Exploring Metaphysical Poetry: 17th Century England

1. Metaphysical Poets England, in the 17th century (i.e.1600s) (i.e. Late English Renaissance)

2. “metaphysical,” dictionary definition: 1. Philosophy • concerned with abstract thought or subjects, as existence, causality, or truth. • concerned with first principles and ultimate grounds, as being, time, or substance. 2. highly abstract, subtle, or abstruse. “metaphysical,” Ms. Swan’s definition: -contemplating the subjects above with passionate emotion -sometimes also used to mean “supernatural” or “concerned with the heavens”

3. Techniques • rough meter and rough sound • conceits • juxtaposition • Subjects often relate to heaven or to love affairs (or both).

4. Rough Meter and Sound • (Wait for our study of Holy Sonnet 14, “Batter My Heart, Three Person’d God”)

5. Conceit • An extended metaphor that often uses unconventional and slightly shocking imagery. • Refers specifically to the metaphysical poets. • “Our eye-beams twisted, and did thread Our eyes upon one double string. “ (John Donne, “The Ecstacy”)

6. Juxtaposition • “A pretty babe all burning bright    Did in the air appear; Who, scorched with excessive heat,    Such floods of tears did shed, As though His floods should quench His flames,    Which with His tears were bred…”(Robert Southwell, “The Burning Babe”)

7. Major Poets • John Donne (1572–1631) • George Herbert (1593–1633) • Andrew Marvell (1621–1678) • Robert Southwell(c. 1561–1595) • Richard Crashaw (c. 1613–1649) • Thomas Traherne(1636 or 1637 – 1674) • Henry Vaughan (1622–1695)

8. Influences

9. The Baroque Period in Art(late 1500s-early 1700s)

12. Ptolemaic Astronomy

14. Alchemy • Chemistry + magic = win • Turning lead into gold • Finding the elixir of life

17. Shakespeare—Sonnet 18 Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate: Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And summer's lease hath all too short a date: Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;