Metaphysical Poetry

[sol]

I asked Howard this question today, and he suggested I ask it here.

Here is what I said and his response:


Hello, sir,

After reading some metaphysical poetry in English, I was very confused. It seems to lack much imagery, or maybe I just do not see it. It also seems meant to be cryptic only for the sake of being cryptic. So what's the deal with metaphysical poetry like that of John Donne?

Thank you,
sol

* * *

Re: Question: Metaphysical Poetry
I'm not quite sure how you're defining imagery, but Donne's poetry is filled with it, as in this one, the comparison of the lovers' souls to the two legs of a compass (the kind used for drawing circles), an image which makes graphically clear in visual terms the emotional relationship which exists between the two:

If they be two, they are two so
As stiffe twin compasses are two,
Thy soule the fixt foot, makes no show
To move, but doth, if th' other doe.

And though it in the center sit,
Yet when the other far doth rome,
It leanes, andhearkens after it,
And growes erect, as that comes home.

Such wilt thou be to mee, who must
Like th' other foot, obliquely runne;
Thy firmnes drawes my circle just,
And makes me end, where I begunne.

Much metaphysical imagery is drawn from the philosophy, theology, and science of the day (the early 17th century).


I'd suggest posting this question to the "Voyage of Discovery" Forum.

Howard


I understand the image, but I suppose I don't really get much of a picture from it. I know it's a conceit and that conceits are generally farfetched to begin with, but it seems so silly to me that the picture I might normally gain from imagery seems lost in the conceit's confusion.

Thank you for your help, Howard, and I'd like to thank everyone else in advance for their aid as well.

sol

[Harry Rutherford]

John Carey makes a similar point in John Donne: Life, Mind and Art (http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0571143377/qid=1040603259/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_2_1/202-2521251-2612654), in which he suggests, in passing, that while Donne doesn't have a very visual imagination, he does have a ?mechanistic? ?physical? imagination, so his poems are full of 'images' that are not so much pictures as structures.

I don't know if that made much sense, but I might look up the actual book tomorrow, to see if he gives any good examples.

Harry

[sol]

Thank you, Harry.

I do understanding what you are saying. That makes sense, but maybe this is why I don't really care for Donne, but I suppose I still respect what he has done in literature despite my own personal feelings.

I never really thought imagery could be so rigid, but if it works . . .

sol

[Urizen]

I'm with you, Sol. I don't care much for Donne either, except for maybe a half a dozen poems, and bits and piece of others. I try him every year or so. I sit down, committed to the idea that I must learn to appreciate Donne. I wind up coming away with the same feelings. He has some really strong ideas, but writes in a style which I find almost unreadable.

Donne is almost universally thought of as being one of the greatest English Poets. But there were a few notable dissenters. There is a page of blurbs and snippets of criticism on Donne somewhere which I once had in favorites, but have since deleted. If I can find it again I'll post a link.




Bill

[Dark Barde]

If I'm not mistaken, George Herbert is also a metaphysical poet, so perhaps you want to give him a try if you don't like Donne. That said, here is a bit of a Donne poem that I always thought was great in terms of both imagery and syntax.

The Ecstasy

Where, like a pillow on a bed,
A pregnant bank swelled up to rest
The violet's reclining head,
Sat we two, one another's best.
Our hands were firmly cemented
With a fast balm, which thence did spring.
Our eye-beams twisted, and did thread
Our eyes upon one double string;
So to'intergraft our hands, as yet
Was all the means to make us one,
And pictures in our eyes to get
Was all our propagation.


This sets up the scene with some interesting inverted syntax which draws the attention to the "bed" image, which is of course meant to be sexually suggestive, as is the modifier "pregnant" in describing the "bank." The next images, of hands "cemented" (accent on the first syllable) by sweat and eyes threaded together by "eye-beams," begin to describe the physical state of the "ecstasy" which is discussed in the rest of the poem. The last four lines refer to those two images, but provide us with a bit of extra information about the scene and the characters, namely that they are definitely not having sex (yet).

That's just the beginning of a 76-line poem, but I think that at least in this case, there is certainly some strong concrete imagery. I would also proffer his 14th Holy Sonnet as an example of a well-executed grouping of extended metaphors.

Overall, I have to say that I dislike metaphysical poetry more for its content than its execution. Just felt like attempting to defend Donne a bit. I'm sure you won't hurt his feelings by saying you don't like his poetry.