Donne as a metaphysical poet

Introduction: Dryden expressed the view that “Donne affects the

metaphysics” taking his cue from this statement, Dr. Johnson described Donne
and his followers as the metaphysical poets. Ben Johnson followed classical
rules and being a classicist, was a champion of decorum, discipline, symmetry
and regularity, so he was not in favor of the bold liberty taken up by Donne.
But he appreciated Donne as well for revolting against Petrarchan
Conventions. According to Dr. Johnson, the metaphysical poets were men of
learning; the displayed an abundance of wit, if will be defined as a combination
of dissimilar ideas. They ransacked nature and art for illustrations,
comparisons and allusions. Johnson used the word, Metaphysical for Donne’s
poetry in a rather contemptuous sense, even though much of what is said
applies to Donne’s work. The wit of a metaphysical poet is more intellectual
than that of the Elizabethan poets in general. his conceits are psychological,
his lyrics are argumentative but the greatest achievement of a metaphysical
poet is a blend of passion and thought. Intense emotional intellectuality is a
leading quality of a metaphysical verse. In brief, the term, “Metaphysical
Poetry” implies the qualities of complexity, fusion of emotions, outburst of
passions and emotional intellectuality and an embodiment of reflective
elements.
Qualities of Donne (‘s poetry) as a poet: Intellect and wit are the two
prime qualities of a metaphysical poet. The poet interweaves these two
elements with its emotional effects. Donne was a classical representative of
this kind of poetry. He was a man whose instinct compelled him to bring the
whole of experience into his verse. When we speak of Donne as a metaphysical
poet, we generally have in mind the combination of passion and thought which
characterize his work. His conceits are witty, his hyperboles are outrageous
and his paradoxes astonishing. His mixes fact and fancy in an astounding
manner. All these qualities need to be illustrated from his poems. The Good-
Marrow is a poem of passion, but its intellectual quality is less obvious. The
poem proves that the poet and the beloved are passionately in love. Each one is
a world to the other. These lovers can never die because they love each other
with equal intensity. Donne was the first poet who included thought and idea in
poetry side by side as opposed to the Elizabethans. Originality in diction marks
Donne’s poetry. He used scientific, technical as well as colloquial vocabulary.
He rejected the conventional Petrarchan conceits and coined new images. His
vocabulary is rich and diversified. He is the first poet who has delineated
ecstatic joy of fulfilled love in the Sun Rising. We see originality, novelty and
complexity so abundant no where but in Donne’s poetry.
The main aspects of the Metaphysical poetry are: Passionate thinking,
Philosophical concept of the universe and ordinary experiences, obscurity and
learning, unified sensibility, conceits and images, Affectation and Hyperbole,
Diction and versification and excessive intellectualism. All these features of
metaphysical poetry are abundant in Donne’s poetry for which he is labeled as
a metaphysical poet.
Donne is a metaphysical poet in a literal sense too. He speaks of the soul and of
spiritual love. Air and Angles is a metaphysical poem in this sense. In A
Valediction and Forbidding Mourning, the poet speaks of the spiritual love. The
love is so refined that the lovers do not much miss each other’s eyes, lips and
hands which lovers normally seek. In the Relic, they do not even know the
difference of sex. Donne deserves the title, Metaphysical also because of his
obscurity which is sometimes terrible. His concentration, expanded epigrams,
fondness for conceits and striking and subtle wit, combination of passion and
thought, the use of common language and the profundity of thought and
intensity are the qualities that make Donne a metaphysical poet.

Selected Love Poems for Analysis

The Good-morrow:
My face in thine eye, thine in mine appears
Where can we finde two better hemispheres
If our two loves be one, or thou or I
Love so alike, that none doe slacken, none can die

Synopsis: One of the finest poems of Donne explaining the complex nature of
love. Initially, it has an element of fun and sex but later it provides a complete
world to the lovers and this pure love is neither subject to time nor death.
Song:
Goe, and catche a falling star,
Get with child a mandrake roote,

Synopsis: the poet, through a series of images, proves to show that it is

impossible to find a true and faithful woman in the world as it is equally
impossible to produce a child from a mandrake root. Petrarchan and
Elizabethan poets honored woman as the heroine and goddess, but the
metaphysical poets mocked at them. Frailty, thy name is woman was quite
popular in Donne’s time.

The Sun Rising:

I could eclipse and cloud them with a winke,
But that I would not lose her sight so long:
She is all States, and all Princes, I,
Nothing else is.
Love, all alike, no season knows, nor clime,
Nor houres, dayes, monthes, which are the rages of time.

Synopsis: This shows a lover’s vexation against sun-rising. The dawn is

regarded as impertinence between the two lovers. The supremacy of love
surpasses both time and space. I can blow out the sun with a wink but I don’t
want to avert my attention from my lover even for this short duration. My
sweetheart is all the states of the world rolled into one and I am all the princes
of the world rolled into one. There are no states and princes except those
described by me.
Aire and Angels:
Twice or thrice had I loved thee,
Before I knew thy face or name;
So in a voice, so in a shaplesse flame
Angells affect us oft, and worship’d bee

Synopsis: This is a poem of love and has little to do with air and angles. The
poet is fed up with the Platonic idea of love – love as something holy and
spiritual. The poem is an address of the poet to his beloved. I had loved you
twice or thrive in spirit before I saw your face or knew your name. Just as
angels are recognized through their voice or through a ball of fire and then
worshipped in the same way.
The Extasie
But as all severall soules containe ,
Love, these mix souls, doth mixe againe,

Synopsis: It is love that brings two souls together and mixes them into one
while in reality they are two separate human existences. It is a complex and
metaphysical poem dealing with the twin aspects of love physical and spiritual.
What is Extasie? It is a state in which the soul comes out of the body and has
communication with God.
The Relicque
First we lov’d well and faithfully,
Yet knew not what wee lov’d, nor why
Difference of sex no more we knew

Synopsis: We loved totally and faithfully without knowing why we liked each
other. We didn’t regard sex as the object of our love. Our love was pure and
clean like those of angels.