METAPHYSICAL POETRY

The word ‘metaphysics’ indicates the branch of philosophy dealing with the nature of existence , truth and knowledge.The term Metaphysical shows an approach based on abstract reasoning.’Metaphysical Poets’ is a term that signifies a group of certain 17^th century poets usually Donne , Herbert , Marvell , Vaughan and Traherne.This group cannot be called in any sense a school or movement proper.The poets share common characteristics of ‘wit , inventiveness and a love of elaborate stylistic manoeuvres.’

According to Grierson ,metaphysical poetry , in the full sense of the term , is a poetry which like Dante’s Divine Comedy and Goethe’s Faust “ has been inspired by a philosophical conception of the universe and of the role assigned to the human spirit in the great drama of existence.”

I t arises when the physical world loses its stability , and the people lose faith in the orthodox patterns of thought and belief.At such times sensitive poets turn their attention inwards, and through self analysis aim at better understanding of themselves , their situation in the world , and their relation to a philosophic or idealised “ other world .“

The most important characteristics of the metaphysicals is their possession of , or striving after , what T.S. Eliot calls “ undissociated sensibility “ which Milton was to “split” later.The metaphysicals are “ constantly amalgamating disparate experiences “ and forming new wholes out of materials so diverse as ‘reading Spinoz ‘ falling in love and smelling the dinner cooking.”

Donne has the knack of presenting together different objects which have between them a quite remote though undeniable similarity.He connects the abstract with the commonplace and sometimes during moments of the most serious meditation breaks into a note of sardonic humour.

In style and versification Donne and his followers reacted against the cloying sweetness and harmony of the school of Spenser.The metaphysicals deliberately avoided conventional poetic expressions as they had lost their meaning through overuse.The metaphysicals employed very “prosaic” words as if they were scientists or shopkeepers. The result is that their work we often stumble against ragged and unpoetic words we seldom expect in serious poetry.

The metaphysical poets given to the English language its best religious poetry. The moods of incisive introspection and mysticism could best be expressed not through commonplace , conventional poetic images and language but unconventional and bold imagery which would jolt the mind and spirit of the reader into an intimate rapport with the mood of the poet. Herbert , Donne , Vaughan , Crashaw , and Traherne are the most important among the religious English poets of all ages.

In the field of love poetry , too, the contribution of the metaphysicals is considerable and quite important from the historical point of view. Donne started a vein of highly realistic , frankly sensual , and sometimes downright cynical , amatory verse.

The intellectualism of the metaphysical poetry and the compositeness of its imagery , and even the crabbed nature of its style , secured for it a continuous stream of readers from generation to generation.