John Donne as a Metaphysical Poet

Topic:  John Donne as a Metaphysical Poet

Paper Name: The Renaissance Literature

Paper: 1

Name: Patel Kinjal

Class: M.A part 1, SEM 1

Roll No: 19

Year: 2013                                           

Submitted to: Department Of English M.K Bhavnagar University

Guidance by: Dr. Dilip Barad

John Donne as a metaphysical poet

Introduction

John Donne is the poet who challenged and broke the supremacy the Petrarch tradition. Donne is the greatest of metaphysical poets not in the scene that his poetry is an embodiment of a certain profound philosophy of life, but in the scene in which the word is how used commonly. The word

‘Metaphysical describes the peculiar qualities of the poetry which is fantastic in many different ways.’

In this hand English poetry became less ‘Italianate’, more sincere, more condensed and full with thought and feeling.

                             

                             Donne’s ‘Love’ poetry is a very complex phenomenon. It is neither the record of a passion which is not ideal, nor conventional  neither recollected in tranquility nor a pure product of literary fashion, but love as an actual immediate experience in its entire mood, gay and angry, scornful and rapturous with joy, touched with tenderness and darkened with sorrow.

                            The first definitive use of the term ‘Metaphysical’ to describe these poets was made by Dryden in 1693 in reference to John Donne and Cowley. Donne affects the metaphysics, not only in his satire, but in his amorous verses, where nature only should reign and effects the minds of the fair sex with nice speculations of philosophy.  

The Elizabethan Tradition : Its Decadence     

By the end of the 16^th and beginning of the 17^th century the great Elizabethan poetry has exhausted itself. Signs of decadence were visible everywhere. There were generally followed- the Spenserian  the Arcadian and the Petrarch.  Everything was convention and artificial, there was little that was original or remarkable. There was much sugared melody the romantic extravagance, but intellectual emptiness.

Revolt against It 

The readers of this revolt were Ben Jonson and John Donne. Both of them were forceful personalities who attracted staunch followers and found schools. The first, Ben Jonson-the founder of the classical school which reached its fall flowering in the poetry of Dryden and pope –was prim    a dramatist. As a poet he profoundly influenced the Caroline lyricists. The other is John Donne – his poetry is remarkable for its concentrated passion. His poetry is marked with a tone of realism, even cynicism.  

The Metaphysical school      

Literally ‘Meta’ means “beyond” and “physics” means “physical nature”. It was Dryden who first used the word, “Metaphysical” in connection with Donne’s poetry and wrote, Donne affects the “Metaphysics” and Dr. Jonson confirmed the judgment of Dryden. Ever since the word, Metaphysical has been used for Donne and his followers.  Donne is metaphysical not only by virtue of his scholastic but by his deep reflective interest in the experience of which his poetry is the expression. The new psychological curiosity with which he writes of love and religion.

Metaphysical imagery and conceit

In other words, Donne’s poetry may be called ‘Metaphysical’ only –in as far as its technique or style is concerned. It is heavily over – loaded with conceits which may be defined as the excessive use of over- elaborated similes and metaphors. The peculiarity of the metaphysical lies in the fact the…

1)    They use figures of speech excessively.

2)    Their similes and metaphors are far-fetched and are often drawn from unfamiliar sources.

3)    Their figures are elaborated to the farthest limit.

4)    The relationships they perceive are occult. They are not obvious on the face of nature.

5)    Their images are logical and intellectual rather than sensuous or emotional.

Difficulty and obscurity – condensation

Donne and the other metaphysical poet use words which call the mind into play, rather than those which speak to the senses or,

“Evoke an emotional response thought memory.”

                 

The difficult of the readers is further increased by the extreme condensation and density of Donne’s poetry.

Fantasies conceits and Hyperbole

The fantasist nature of the ‘Meta physician Conceits’ and poetry would mourning true lovers, now parted, are likened to the legs of a compass. The image is elaborated and length. The lovers are still spiritually one, just as the head of the compass is one even when the legs are apart. At other times, he uses equally extravagant hyperbole  For example he mistakes his beloved to be an angel. For to imagine her less than an angel would be profanity.

