Metaphysical poets – Donne, Herbert, Herrick,.doc

Metaphysical poets – Donne, Herbert, Herrick, Crashaw, Jonson, Lovelace, Marvell

MAIN FEATURES OF BOTH SCHOOLS OF POETRY:

One school: Metaphysical:

·         TERM "metaphysical poets" was first used by Samuel Johnson

·         They shared common characteristics of wit, inventiveness, love of elaborate stylistic maneuvers

·         Investigating the world by national discussion of its phenomena rather than by intuition or mysticism

·         Stylistic excess, extravagant conceits (e.g.: witty comparisons)

·         Tendency towards hyperbolic abstractions

·         Energetic style

·         Shunned regular meter or rhyme schemes.

·         Mixture of different styles

·         they write about their own feelings, mainly love, sorrow, revenge, seduction and many others

Second school: Cavalier:

·         Poetry embodied life and culture of upper-class

·         Courtly themes of beauty, love, loyalty

·         Directness of their texts

·         Avoiding subjects of religion

·         admirers of Ben Jonson

·         get their name from the supporters of King Charles I

·         the Cavaliers sought to entertain, rather than provoke

·         They used regular rhythmic patterns in their writing, used elaborate conceits, or complicated metaphors.

REPRESENTATIVES:

·         Metaphysical: John Donne, George Herbert, Richard Crashaw, and Andrew Marvell.

·         Cavalier: Robert Herrick, Thomas Carew, John Suckling, Richard Lovelace, Jonson, and Henry Vaughn

Donne:               “A Valediction: forbidding mourning”, Sonnet XIV (Holy sonnet), “The Flea”

Herbert:               “The Collar”

Marvell:               “ To his Coy Mistress”

Jonson:               “drink to Me Only with Thine Eyes”, “Come, my Celia”

Herrick:               “To the Virgins, to make much of time”

Lovelace:               “To Althea from Prison”

MAIN THEMES AND MOTIFS:

Donne: “A Valediction: forbidding mourning”,

I speaker is a lover who must leave. He uses metaphors and comparisons to convince the woman that the parting won’t destroy their love. Their love does not depend on physical presence.   Parting at 1st is compared to death à image of dying person.  We accept death -à lovers should do the same accept their separation

Next stanza indicates that love should be private and good. .

                    “The Flea”

·         The I speaker argues that loss of innocence doesn’t constitute a loss of honour.

·         The Flea is based on conceit of a flea à  Blood of lovers is mixed in the body of the flea and in this way they become one à the flea becomes their marriage.

·         The flea is not only the marriage bed but also a temple à  (people go there for sacrament of marriage) so she is sacred. Killing her is sacrilege.

·         The description of swelling insect with ‘one blood made of two suggests pregnancy à the flea is a possibility of new life.

·         if the lady will kill the flea à  she will kill the flea, their love and the unborn child,

·         when she actually does it  nothing happens à there are no consequences of the murder

·         the I speaker suggests that going to bed with him will also have no consequences à in this way the lover try to seduce the woman. ;-))))

Herbert: “The Collar”

·         The I speaker wants to change his situation,

·         he struggles  but obtains no honesty, his life is limited

·         He may leave the cage and do what he wants but in fact he can’t do whatever he wished.

·         collar à a priest collar, dog’s collar and the collar of a shirt;

·         collar is symbol of limitation bond

·         if he is a priest the collar symbolizes the bond between him and the God

·         The collar is a remember of the bond between them.(god – I speaker)

·         The poem starts with the rebellion ends with  recopncilation and acceptance

·         There are images connected with frustration and disappointment

·         In the last part God addresses The I speaker as a child à The I speaker is a God’s child which suggests limitation

·         My Lord à suggests acceptance of the bond, imperfection.

·         The I speaker sees life as limited

·         The I speaker may leave but he doesn’t

·         When god calls the I speaker ‘childe’ he excuses his rebellion, accepts it because  he is in a  process  of becoming of who he should be – we don’t demand from the children as much as from adults.

Marvell: “To his Coy Mistress

·         In the 1st stanza the I speaker addresses his lady

·         T he I speaks says that if they had enough time, she would be more shy and that would be no crime, he would spend more time wooing her, but he won’t because of the lack of time.

·         He would spend years praising her beauty and she could refuse

·         He counts time in terms of thousand years

·         In next stanza we have contradiction of the imaginary time. Time passes and brings death

·         The I speaker can hear the passing time

·         worms eating dead body à we die and it bring changes

·         If she will die there will be no difference if she is a virgin or not àewerybody will be eaten by worms

·         Memento mori à cruel time passing, everything changes with the passing time.

·         It is a seduction poem – to convince the lady that they should became lovers

·         seize the day& memento mori

Jonson: “drink to Me Only with Thine Eyes”

·         eyes are associated with soul, they reflect soul: This suggest union of souls rather than desire.

·         the addressee of the poem is presented as sb divine à she’s idealized

·         the loveà spiritual not physical

·         presenting love in religious terms ( Romeo and Juliet love as religious imagery)

·         there is no talk about sex

·         very gentle words are used

Jonson:  “Come, my Celia”

·         the idea presented there is that we should seize the day, seize the opportunity when it comes your way

·         The I speaker tries to convince the lady to make the love with him

·         there is nothing wrong with having sex with sb who is not your husband

·         Attraction of forbidden fruit

·         the idea of passing time is used with controversial lg and Images

·         The I-speaker uses lapidary style à go straight to the point

·         not elaborate lg

METAPHISICAL CONCEIT:

·         Conceit – a metaphor, combination of elements from very distinct spheres of interest e. g. love and mathematics, - lovers compared to twin compasses.

·         Conceit - a clever and fanciful metaphor, usually expressed through elaborate and extended comparison that presents a striking parallel between two seemingly dissimilar things - for example, elaborately comparing a beautiful woman to an object like a garden or the sun. The conceit figures prominently in the works of John Donne, Emily Dickinson and T. S. Eliot.

PARADOX:

I think it concerns mainly J. Donne and his Sonnet XIV

Batter my heart, three-person'd God ; for you
As yet but knock ; breathe, shine, and seek to mend ;
That I may rise, and stand, o'erthrow me, and bend
Your force, to break, blow, burn, and make me new.
I, like an usurp'd town, to another due,
Labour to admit you, but O, to no end.
Reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend,
But is captived, and proves weak or untrue.
Yet dearly I love you, and would be loved fain,
But am betroth'd unto your enemy ;
Divorce me, untie, or break that knot again,
Take me to you, imprison me, for I,
Except you enthrall me, never shall be free,
Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.

The last line and the word “ ravish” which means either “to delight” and “to rape”

Sonnet XIV (Holy sonnet),

·         Donne was a priest à the author of famous sermons. This sonnet is religious poem – which is unusual theme for sonnets.

·         Three person’d god’: God the father, God the Son, God the Holly Spirit is presented in the sonnet,

·         Summing up paradox:

o        what is needed to rise is to be overthrown

o        what is needed to stand is to be bent

o        So the I speaker needs to be destroyed in order to be renewed