death. The reason for this is because Death is nothing more but a means of the resting of these bodies and the transformation of their souls to the eternal world.
Death is a submissive activity to luck and fate. It is obedient to kings, rulers, and those people who act in despair. The speaker also mentions that Death is linked to toxins, battles, and illness. Intoxicants and magic spells work more effectively than Death by putting people to rest. The speaker then asks Death that after knowing all this, why is it still so full of pride?
Next, the speaker says that Death is just a short sleeping phase between the temporary world and the eternal afterlife. There in the eternal world, Death visits no more. It is the Death itself or a certain scary idea of Death that is going to die.
The Flea by John Donne:
summary of the poem:
The Flea’ is one of the most popular poems written by John Donne (1572-1631). Like many of his greatest poems, it contains elements associated with metaphysical poetry. John Donne, a master of wit uses unusual metaphors to convey the love between a man and a woman. The Flea is amongst such an unusual love poem, where the poet uses a flea to reveal his sexual interest with his lover. Published in 1633, the poem is about a man trying to convince a woman to have intercourse with her and he shows that it is not a sin as flea already mingled their blood. The poem is witty, romantic, fascinating, and is one of the best poems of John Donne.
The speaker curiously asks the woman to take notice of the flea and to consider about the act it has done. He compares the act of the insect which sucked their blood to that of the speaker’s whose intention is to mingle with his beloved. As the insect has combined their blood, it would be superfluous to call their anticipated union as shameful or sinful. According to the speaker, the insect has mingled their blood in a way that they cannot possibly do or achieve; hence, he asks her not to think of their meeting as a loss of maidenhead.
The Flea by John Donne is a revolutionary poem when one compares it to the principles of those living in the 16th century. However, John Donne uses his words carefully and never shows any obscenity even when he discusses about private matters such as sex. The ingenious play of words, metaphors, and the love theme makes The Flea one of the best poems in literature.
She attempts to kill the flea, but the speaker implores her to not to commit the act. He attempts to convince her by saying that the insect has his life and hers because of the blood it sucked. He also says that it is the place where they are married within the walls of the insect. However, his beloved doesn’t heed to the words of the speaker and attempts to kill it again. The speaker once again tries to convince her and says that it would be murder and suicide at the same time. He adds that it would be a sin to kill three lives – the speaker’s, hers and the insect’s – because flea has the blood of the three.
The speaker’s beloved kills the flea suddenly and with cruelty. He claims that the insect was innocent and wants to know the sin of the creature! She says that by killing the insect, neither of them has lost any honor and it didn’t make them weaker also. This is used by the speaker to convince that there is no loss of honor if she yields to him and it would be as simple an act as killing the flea.
- The sun Rising by John Donne
Stanza – 1
Busy old fool, unruly sun,
Why dost thou thus,
Through windows, and through curtains call on us?
Must to thy motions lovers’ seasons run?
Donne begins the poem “The Sun Rising” personifying and describing the sun as a busy, lawless, foolish person. He scolds the sun and interrogates him why he sends his early morning rays into their bed room through the windows and curtains. The poet-lover and his mistress are disturbed by the sun when they are busy in love-making. He also asks the sun if he (the sun) thinks that the activities of the lovers depend on his motion. The poet informs the sun that their love is not subject to its time-table.
But love knows no season or climate. It remains unchanged over time. The poet believes that love is beyond the fragments of time and thus beyond the control of the sun’s movement.
Stanza – 2
Thy beams, so reverend and strong
Why shouldst thou think?
I could eclipse and cloud them with a wink,
But that I would not lose her sight so long;
The poet inquires the sun why it thinks its beams are strong. The poet lover claims that he can cover the sun simply by a wink of his eyes. But he will not do this because he doesn’t want to deprive himself of the sight of his lover even for a moment. The speaker’s ability to obscure the sun by the wink of his eyes is a hyperbolic (exaggerating) expression. Actually, the poet-lover focuses on the power of love which dominates over the sun.
Saucy pedantic wretch, go chide
Late school boys and sour prentices,
Go tell court huntsmen that the king will ride,
Call country ants to harvest offices,
Love, all alike, no season knows nor clime,
Nor hours, days, months, which are the rags of time.
Here the sun is called an overactive wicked person. The comparison is implicit, so it’s an example of metaphor. The poet admonishes the sun to rather go and do some useful stuff. According to the poet, the sun should bother the late school boys and apprentices who are not hurrying to get to work. He should also tell the court’s hunter that the king has decided to go for a ride. Here the poet hints at king James I’s passion for horse-riding and early hunting. Donne also advises the sun to remind the farmers (country ants) to harvest the land. All those people (school-boys, apprentices, hunter, farmers etc.) and their such activities are subject to the fragments of time and thus might be governed by the sun.
