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NAME :- PIPAVAT GOPI
CLASS :- M.A.
SEM :- 1
Roll NO. :- 31
TOPIC :- THE METAPHYSICAL POETRY
SUBMITTED
TO :- SMT. S.B. GARDI DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH & M.K. BHAVNAGAR UNIVERSITY
YEAR :-
2015-2016
The metaphysical poetry
Introduction :
jhon donne is acknowledged as the master of
metaphysical poetry an is admired for talent and magnificent wit exercised in
his writing.Metaphysical poetry is a special branch of poetry that deals with
padagogic use of intellect and emotion in harmonic manner.The basic praxis of
metaphysical poetry is to highlight the philosophical view of nature and its
ambience concerning human life.Despite criticisms from various comers,Donne and
his other companionsremained busy with their work to concentrate on metaphysycal
poetry to portray the feelings and sentiments of human beings by dint of their
skillful and artful literary accomplishments.this paper is to adress the
outstanding prformance of john donne in the arena of metaphysical poetry and it
endeavours to make a critical assesment of the divers issue allembracing
metaphysical poetry as well as to establish the revence of metaphysical poery
in the literary realm.
Fetures of metapysical
poetry
In
the beginning of 17th century -between 1600and 1635 A school of poet emerged
whose poetry came to be known as the metaphysical poetry with the passing of
the time.It was dr. samuel jhonson a gret neo classicist who made use of this
term In his introduction to the life of abraham cowly.when dr.johnson used this
term "it was in a derogatory sense nagative sense to criticise the poetry
of john donne and his followers.with the passing of time the same term became a
term of appraisal for the poetry of john donne and his follower.
There are certain charecteristics of the metaphysical poetry.the chief
of them are as under:
1. Conscious attempt.
All the metaphysical poets
made a concious attempt to differ from the poerty of former poets.they tried to
differ both in the matter and manner of writing oetry.they were of the opinion
that they would fail to catch the attention of the readers.If they countinue
writing poetry just like the former poets.they wanted to establish.their unique
identity.as poets and so made a conscios attempt to differ from other poets.
2. Display of
scholarship.
All the metaphysical poets -john
donne , rechard crashaw, George herbert, Abraham cowly and others tried to
display their poems.they were university graduates,men of learning and wit.They
made a counscios attempt to reflect their learning the scholarship in their
poems. It was to display their knowledge that tried to differ in the matter and
manner of writting poetry.
3.Far fetched images.
The third remarkable feture
of the metaphysical poetry is their choice of distant images and consists in
the writting of poems.The metaphysical poets did not select images from the
associated fields but,from those fields which have nothing to do with the theme
of their poems.they selected their images from the fields like
engineering,history,biology,geometry and many other fields. the far fetched
images of their poems make it difficult.For readers to undrstand their
poems.and andrew marwel made extensive use of geometrical and agriculture
images in his poems.george herbert, used images from the field of
engineering for his poems john donne
made use of biological images for the writting of his poems. far fetched images
proved to be the best way for all mwetaphysical poets to display their
knowledge and wit.
4.Scholarship and musically.
Dr. johnson has
highligted one remarkable feature of the metaphysical poetry.He mentions that
the metaphysical poetry stood a tried of their finger but not of their ear.the
metaphysicals no doubt proved that scholarship in the writting of that poetry
but they failed in creating in their poetry.there is no presence of rhyme and
rhythem.In their poems as it is to be found in the poems of shakespeare and
sidney or in the poems of edmund spenser the metaphysical poets didnot care so
much for rhme and rhythem as they cared to display scholarship in their poems.
5.opinion of critics.
critics like john
duncan,helen white,samuel johnson,T.s eliot have commented extensivly on the
metaphysical poetry.duncan considesrs the metaphysical poetry as the poetry
made for it class and not mass.helen
white opines that it was the demand of time to write poetry in a diffrent
way.Had they countinued ?writting poetry in same manner,as the former poets,
their poetry would have been rejected.the metaphysicals realised need for a
change in poetry and so they wrote diffrent way.t.s eliot in his essay assess
the school of donne by comenting on each metaphysical poets.
(1)
THE SUNRISING:BY JOHN DONNE
The sunrising by john donny is
gennine evidence of metaphysical poetry.written by donne as the pioneer of this
school.the poem deals with the theme of love of a lover for his beloved.it is
an address of a lover to the rising sun.in which the lover portrays his
beloved.superior to the sun as "busy", "old fool", and
"unruly", simply because it peeps through windows and curtais in to
the bed room of the lover.where he is in the company of with his beloved.
"Busy old fool, unruly sun, why thou thus,
through windows,and throug h
curtains,call on us?"
the lover wants to make it clear
that the season and time of lovers can never be govern by the sun.the lover
instructs the rising sun to go and apply its force to late school children,
worers and employes of the court.lovers do not accept the concept the time
because months ,years,hours are just the rays of time.the lover wants to convey
a message to the sun that lovers have nothing to do with either rising or
setting of a sun.the lover is not ready even to believe that the rays of the
sun care powerful.the lover compares his beloved with all the
kingdom,states,prices, and princesses.The present poem is an attempt of donne
to establish the place of love higher then the place of the sun.the
metaphysical images employed by the poet are" sun", "status",
"princess","india of spices", and so of it is an experiment
of donne that he uses images from the field of politics and nature for the
expression of love.