Language and versification

Donne’s poetry is poetry of reveit against the worn-out convention of the day. He seeks for originality and newness, and he achieves it in different ways. He seeks it through the use of fetched and fantastic conceits.

A –brupt, colloquial openings: wit

It is for the very reason that he often being poems abruptly as in The Conoisation:

For God’s sake hold your, and let me love, Elsewhere, he begins on a bit ton note, when by the scorner, o murderess, I am lead.

              

        And then proceeds to tell her what terrors his ghost would cads to her after his death. Donne’s witticism, too, has a similar purpose, i.e, to startle surprise.

Unification of sensibility

In Donne’s poetry, there is always an intellectual analysis of emotion. Every lyric arises out of emotions situation and the emotions concerned is analyzed threadbare. Like a clever lawyer Donne gives arguments often argument in support of his point of view. This in validity forbidding mourning he proves that true lovers need not mourn at the time of party     in the canonization he establishes that lovers and saint of love and in the Blossom he argues against the Petrarch love tradition.

Summary of chief characteristics  

The chief characteristic of Donne’s metaphysical poetry may be summarized as follows.

1. It is complexes and difficult. Most varied concepts are brought together.

2. It is intellectual in tone. There is an analysis of the most delicate shades of psychological experience.

3. There is a fusion of emotion and intellect, as there is intellectual analysis of emotions personally, experienced by the poet.

4. It is full of conceits which are learned, intellectual and over elaborated.

5. It is argumentative. There is Cubic evolution of thought as Donne advanced arguments, after arguments to prove his points. He is often like a lawyer choosing the fittest arguments for the case.

6. Originality is archived by the use of a new vocabulary drawn from the world of trade and commerce, the art and the science.

7. In order to arrest attention of tone a poem begins abruptly and colloquially, and unusual rethems are used unusual compound words are also used for the same purpose.

8.It is often dramatic in form. The blossom is the form of a dialogue between the poet and his heart which is treated as a separate entity, has been well said his poetry presents a drama of ideas. His lyrics are dramatic. A poem of Donne’s is a piece of drama.

Some of metaphysical poetries of John Donne.

1.  The Dream 2.  Ecstasy 3.  Death, Be Not Proud 4.  The Flea 5.  Sweetest Love 6.  The sunrises

The Dream

This is the good example of one of Donne’s more erotic poem. It is a playful in the scenes we have a sort of verbal foreplay situation:-

Playful, but with a serious desire for sexual union afterwards. The poem plays with ideas of truth, sexual desires and dreams. He is clearly having an erotic dream when his lady friend wakes him for some reasons.

Like an angle.

Angles appear in dreams:-are dressed in white, as she would be I her nightgown, and we call our loved ones angles, but angles have their limits. They cannot read people’s thoughts, she however must have read his dream, walking him before it reached its climax prevent. ‘Excess of joy’ waling him instead. So she must be human after all angles.

The ultimate job is of course we don’t know if this real situation or just a fantasy one for the purposes writing a poem. This is thus an excellent example of a play of literature, its joyfulness where the trust dream literature a real life teases one another.

The Ecstasy.

Donne’s idea of ecstasy drawn from Plotinus. Plotinus and Egyptian by birth live and studied under ammonias in Alexander at a time when it was the center of the intellectual world, sitting with speculation and school, teachers of all kinds platonic and oriental, Egyptian and Christian. Donne, we may say share in common with Plotinus the metaphysical experience and the didactically analysis. We may got from his Enneads which explains the source of ecstasy.

“ A soul that knows itself must know that the proper direction of energy is not outward in a straight line, but round a center which is within it”

The soul of man is threefold.