Stanza -3
in the third stanza of the poem ” The Sun Rising” the poet says that his mistress represents all the states of all the kingdoms of the world and he represents all the kings of the world. There is nothing else apart from them and their love. All the kings and queens only play the role of them. They (the kings and queens) try to enjoy love, peace and happiness as the poet and his mistress enjoy. All the honour seems to be mimicry and all the wealth is worthless before their love and enjoyment. Here, the poet wants to say that nothing is more important than their love.
Thou, sun, art half as happy as we,
In that the world’s contracted thus.
Thine age asks ease, and since thy duties be
To warm the world, that’s done in warming us.
Shine here to us, and thou art everywhere;
This bed thy centre is, these walls, thy sphere.
The poet says that the sun will be half happy with the poet-lover and his mistress to know that the entire world has been contracted into their bed. It is much easier for the old sun to do his duty. His duty is to warm and shine the whole world. According to the poet the whole world will be warmed and shined on if the sun warms and shines on the poet-lover’s bed. So, the poet curtly invites the sun to shine and warm their bed room. He even asks the sun to revolve around their bed as his centre and treat the walls of the room as his sphere.
- The Collar by George Herbert
“The Collar” is a one-stanza, free-verse poem that is widely understood to include a dialogue between a single speaker's two inner voices, sometimes identified as the heart and the will. While the will rebels against God and the “collar” or yoke of religion, the heart wins the battle, overcoming the will.
In the first sixteen lines of the poem, the speaker (or “the heart”) states that he is fed up with the current state of affairs and plans to seek out his freedom. He laments that he is “in suit,” in a lowly position, and that he has not reaped greater rewards. As these lines progress, we learn that the speaker has undergone a period of pining and sadness, leading to his present anger.
In lines 17-26, another inner voice interjects, “not so, my heart,” reminding the first speaker that there is an end to sadness in sight. If only the speaker will “leave [his] cold dispute” and stop his rebellion, he will be able to open his eyes and see the truth.
In lines 27-32, the will reappears, commanding the other speaker “away!” and restating his commitment to going abroad. In the final four lines of the poem, the irregular free verse gives way to an ABAB rhyme scheme. The second inner voice reveals that, even in the midst of raving, he heard someone calling “Child” and replied “My Lord.” This indicates a return to God after a period of rebellion.
- To His Coy Mistress by Andrew Marwell
To His Coy Mistress" is divided into three stanzas or poetic paragraphs. It’s spoken by a nameless man, who doesn’t reveal any physical or biographical details about himself, to a nameless woman, who is also biography-less.
During the first stanza, the speaker tells the mistress that if they had more time and space, her "coyness" (see our discussion on the word "coy" in "What’s Up With the Title?") wouldn’t be a "crime." He extends this discussion by describing how much he would compliment her and admire her, if only there was time. He would focus on "each part" of her body until he got to the heart (and "heart," here, is both a metaphor for sex, and a metaphor for love).
In the second stanza he says, "BUT," we don’t have the time, we are about to die! He tells her that life is short, but death is forever. In a shocking moment, he warns her that, when she’s in the coffin, worms will try to take her "virginity" if she doesn’t have sex with him before they die. If she refuses to have sex with him, there will be repercussions for him, too. All his sexual desire will burn up, "ashes" for all time.
In the third stanza he says, "NOW," I’ve told you what will happen when you die, so let’s have sex while we’re still young. Hey, look at those "birds of prey" mating. That’s how we should do it – but, before that, let’s have us a little wine and time (cheese is for sissies). Then, he wants to play a game – the turn ourselves into a "ball" game. (Hmmm.) He suggests, furthermore, that they release all their pent up frustrations into the sex act, and, in this way, be free.
In the final couplet, he calms down a little. He says that having sex can’t make the "sun" stop moving. In Marvell’s time, the movement of the sun around the earth (we now know the earth rotates around the sun) was thought to create time. Anyway, he says, we can’t make time stop, but we can change places with it. Whenever we have sex, we pursue time, instead of time pursuing us. This fellow has some confusing ideas about sex and time. Come to think of it, we probably do, too. "To His Coy Mistress" offers us a chance to explore some of those confusing thoughts.
Conclusion
Metaphysical poetry is to be read with an open mind. It is not purposely trying to convince readers to think in a certain way but it provides a new way of thinking. Metaphysical poets are highly intellectual and people of learning. Reader’s minds open up, their area of thinking expands, and they awaken by their writings. The challenging approach of such poetry develops the concentration of readers on the things that exist beyond this physical world. It also permits the poets to state their inner thoughts in the poetry though higher cognitive skills are required to digest the abstract ideas and concepts coined in metaphysical texts of poetry.
Words - 3,096
No comments:
Post a Comment