Metaphysical School of Poetry

The term ‘Metaphysical’ was first used by Samuel Johnson as ridicule

towards some poets of the seventeenth century. It’s highly likely that he
took it from Dryden who had described John Donne as affecting
‘metaphysics’ in his satires and his amorous verses. These poets are
noted for their unnaturalness. Johnson wrote in Lives of the Most
Eminent English Poets in the late 1700s, that a race of writers had
appeared that might be termed as what he called ‘Metaphysical Poets’.
Even though Johnson mentioned these poets in his well famed book,
they didn’t get the recognition they have today until T.S. Eliot in the 20th
century began writing about them and using their peculiar techniques.

One of the most prominent characteristics of this movement was the

spoken quality of the poetry, something that many other writers of that
time did not approve of. Other common features include the use
of colloquial diction, philosophical exploration, new and original
conceits, irony and the relaxed use of meter. Poets whose works have
been categorized as ‘metaphysical’ often seek out the answers to
questions such as, does God exist? Or, does humankind really have free
choice? Or, what is the nature of reality? and other relative questions
that concern the metaphysical reality of this universe.
The Flea by John Donne

‘The Flea’ is one of the most commonly cited examples of metaphysical

poems; it is also one of Donne’s best. The poem makes a familiar
argument in a very original way.

Mark but this flea, and mark in this,

How little that which thou deniest me is;
It sucked me first, and now sucks thee,
And in this flea our two bloods mingled be;

Thou know’st that this cannot be said

A sin, nor shame, nor loss of maidenhead,
Yet this enjoys before it woo,
And pampered swells with one blood made of two,
And this, alas, is more than we would do.

Donne says to a woman to look at the flea and see how small a thing that
she denies him really is, with that its fine for them to get together
because the same flea has fed on his blood first and then hers. They’re
already experiencing their fluids mixing in the flea. She must
acknowledge that this mingling of their blood in the body of the flea is
neither sin, nor shame. But the flea has enjoyed her without any wooing
or courtship and its body is now swelled up with the enjoying of their
respective blood, which now mingles in its body. The body regrets that
such direct enjoyment and consummation is not possible for human
beings. The Flea is a poem that retains character; it has humor, guile,
irony and mystery and often sets modern teeth on edge. Who would
think that such a lowly parasite could become a star of that age?

On a Drop of Dew by Andrew Marvell

In ‘On a Drop of Dew’ by Andrew Marvell, the central idea is that the
human soul comes into this world from heaven and that it is anxious to
go back there as soon as possible.
How it the purple flow’r does slight,
Scarce touching where it lies,
But gazing back upon the skies,
Shines with a mournful light,
Like its own tear,
Because so long divided from the sphere.
Restless it rolls and unsecure,
Trembling lest it grow impure,
Till the warm sun pity its pain,
And to the skies exhale it back again.

The dew-drop is scornful of the crimson flower on which it lies. In fact,

it seems hard to touch that flower. On the contrary, the dew-drop keeps
looking at the sky wistfully and shinning with a melancholy light. In its
sad mood, it sheds a tear, and that tear is the dew-drop itself. The dew-
drop is sad because it has been separated from its heavenly sphere for a
long time. The dew-drop feels unsafe in this world; it rolls restlessly,
and it trembles with fear lest it should become impure by continued
contact with this world. Ultimately the warm sun takes pity on it in its
suffering and helps it to go back to heaven through the process of
evaporation.

To His Coy Mistress by Andrew Marvell

To his Coy Mistress is certainly the magnum opus of Marvell’s

metaphysical poems. It’s very direct and distinct and highly regarded.

And you should, if you please, refuse

Till the conversion of the Jews.
My vegetable love should grow
Vaster than empires, and more slow;
A hundred years should go to praise
Thine eyes and on thy forehead gaze;
Two hundred to adore each breast,
But thirty thousand to the rest;
An age at least to every part,
And the last age should show your heart.
For, Lady, you deserve this state,
Nor would I love at lower rate.

The man begins by explaining, to his lady, how he would go about

worshipping her if he had the time. He turns their love into far more than
the poem can hold by using expressions such as ‘love you ten years
before the Flood’, thus allegorizing it in almost Biblical terms,
‘vegetable love’, which shows how slow and how steady it grows
(hinting, as always, at a huge advancement), and then stating that ‘a
hundred years’ would be spent on praising her: her eyes, her forehead,
two hundred years to worship her breasts, and ‘thirty thousand to the
rest’
Aazib Ahmad

MA (English Literature) Sem I

GI 6530

20 ENM 13