Archive for the ‘Metaphysical Poets’ Category »
When dealing with 17th-century poetry, it may be helpful to classify poets as cavalier or metaphysical poets, as this distinction often appears on the GRE literature. According to The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia:
“The foremost poets of the Jacobean era, Ben Jonson and John Donne, are regarded as the originators of two diverse poetic traditions—the Cavalier and the metaphysical.”
A brief comparison of these authors will give you a pretty good idea of their divergent styles. While Johnson’s poetry is generally light or humorous in style, secular in subject, and often deals with love or sexuality, Donne’s is characterized by subtle argumentations and “metaphysical conceits,” often dealing with the soul or religion. Several metaphysical poets, especially John Donne, were influenced by NeoPlatonism. One of the primary Platonic concepts found in metaphysical poetry is the idea that the perfection of beauty in the beloved acted as a remembrance of perfect beauty in the eternal realm. (See John Donne – A Valediction Forbidden Mourning).
metaphysical poets
George Chapman
John Donne
George Herbert
Andrew Marvell
Saint Robert Southwell
Thomas Traherne
Henry Vaughan
*sometimes considered metaphysical poets:
* Thomas Carew
* Abraham Cowley
* Richard Crashaw
* Edward Herbert
* Richard Leigh
* Richard Lovelace
* Katherine Philips
* Sir John Suckling
* Edward Taylor
* Anne Bradstreet
Cavalier poets:
Ben Jonson
Robert Herrick
Richard Lovelace
Thomas Carew
Sir John Suckling
Andrew Marvell – “To His Coy Mistress”
“To His Coy Mistress” is a favorite on the GRE literature. You should know it inside out, know that it is a metaphysical poem written by the British author Andrew Marvell (1621 – 1678), and be able to compare it to Robert Herrick’s, “To The Virgins, To Make Much Of Time.”
The poem is written in iambic tetrameter, with rhyme scheme AA BB CC etc. The first stanza is ten couplets long, the second six, and the third seven.
Here is an excerpt, from the second stanza:
But at my back I always hear
Time’s wingèd chariot hurrying near;
And yonder all before us lie
Deserts of vast eternity.
Thy beauty shall no more be found,
Nor, in thy marble vault, shall sound
My echoing song: then worms shall try
That long preserved virginity,
And your quaint honour turn to dust,
And into ashes all my lust:
The grave’s a fine and private place,
But none, I think, do there embrace.
Read the full poem here:
Written in In 1611 for his wife Anne More Donne, “A Valediction Forbidden Mourning” is one of Donne’s most famous and eloquent pronouncements on the idea of spiritual love. It is also very likely to appear on the GRE in Literature. The poem is written in 4-line stanzas of iambic tetrameter, with eight syllables (four feet) per line. For more information on this poem, you can check out the following sites:
- Read the full text on
- Read the Sparknotes for
- Visit the online
John Donne – The Flea
The Flea
by John Donne
MARK but this flea, and mark in this,
How little that which thou deniest me is ;
It suck’d 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 pamper’d swells with one blood made of two ;
And this, alas ! is more than we would do.
O stay, three lives in one flea spare,
Where we almost, yea, more than married are.
This flea is you and I, and this
Our marriage bed, and marriage temple is.
Though parents grudge, and you, we’re met,
And cloister’d in these living walls of jet.
Though use make you apt to kill me,
Let not to that self-murder added be,
And sacrilege, three sins in killing three.
Cruel and sudden, hast thou since
Purpled thy nail in blood of innocence?
Wherein could this flea guilty be,
Except in that drop which it suck’d from thee?
Yet thou triumph’st, and say’st that thou
Find’st not thyself nor me the weaker now.
‘Tis true ; then learn how false fears be ;
Just so much honour, when thou yield’st to me,
Will waste, as this flea’s death took life from thee.
John Donne – “The Dream”
THE DREAM.
by John Donne
DEAR love, for nothing less than thee
Would I have broke this happy dream ;
It was a theme
For reason, much too strong for fantasy.