1.    The animal or sensual soul closely bound to the body.

2.    The logical reasoning human soul.

3.    The intellectual soul, which is one with the Divine Mind. All these ideas are in the background of Donne’s mind in the poem

Death Be not proud

“Death be not proud” presents an argument against the power of death. Addressing Death as a person, the speaker warns Death against pride in his power. Such power is merely an illusion, and the end Death thinks it brings to men and women is in fact a rest from world wariness for its alleged “victims”. The poet criticizes Death as a slave to other forces: fate, chance, kings and desperate men. Death is not in control, for a variety of other powers exercise their volition in taking lives. Even in the rest is brings, Death is inferior to drags. Finally, the speaker predicts the end of Death itself, stating “Death, thou shalt die”

The Flea

The speaker uses the occasion of a flea hopping from himself to a young lady as an excuse to argue that the to of them should make love. Since in the flea their blood is mixed together, he says that they have already been made as one in the body of the flea. Besides, the flea pricked her and got what it wanted without having to woo her. The flea’s bite and mingling of their bloods is not considered a sin, so why should their love- making?

                      In the second stanza the speaker attempts to prevent the woman formed killing the flea. He argues that since the flea contains the “life” of both herself and the speaker, she would be guilty both of suicide and a triple homicide in killing it.

                      The woman in question is obviously not convinced, for in the third stanza she has killed the flea with a fingernail. The speaker than turns this around to point out that, although the flea which contained portions of their lives is dead, neither of them is weaker for it. If this commingling of bodily fluids can leave no lasting effect, then why does she hesitate to join with him in sexual intimacy? After all, her honor will be equally undiminished.

Sweetest Love I do not go  

‘Sweetest Love I do not go’ is a fine example of balance between intense love and longing for the beloved. The first thing that appeals is the sincerity in love that Donne displays towards the beloved. The plot speaks about the parting which is much against his wishes. Although it is known that death will separate them but he does not wish to accept that truth at least in the first stanza. Here he wants to experience false death only to get used to the idea of life without her. No one but she is capable of being fit to be his love in life. Though she does not like the idea of separation, he tries to persuade her and accepts the reality. He compares himself with sun which rises every day, does the routine job and goes away. The lover expresses the idea that his love is speedier than the movement of sun and also, brighter more forceful. In next, two stanzas he sincerely wishes that she should avoid mourning his death because it is a very negative idea. Her sighs disturbs his soul and leave him agitated as if even thinking might, bring about the expected result. Even if death were to come between them, it is just a kind of sleep and when their souls awaken they would once again be united in after life. The two lovers are so bound to each other that they do not exist as separate entities.

                    An exquisite song, this love poetry by Donne belongs to conjugal love. It is considered less artificial, pure, and simple though intense it has feeling of those lyrics which in all probabilities were addressed to his wife.

The Sun Rising

‘The sun rising’ has very colloquial opening. Donne addresses sun as ‘busy old fool’ sun which is the center of our existence the reason of life on earth such a careless regard. The opining line itself turns the idea upside down. A conventional poetic address would regard sun as love giving, life giving qualities and with reverence. Intending of respecting sun Donne rebukes him and tells him to go away from that place because he peeps through curtains. The sun disturbs lovers, and the first stanza, indicates the range of people on whom the sun should shine and awaken them. In the second stanza, he asks the sun what he thinks about himself. The poet has only to blink and close eyes even for a second or two, means losing sight of his beloved and that is an impossible task. In the third stanza, Donne, a the fact that all the world’s wealth is insignificant in front of her love. Their love is the entire and if the sun has to shine at all, it can shine in and part of the world or even on them. Their love is representative of the entire world hence the lover’s bed can become the center for the sun.

                   The poem consists of Donne’s remarkable wit and conceit. This conceit continually upholds human regard. Intelligence brings about excitement in the witty movement. In spite of being full of wit, conceit and intelligent ideas, the tone of poem is colloquial.

Conclusion

Metaphysical poetry is self consciously difficult, demanding intellectual effort on the part of the reader. It unashamedly alienates the intellectually lazy, assuming a level of understanding on the part of its readership which it flatters as an elite able to understand its wit, Jasper Mayne summed this up in his elegy on Donne:

‘wee are thought wit, When it’s understood’.

Dante had represented love as akin to religion – love for the idealized angelic woman led to awakening of love for God. Petrarch was unable to separate love from the senses- he saw this earthly element as negative, dragging us down. He therefore regretted passion as vain and frivolous. By the end of the 16^th century this idealistic courtly love poetry had become full of literary artifice, laden with cliches  Donne’s poetry explores the human struggle for wholeness and harmony.

Sources: Net and reference book