Metaphysical Poetry - John Donne

JOHN DONNE – METAPHYSICAL POETRY

Introduction

         Inspired by philosophical conception of the universe

·         Donne – a revolutionary poet

Inspiration

·      From love poetry

·      Religious poetry

·      Donne’s inspiration was the middle age love poetry in which the lover was his beloved in metaphysical poetry but Donne’s style is different, he has a cynical contempt for his beloved/woman.

·      The poem “Go and Catch the Morning Star”, “A Valediction” & “Forbidding Mourning”.

Peculiarities of Poetry

Conceits

To bring the most widely dissimilar thing togetherValediction forbidding MourningCompasses (Compass), Almost every poem have conceits

Concentration/ Argumentation

Concentration and argumentation the basic feature of his poetry

·         In all of his poems, he remains stick to one idea and prove it argumentatively

Learning and Art

·         Learning and knowledge is a requirement of conceits, Myths, astrology, geography, medicine etc.

Brevity/ Epigrammatic Style

·         Geographical globe  drop of tear  deluge

Contrast

·         Power effect is produced by the sudden contrast of association of bright hair and bone.

Shift to Spiritual Form

·         His sudden flight from the material to spiritual

Unified Sensibility

·         The mixture of thought and feeling is called unified, “The Good Morrow”

Obscurity

·         Conceits and intellectualism give readers obscurity and complexity , “Air and Angles”

Colloquial Language

·         For God’s sake

·         Busie old fool

·         Unruly son

Diction

·         Anti Elizabethan

·         Prosaic words

·         Blunt and jerky

·         Learning fused

·         Scientific

·         Mathematical

Criticism

Conclusion