(2)SONG:SWEETEST LOVE,I DO NOT GO
this poem is also deals with
the theme of love, in which the lover addreses to his beloved.It is a poem
about the lovers emotion,when it is time for him to separate himself from his
beloved on account of his forth coming death.the lover's opinion is that those
who love truly can never be separated even y death.the poem openes with the
lovers clerification that he is going away from her not because he is tired of
her because of a hope that he will be able to find a better person.than his
beloved the only reason why he is going away from her is this death.the lover
accepts his physical death as a joke and fake death.his real death would take
place only if he sops only if he discountinues loving her.that would never
hapen.
men cannot bring back happy
days once those days are over.The lover is not afraid of his going away.he
request he not sigh or to weep.he expresses himself by this lines
"when thou sigh'st,thou
sigh'st not wind,but sigh'st my soul away;
the
lover of this poem believes that her fear may come true and she may die after
his death but it would give them a chance to remain side by side in their grave
so death would give them a chance toremain side by side.
"Are but turn'd aside
to sleep.
they who one anothe keep
Alive,ne'er parted
be.
the present poem is good example of donne's metaphysical poetry.it
employes images like "the sun" "wings","destiny"
and "devining heart" giving a metaphysical touch to this poem.
(3)HOLLY SONNET: X DEATH,BE
NOT PROUD
"...and better than
thy stroke;why swell'st thou then?...'
Jonne donne's holy sonnet
;x deals with the theme of death.the poet in this sonnet challenges authority
of death the poet in this sonnet saying that there is no need for any human
being to be affraid of death.Death is generally considered to be mighty and
dengerous but in reality it neither mighty nor dengerous.death thinks that when
it goes to a person" it throws always that person"but in reality that
person does not die.the poem tells death that it has no capacity even to kill
him.according to the poet,the picture of death is nothing but sleep and
rest.sleep and rest generally give joy to a person.why should then he be afraid
of death?death offers rest to human body.soul is trans ferred to another
body.death is a slave of 'fate','chance','king',and a 'men' who is in
distress'.there are three residing places of death namely 'poison',war,and
sickness.
The present sonnet of donne
conveys a message to mankind how death should be treated withot considering it
mighty or dengerous.
(4)THE FLEA
The flea by john donny is an ideal
example of the metaphysical poetry written by jonny donny. this poem deals with
the theme of love but the image which the poet employes -"the flea"-
is taken from the field of biology.the flea is a small insects which sucks blood
from human body this insect is used here aa a theme for the expression of love.
The poem is adresse by the lover
to his beloved and through this addresse the poet tries to request his love not
to reject his proposal.the lover goes on proposing and every time it is
rejected by lady.the lover mentions that both have became one in the form of
that flea.the flea first sucked his blood then her blood and in this manner
both have became one.the lover tries to convince her saying that whatever is
denied by her has allready happned in that flea.the lovers consideres the
mimiling of their blood as their marrige, more than marriige.he expresses his
feelings by this lines;
"O stay,three lives in one
flea spare,
our marrige bed,and marrige
temple is.
the
lady does not follow his request and kills that flea.making the colour of her
nail purple the lover admits that the flea was guilty because of his guilty
blood.only her portion blood was not guilty.the lady believes that she has not
became weaker even when two blood became one in that flea.the lover of opinion
that if she accepts his love it would bring honour to her.falling love is not
scene or an act of shame.on the conterary it brings honour to person.
the present poem can be
considered can be considered an experment made by john donne because a poet
uses hardly a biologically image to deal with the theme of love.jonny
donny has done that in this poem and he
remains successful.
(5)ELEGY X:THE DREAM
The dream by john donne-X
juxtaposes emotion of love in dream and in reality it is a poem about the
lovers experience of love in a dream which he finds more warm than the
experience of love in reality.it is a poem about comparison of love in a dream
and i reality.the conclusion that the lover arise at is that love in dream is
more pleasing experience.compared to reality.
the poem begin with the lovers
confession that in his dream he loves his beloved more than her love for
herself.there is an image of his belovd inscribed in his heart and he moves
with it as if it were a medal.the lover compares it with a coin.just as the
impression of the kinggives value to a coin,the same way his wife the lover
finds dream the sense of honour does not bother view.the lovers knows that
honour,weakens spirit of a person to his in love.since honour restrains a
person, a person has to restrains his emotion of love.
The lover describes what happens
with him when the dream is over.the joy which he experience in meeting his
beloved in a dream is more fantastical than joy in real meeting.the joy in
dream is convient ,and balance.that is the reason why the lover would like to
meet her.again and again in dream.that dream provides him with escape from
harsh reality and pain of life,the reason is it during sleep that our sense is
locked and it does not bother as.
The lover requests his dream
to stay for some more time because to joy at its best can be can be experience
only in a dream.lover would prefer to be mad but not living life as an
idiot. the present
poem of john donne uses certain far fetched imnages giving it giving it a
metaphysical touch.the image of 'coin' with the impression of king on it,to
describe his heart is the best example of it.john donne through this poem
conveys a message that love in green has
more charming effect that love in a real life.
(6)THE ECSTACY
the
ecstacy by john donne is a poem dealing with the theme of love but idea of love
is raised to the level spirituality in the present poem.the significant message
which the poem passes is that love involves both soul and body love is neither
nearly body,nor nearly sorry when both are, 'tuned' rew love experience.the
poet wants to convey that there is no need to reject body in love because body
is sphere given by god for the residing of soul the poet finds it esential that
people with soul love and bring noble people with soul love and bring noble people
in this world.the higher state of love is when lover loves not only with his
body but also when he involves his soul in his love.this is a guideline to the
young lovers how to achieve a higher level of love not to remain nearly at the
level of god.
CONCLUSION :
Jhon donny is one of the most
genious and versatile english poets.he is admired for his colossalcontributin
in metaphysical poetry.he has added lots of witty approches ful of
satire,passionate feelings,striking conceits etc.john donne is highly appraised
all over the globe for his fantastic intellectual aptitude in descrbing the
varied statesof emotion and action of human beings.
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