Metaphysical Poets

The Metaphysical Poetry Movement took place in the Seventeenth Century. The poets that contributed to this movement were called metaphysical because they wrote poems that dealt with the subject of explaining the fundamental nature of the world and people. They usually incorporated metaphors into their works to make their philosophies easier to understand. Interestingly, very few of these poets were affiliated or even knew of each other. However, together they formed a movement that took poetry from being written for entertainment to being written to express the poet’s beliefs.

The term “metaphysical poet” was first used by British poet and critic, Samuel Johnson in his 1781 biography, “Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets”. He described several British poets from the early Seventeenth Century as “metaphysical poets”, however, at the time, he was probably not using the phrase in its true sense of the word. He was more likely referencing the comment of John Dryden, a colleague of Johnson’s, who said that John Donne, one of the most famous English poets of the century, “affects the metaphysics.” Dryden described Donne as one who emphasized the wonders of nature and all things natural in his works. The word “metaphysical” was subsequently used to describe poets who talked about nature and instinct in their poems.

Most metaphysical poets would often make great use of wit in their writings. They would often use similes and metaphors that were extremely far-fetched and might seem almost trivial on the surface. They would experiment with rhyme scheme and poem structure to try to convey their meaning to the reader better and to add an extra dimension of sense to the poem. Plato served as a major influence for metaphysical poets as he stressed the importance of portraying the beauty of an earthly object as a parallel to an abstract idea or something more important. Several poets, such as John Donne, would use this tactic to describe their relationship with God.

The subject of metaphysical poetry has polarized critics ever since it surfaced to prominence. Samuel Johnson who coined the term “metaphysical poet” criticized their style and felt that they were too particular in their search for novelty and should have been more general. However, the group had a significant impact on Twentieth Century American poet, T. S. Eliot. Eliot was very impressed with their use of extended metaphors and the prominent intellect in their poems. They served as a major influence on him and he helped to resurge their popularity with critics and readers of the day.

Metaphysical poets included John Donne, George Herbert, and Andrew Marvell among others. They wrote about the fundamental nature of all things and used a great deal of intellect in their writings.

 

John Milton

John Milton was a British poet who today is widely regarded as one of the greatest writers in the English language of all time. He wrote many poems that covered a wide range of topics from his personal beliefs to the political issues of his time. However, his most famous work by far is the epic poem Paradise Lost. He achieved great success in his lifetime and his works are still widely read today.

John Milton was born on December 9, 1608 to John Milton Senior and Sarah Jeffrey. Milton was a bright and talented young man from his very young days. He graduated from Cambridge University in 1629 with the goal of becoming an Anglican priest. However, after receiving his Master’s Degree, Milton spent a total of six years simply studying in an attempt to teach himself everything that he could possibly learn. During this period, Milton would frequently write poetry as a way to test himself on what he was learning. After these six years were over, he embarked on a year-long tour of France and Italy that also benefited his education by giving him different perspectives on artistic and religious traditions.

Milton returned home to England in the midst of the Bishops’ Wars. During this time, he had many poems published that attacked episcopacy. One of his more notable targets was the Archbishop of Canterbury, William Laud, the leader of the High-church party of the Church of England. In 1643, Milton got married to Mary Powell, a girl nineteen years younger than him. They had a very stressful marriage and she left him and did not return until three years later. During this time, Milton wrote several pamphlets arguing for the legality and morality of divorce. These pamphlets were not taken well by censors which led Milton to writing pamphlets that criticized censorship.

It took Milton a long time for his poetry to published under his own name. His poems were not credited to him until the release of the collection 1645 Poems. However, it was not until his major work, Paradise Lost was published that he received significant attention. Milton’s magnum opus, Paradise Lost reflects both his despair at the failure of the Revolution and at the same time, his optimistic attitude toward human potential. Paradise Lost was the work that affirmed Milton to be a master epic poet who was on the same level of genius as Shakespeare.

John Milton died on November 8, 1674 due to kidney failure. Despite not finding much success until his later life, he is widely regarded to be one of the best poets of all time.

Holy Sonnet Number Seven

The Holy Sonnets were a series of nineteen poems that John Donne wrote during his lifetime but were not published until after his death. However, since they have been published, they have become some of his most famous works and are widely anthologized. Today, I was fortunate enough to read the seventh of these sonnets and I can see why they are as acclaimed as they are.

The Seventh Holy Sonnet by John Donne is an excellent example of religious works that he would write in his later life. After becoming a Royal Chaplain, he would often write poems that dealt with religious themes. In this sonnet, Donne describes the attempts of a sinner to atone. He prays to God and asks him to forgive him for everything that he has done. He does not consider himself worthy to ask for God’s forgiveness but tries to anyway. This is effective because in the first part of the poem, he describes angels who are perfect and provides a contrast to him, a sinning human.

I found the first part of the Sonnet to be very powerful due to the imagery that Donne uses when describing the immortality of the angels. He describes them as being “numberless infinities of souls” that have lived through everything and will never experience death. The angels will always be there to serve God and are the ideal servants. I felt that this section of the poem was very moving although it did portray angels as they are usually portrayed in fictional works. Donne helps the reader to see the angels and to be in awe of them but does not offer any new insight.

