John Donne’s Metaphysical Poetry: An Introduction
John Donne’s Metaphysical Poetry: An Introduction
Seventeenth Century Poetry: An Introduction
Intimate connections between politics and religion:
- The poets were engaged and stimulated by the period’s political antagonism and diversity of Christian beliefs.
Intellectualization of poetry:
- Poetry became something out of the mind; the intellectual tone of poetry was more important than the emotional one.
Metaphysical Poetry
- It was Dr. Johnson who gave metaphysical poetry its critical meaning. “Metaphysical poets were men of learning and to show learning was their whole endeavour”. Synonyms of metaphysical = spiritual, abstract, supernatural. The term metaphysical could be misleading due to its abstract meaning.
- For Wranke Metaphysical poetry is distinguished by a radical use of conceited imagery and a preoccupation with themes of transcendence, having an intellectual emphasis.
- It is not just an abstract or philosophical poetry as it comes out of a personal experience and reflects existential preoccupations. The poet also thinks about death or the transitory time.
It is characterized by:
- Concentration and condensation
- Unified sensibility (T.S. Eliot). A capacity of unifying thought and emotion. A capacity for forging unlike images or experiences into new wholes.
- Contrastive and analytical habit.
- The use of metaphorical language. The conceit: “A combination of dissimilar images, or discovery of occult resemblances in things apparently unlike” (Dr. Johnson). Oxymoron: a condensed antithesis in which two words – most frequently and adjective and a noun – are made to oppose to each other: “Parting is such a sweet sorrow” (Shakespeare).
John Donne’s Biographical Profile
The historical and cultural context: Disintegration of medieval thought and the uncertainties about the new science.
Contradictory life and pluridimensional experience:
- Brought up in a Roman Catholic family but later he became an Anglican minister in 1615 and Dean of St. Paul in 1621.
- He mingled wide reading with a dissolute life.
- He had a runaway marriage with Ann More, the niece of his patron, whom he married in December 1601, when he was around thirty years old and she was about sixteen.
- He put himself in a coffin to experience death.
Text: John Donne (Joe Nutt)
He was prepared and educated to become a real Catholic for all his life. So, it is important to think about his psychology. He was born to be a Christian but later he became an Anglican. The second part of the text deals with his marriage to Ann More. This marriage had negative consequences and implications for him, since Ann More’s father did not accept that marriage. Thus, it was a bad time for him. The final point to highlight is that that poetry was not intended for publication; it was something private. What matters to us is the idea of the conflict of his age. We cannot separate Donne from his background, not only the man but also his poetry. Through his poems we can observe a new identity which surprises us. Donne himself reveals his emotions through his poetry. Thus, the best portrait we can get from Donne is what he presents in his poetry.
Introduction to Donne’s Poetry
- He is considered one of the best poets of love in the English language
- It is poetry of contradictions as a consequence of an inner conflict of carnal and spiritual longing. He explores erotic love and human spirituality.
- It has an intellectual tone for the kind of expression of emotions and feelings. This is reflected in his metaphysical poetry, which is characterized by the intellectual dimension.
- As T.S. Eliot puts it: A thought to Donne was an experience, it modified his sensibility. The departing point for Donne’s poetry was the mind.
- Dark and queer imagery. The use of imagery is essential, and that imagery is a dark and queer one. It is not easy to discover those images and metaphors because they are very peculiar.
- Modern poetry about the wearisome condition of humanity. It means that his poetry has an appeal for modern readers. The main point in this sense is that his poetry deals with the condition of humanity and the hard life, the questioning mind about life, death or injustices.
- Relation of his poetry with his personal life. There is a close relation between his life and his poetry; we cannot separate them at all.
Division of Donne’s Poetry (Secular Poetry / Religious and Devotional Poetry)
(1) Secular Poetry:
(1.1) The Satires
- Express an overwhelming sense of degeneracy of English society. In them Donne is looking for something. Perhaps is an unattainable ideal (truth, justice, liberty), perhaps it is something more personal and circumstantial (employment, admiration, safety). Donne’s Satires constitute a drama of self-discovery.
The central message of Satire: It is the problem of mutability. One of the grimmest visions of time in English Renaissance poetry. He suggests that the final form which matter now strives for is only a full materialization in disease. Bestiality and ignorance. Universal decay through perversion and degradation. A rotting process of reality.
(1.2) Erotic Poetry
- He describes love as it is. He tries to capture the most unsettling and mysterious experience of human life, love. Donne adopts a distinctly male perspective. He writes about love as if discovering a new emotional world of desire that has never been explored. For him love is something mysterious. He brings love philosophy down to earth, grounding it in concrete material experience.
(1.2.1) The Elegies
- In contrast to the satires the Elegies are concerned with the private experience of love. He turns to Ovid for inspiration, not to Petrarch because for Ovid the body is essential on love. In Donne’s Elegies as in Ovid, love is very much of the body. It is moved by practicalities not ideals. He mocks courtly love poetry.
(1.2.2) Songs and Sonnets
- A complex exploration of love. Personal fulfillment can only be found in love. Mutual love as an experience of supreme value that opposes the transitory, material world and even transcends it. The two-in-oneness expresses that idea of the mutual experience in love. Only through this mutual love experience we can overcome death. The only way of transcendence beyond death is love: “An in this flea, our two bloods mingled be”. Transcendence of the physical world not by a denial of the body but through its fulfillment. The Canonization (through love the two lovers become saints because love makes them holy persons beyond death). The Good Morrow. Erotic love as one of the most important experiences in life.
(2) Devotional Religious Poetry:
- Relation with God in terms of human love. Introspective poetry. There is tension and conflict in that poetry, since there is uncertainty about salvation for an overwhelming sense of sin and guilt.