Therefore thou waked’st me wisely; yet
My dream thou brokest not, but continued’st it.
Thou art so true that thoughts of thee suffice
To make dreams truths, and fables histories;
Enter these arms, for since thou thought’st it best,
Not to dream all my dream, let’s act the rest.
As lightning, or a taper’s light,
Thine eyes, and not thy noise waked me;
Yet I thought thee
—For thou lovest truth—an angel, at first sight;
But when I saw thou saw’st my heart,
And knew’st my thoughts beyond an angel’s art,
When thou knew’st what I dreamt, when thou knew’st when
Excess of joy would wake me, and camest then,
I must confess, it could not choose but be
Profane, to think thee any thing but thee.
Coming and staying show’d thee, thee,
But rising makes me doubt, that now
Thou art not thou.
That love is weak where fear’s as strong as he;
‘Tis not all spirit, pure and brave,
If mixture it of fear, shame, honour have;
Perchance as torches, which must ready be,
Men light and put out, so thou deal’st with me;
Thou camest to kindle, go’st to come; then I
Will dream that hope again, but else would die.
John Donne – “Death Be Not Proud”
John Donne
72. “Death be not proud, though some have called thee”
DEATH be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadfull, for, thou art not so,
For, those, whom thou think’st, thou dost overthrow,
Die not, poore death, nor yet canst thou kill me.
From rest and sleepe, which but thy pictures bee, 5
Much pleasure, then from thee, much more must flow,
And soonest our best men with thee doe goe,
Rest of their bones, and soules deliverie.
Thou art slave to Fate, Chance, kings, and desperate men,
And dost with poyson, warre, and sicknesse dwell, 10
And poppie, or charmes can make us sleepe as well,
And better then thy stroake; why swell’st thou then;
One short sleepe past, wee wake eternally,
And death shall be no more; death, thou shalt die.
From Holy Sonnets:
XIV
Batter my heart, three-person’d God ; for you
As yet but knock ; breathe, shine, and seek to mend ;
That I may rise, and stand, o’erthrow me, and bend
Your force, to break, blow, burn, and make me new.
I, like an usurp’d town, to another due,
Labour to admit you, but O, to no end.
Reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend,
But is captived, and proves weak or untrue.
Yet dearly I love you, and would be loved fain,
But am betroth’d unto your enemy ;
Divorce me, untie, or break that knot again,
Take me to you, imprison me, for I,
Except you enthrall me, never shall be free,
Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.
John Donne
John Donne (1572 – 31 March 1631) was an English Jacobean poet, preacher and a major representative of the metaphysical poets of his time.
Despite his great education and poetic talents he lived in poverty for several years, relying heavily on wealthy friends. In 1615 he became an Anglican priest and, in 1621, was appointed the Dean of St Paul’s Cathedral in London. Some scholars believe that Donne’s literary works reflect these trends, with love poetry and satires from his youth and religious sermons during his later years.
GRE Reading List
The metaphysical poets were a loose group of British lyric poets of the 17th century, who shared an interest in metaphysical concerns and a common way of investigating them. The label “metaphysical” was given much later by in his . These poets themselves did not form a school or start a movement; most of them did not even know or read each other. Their style was characterized by wit, subtle arguments, “metaphysical conceits”, and/or an unusual simile or metaphor such as in Andrew Marvell’s comparison of the soul with a drop of dew. Several metaphysical poets, especially John Donne, were influenced by . One of the primary Platonic concepts found in metaphysical poetry is the idea that the perfection of beauty in the beloved acted as a remembrance of perfect beauty in the eternal realm. In a famous definition , the Hungarian Marxist critic, described the school’s common trait of “looking beyond the palpable” and “attempting to erase one’s own image from the mirror in front so that it should reflect the not-now and not-here” as foreshadowing existentialism. Though secular subjects drew them (in particular matter drawn from the new science, from the expanding geographical horizons of the period, and from dialectic) there was also a strong casuistic element to their work, defining their relationship with God.
For the GRE, the primary metaphysical poets you should know are:
John Donne
Andrew Marvell
Richard Lovelace
George Herbert