The second part of John Donne’s Second Holy Sonnet offers a stark contrast to the first half. In this section, Donne speaks in the voice of a sinner who is trying to communicate with God. He wishes to atone for his sins but at the same time does feel worthy to do so. I found this part to be stronger than the other section. Donne emphasizes the desperation of the speaker by describing him as speaking from “the lowly ground” and asking God to “teach [him] how to repent.”

I was extremely impressed with John Donne’s Seventh Holy Sonnet. I am looking forward to reading more of his Holy Sonnets and I hope that they are on the same level of excellence as this one.

Sonnets

Sonnets are one of the most popular types of poems today and are often studied in high school literature classes. However, they were virtually unknown in the english speaking world until the 1600s. William Shakespeare made them popular with the 154 that he wrote and his works inspired other poets to try writing sonnets as well. Now the Shakespearian Sonnet is one of the most popular types of poems in the world today.

The first type of sonnet was established by the Italian humorist and writer, Francesco Petrarch. When referring to this type of sonnet today, it is usually called the Petrarchan Sonnet. However, due to the rhyme scheme it was much harder to write a sonnet in this style in English than it was in Italian. Sonnets are traditionally fourteen lines which in a Petrarchan Sonnet are divided into an octet (eight lines) and a sestet (six lines). These poems were almost always poems that dealt with the subject of love. They are today very different from the sonnets that became known as Shakespearian Sonnets.

Sonnets did not become popular in England until the early sixteenth century by Thomas Wyatt. However, it was his contemporary Henry Howard who established a rhyme scheme for the sonnets in English. This new rhyme scheme featured the fourteen lines divided into three quatrains and a couplet to end the poem. Like the original Italian Sonnets, most of the early sonnets in England were basically love poems. William Shakespeare was the man who made the first big step into changing the subject matter of sonnets.

The reason Shakespeare is credited as being the founder of the English language sonnet is not because he invented it but rather because he took the concept and went in his own direction with it. While other sonnets were nothing more than simple love poems, Shakespeare’s sonnets told a story. When studying the sonnets individually, they may seem to be stand alone poems, however, if read in the numbered order, they collectively tell a story. Also, unlike other poets of the time, Shakespeare would not use the couplet at the end to provide an ending to the poem instead he used them to summarize the primary message or theme of the sonnet.

William Shakespeare may not have invented the sonnet or even written the first one in English. However, he did something revolutionary with them that inspired future poets. John Donne used the sonnet to deliver religious messages while John Milton would used them as simple meditative poems. Sonnets are one of the most well-known types of poems today and are often studied in high school.

 

 

The Flea

“The Flea” is a poem written by English poet, John Donne. It is unknown when he wrote it but it was not published until two years after his death in 1633. It is an erotic poem which was one of Donne’s most common types of poem and serves as an extended metaphor for the relationship between a male and female lover. The man is speaking and he is trying to persuade his love to have sexual intercourse with him by comparing it to the mixing of the blood inside the flea that just bit them.

The primary image of the poem, “The Flea” is the flea itself. The flea is very small and insignificant but the speaker makes it appear that the act of the flea taking the pair of lovers’ blood is on the same scale as intercourse. This is mainly done for humor to show how obsessed the speaker is with getting the woman to go to bed with them. The speaker equates blood to life by saying that the flea contains “three lives” by having the blood of the lovers and the flea itself inside of it. His goal is to convince his female partner that sexual intercourse would be acceptable at this state because their blood has already made contact inside the flea. When she kills the flea, the speaker reacts by telling her that she has destroyed the unity of their blood and he realizes that his argument has failed to persuade her.

Religion plays an important role in the poem as well. While the speaker’s only ambition is to convince the woman to have sex with him, he tries to bring religion into it to support his argument. He attempts to reason with the woman that their union of the blood inside the flea is the equivalent of their marriage. He also alludes to the Holy Trinity when he mentions that the flea contains three lives inside of it because of the three different bloods. When she tries to kill the flea, the speaker tells his lady companion that she is committing three mortal sins.She would kill him, herself, and their marriage by crushing the “marriage temple”.

The most important symbol in the poem is sex itself. While the speaker never directly says it, his intention throughout the whole poem is clearly to convince the woman to have intercourse with him. He uses small puns such as describing how the flea “enjoys her blood” to convey that it enjoys not just the taste of the blood but it “enjoys” it in an erotic way that the speaker would like to enjoy. He uses a similar double entendre when he tells her to “yield” to him, he is referring not only to how she should yield to his argument but also so how she should yield to him when they are in bed together. The speaker sees sex as a symbol for the woman’s giving herself to the man to enjoy.

In the poem, “The Flea” by John Donne, the speaker is trying to persuade his female companion to give in and have sexual intercourse with him. He uses a flea that bit both of them to support his argument. He tells her that the union of their blood in the flea is the same thing as their having sex so it would not be immoral. He tries to portray sex as a beautiful way of expressing their love for each other but to him, it is just a way to have fun with her.

 

John Donne

John Donne was an English poet who helped to start the Metaphysical Poetry literary movement. In his poems, he made great use of metaphors and abrupt openings and closings. He also frequently talked about the idea of true religion in his works as he converted from Catholicism to Protestantism later in his life. In addition to writing, he also worked in his life as a priest, a lawyer, and a member of Parliament displaying his many talents.

John Donne was born in London in 1572 on an unknown date in a Roman Catholic family when practice of that religion was prohibited at that time. He was extremely intelligent being accepted into Oxford University at only eleven years old. He studied there for three years before leaving to study at the University of Cambridge. Despite his gift for learning, he was unable to obtain a degree at either school because of his Catholicism. He spent much of his free time traveling, spending almost a whole year traveling across Europe. Despite the inconsistencies and breaks in his education by the time he was 25 he was appointed chief secretary to Sir Thomas Egerton, the Lord Keeper of the Great Seal.

Donne worked for Egerton for four years before he met his niece, Anne More. They fell in love and were married shortly afterwards much to the disaproval of Egerton and More’s father, Lieutenant of the Tower. This marriage had a devastating impact on Donne’s career and resulted in a short stay in prison for him. Donne’s political career was over and he was forced to be a lawyer which he did not have much success with, often having to rely on friends and relatives for money. During this time, his wife gave birth to ten children, three of whom did not live past ten.  Anne More died on August 15, 1617 after failing to give birth. Donne was mentally destroyed by her death and would later write about his grief in some of his works.

Donne wrote many poems, most of which were not published during his lifetime. His early poems focused on English society and criticism of its problems. He was also well known for his erotic imagery in his poetry. His later poems, however, were much darker in tone. His poems began to talk more about death and lost love. Following his conversion to the Anglican Church, he also started to incorporate religion into many of his poems. Towards the end of his life, his poems began to especially focus on death and the fear that it invoked in men and he expressed his belief that all people who die are sent to Heaven.

John Donne had a resurgance in 1621 when he was made Dean of St. Paul’s. He held this respectable position until ten years later when he died. It is believed by many that he died of stomach cancer although this has never been proven. There is a memorial statue of him in St. Paul’s Cathedral and many prominent writers from T.S. Eliot to Ernest Hemingway have cited him as one of their major influences.

 

 

 

Ernest Hemingway

Ernest Hemingway was an American author and journalist who lived from 1899 to 1961. He was known primarily as a novelist with some of his most successful works being “A Farewell to Arms”, “For Whom the Bell Tolls”, “The Old Man and the Sea”, and “The Sun Also Rises”. However, he did write some poetry. In 1979, a collection of his poems titled “88 Poems” was published.

Ernest Hemingway was born on July 21, 1899 in Oak Park, Ilinois to a physician and a musician. He went to Oak Park and River Forrest High School and when he was eighteen, he signed on to be an amulance driver in Italy during World War I. He was severely wounded while serving his country but still managed to carry an Italian soldier to safety. While he was in the hospital, Hemingway fell in love with a nurse named Agnes von Kurowsky. They planned to be married once they returned home but she left him for an Italian officer. This devastated Hemingway and had an impact on his future relationships.

Hemingway returned home to America and spent the next several years working as an editor and journalist at various newspapers throughout North America. He fell in love again this time with Hadley Richardson who was eight years older than him. They married on September 3, 1921 and moved to Paris two months later. While in Paris, Hemingway met several major authors who would later influence him including Gertrude Stein and F. Scott Fitzgerald. It was Fitzgerald who persuaded Hemingway to write his first novel but while writing “The Sun Also Rises”, his marriage to Hadley deteriorated and they divorced in January 1927 and Hemingway got remarried to his mistress Pauline Pfeiffer four months later. The next year, Hemingway and Pfeiffer moved to Kansas City and had their first child Patrick. It was a difficult delivery which gave Hemingway the idea for “A Farewell to Arms”. Later that year, Hemingway learned that his father had committed suicide which devastated him greatly. He remarked “I’ll probably go the same way”.

It was while reporting on the Spanish Civil War that Hemingway met his next wife, Martha Gellhorn. In 1940, he divorced Pfeiffer and married Gellhorn. She helped him with inspiration for his next major novel, “For Whom the Bell Tolls” which was a major success when published. Once again, Hemingway left his wife for a new one, this time, Time Magazine correspondant Mary  Welsh. While living in Venice, he wrote what he and many others consider to be his magnum opus, “The Old Man and the Sea”. It brought him international fame and he won the Pulitzer Prize in 1952. Two years later, he won the coveted Nobel Prize for Literature. Despite having fame, fortune, and a wife he could finally settle down with, Ernest Hemingway shot himself on July 2, 1961. He had become paranoid that he was being closely monitored by the FBI. It was not until after he died that it was discovered that he was correct.

Ernest Hemingway was known primarily as an author and a journalist but he did write some poetry in his lifetime. He wrote a total of eighty eight poems while he was alive. While his books may not have rhymed, he definitely used poetic techniques when writing novels particularly when describing natural beauty. He could paint pictures in the minds of his readers with his words.

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