Metaphysical Poetry

   Paper no.01

Literature of Elizabethan Age and Restoration Period

Smt. S.B.Gardi Department of English, MKBU.

Vachchhalata Joshi

Roll no. 21

Vachchhalatajoshi.14@gmail.com

 

Topic: Metaphysical Poetry

Death be not proud

The Sun Rising

 

 

 

 

What is Metaphysical poetry?

The word ‘Metaphysical Poetry’ is a philosophical concept used in literature where poets portray the things/ideas that are beyond the depiction of physical existence. Etymologically, there is a combination of two words ‘meta’ and ‘physical in the word “metaphysical”.’ The first word “Meta” means beyond. So metaphysical means beyond physical, beyond the normal and ordinary. The meanings are clear here that it deals with the objects/ideas that are beyond the existence of this physical world. Let us look at the origin of the word metaphysical poetry in more detail.

 

Origin of the Word Metaphysical Poetry

 

In the book “Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets (1179-1781)”, the author Samuel Johnson made the first use of the word Metaphysical Poetry. He used the term Metaphysical poets to define a loose group of the poets of 17^th century. The group was not formal and most of the poets put in this category did not know or read each other’s writings. This group’s most prominent poets include John Donne, Andrew Marvell, Abraham Cowley, George Herbert, Henry Vaughan, Thomas Traherne, Richard Crashaw, etc. He noted in his writing that all of these poets had the same style of wit and conceit in their poetry.

 

1. The types of questions metaphysical poetry may make you ask yourself can be:

       Is God out there?

       Is there an afterlife?

 

Definition of Metaphysical Poetry

 

Metaphysical poetry is a genre of poetry that deals with deep and profound subjects like spirituality, religion, etc. It is highly intellectual form of poetry and presents the world to its readers in a different way. It asks questions that science cannot answer. Metaphysical poetry prompts the readers to question their reality and existence. It takes one beyond the physical world and gives new perspectives through its imagery, wit and paradox.

 

Definition in Merriam Webster Dictionary

“Highly intellectualized poetry marked by bold and ingenious conceits, incongruous imagery, complexity and subtlety of thought, frequent use of paradox, and often by deliberate harshness or rigidity of expression”

 

 

Prominent Works in Metaphysical Poetry

Some of the great metaphysical poetry works by metaphysical poets include:

The Flea, The Sun Rising, A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning, Death Be Not Proud, by John Donne, The Collar, The Pulley, by George Herbert, The Retreat, by Henry Vaughan, The Definition of Love, To His Coy Mistress, by Andrew Marvell, etc.

 

Death be not proud

 

John Donne

“Death is ascension to a better library. ”

 

‘Death Be Not Proud” is one of the nineteen Holy Sonnets written by the great metaphysical poet John Donne. As a typical product of Renaissance, Donne wrote a kind of love and religious poetry that shocked its readers into attention with its wit, conceits, farfetched imagery, erudition complexity, colloquial and dramatic styles. Donne’s poetry exemplifies the rare synthesis of reason and passion – a unique quality which is termed as the “Unified Sensibility.”

This poem forcefully demolishes the popular conception of death as a powerful tyrant. The poet presents an unconventional view of death. By addressing the poem to death, Donne says that Death should not feel proud of itself. Death is neither frightening nor powerful although some people have called it so. It has no power over the soul which is immortal. The poet explains his idea through the examples of rest and sleep. He says that rest and sleep are only the pictures of death. We derive pleasure from rest and sleep. So death itself should provide much more pleasure, which is the real thing. Secondly our best men get death very soon. Their bones get rest in their soul gets Freedom. Hence death is not frightening thing.

 Now the poet blasts the popular belief that death is all powerful. Death, in fact is a captive, a slave to the power of fate, chance, cruel kings and bad men. It lives in the bad company of poison, war and sickness. Opium and other narcotics are as effective as death in inducing us to sleep. They, actually, make us sleep better. Death cannot operate at its own level. So death should not feel proud of its powers.

In the end, the poet once again says that death is a kind of sleep, after which the soul will wake up to, live forever and becomes immortal. Then death has no power over us. In other words the soul conquers death; it is the death which itself dies. Thus Donne degrades death and declares happily the impotence of death. It is, in no way, powerful and dreadful. So we should not fear death as it has no power over our souls.

Stanza – 1

Death, be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so;
For those whom thou think’st thou dost overthrow
Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me

The lines quoted above have been taken from the poem ‘Death Bo Not proud; written by John Donne. In this lines, the poet says that Death is neither terrible nor powerful. It has no effect on the soul of a person. So death should not feel proud of it power. These are the opening lines of the sonnet.

The opening of the poem a highly rhetorical and declamatory. Here the poet personifies the death. He says that death should not be feeling proud. Although some people have called it powerful and fearful, yet in actual it is not so. Those people, whom death thinks to have killed, do not actually die. Their souls become immortal. Death does not have the power to kill the poet either. In other words death has no effect and power over the soul. Donne considers death as a poor thing, not a mighty one. By calling death ‘poor’, the poet pities death for its powerlessness and vulnerability.

Stanza – 2

From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be,
Much pleasure; then from thee much more must flow,
And soonest our best men with thee do go,
Rest of their bones, and soul’s delivery.

These lines quoted above have been taken from the poem ‘Death Bo Not Proud; written by John Donne. In this poem the poet says that Death is neither powerful nor fearful. It has no power over the soul. So it should not be proud of itself. The poet equates death to sleep.

In this stanza the poet say that death is not frightening. The poet attempts to provide us with the reasoning for his argument. If we derive pleasure from rest and sleep, which are only copies or pale imitations of death, we must derive even greater pleasure from death itself, which is the real thing. Moreover the poet says that those people die young whom God loves most. Death can kill only the bodies of persons and not the souls. After death the bones get rest and souls become free and immortal. Death actually gives rest to our bodies and release to our soul. It actually gives birth to the soul which earlier was encaged in our body. So death is not fearful and terrible.

Stanza – 3

Thou art slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men,
And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell,
And poppy or charms can make us sleep as well
And better than thy stroke; why swell’st thou then?
One short sleep past, we wake eternally
And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die.

These lines quoted above have been taken from John Donne’s poem ‘Death Be Not Proud. In these lines, the poet says than man should not be fearful of death as it has no power over the soul. Sleep and rest, which are only images and pictures of death, give us a lot of pleasure. These are the closing lines of the sonnet.

In these lines the poet blasts the popular belief that that death is all-powerful. Death, in fact, is a captive or slave to power of fate, chance, cruel kings and bad men. Opium and other narcotics are as effective as death in inducing us to sleep. They, actually, make our sleep better. Death cannot operate at its own level; it has to seek the help of poison, war and sickness to show its efficacy in which’s company death lives. Death is only kind of short sleep, after which the soul will wake up to live forever. Moreover the soul conquers death. It is the death which itself dies because death has no power over the soul of a person. In a way Donne degrades death and declares as happily the impotence of death.

The Sun Rising

 

Introduction to the Poet John Donne

John Donne was an outstanding English poet, born in a Roman Catholic family and later in 1590s converted to Anglicanism.  He was also very famous for his sermons and he also played his role as a Dean of St Paul’s Cathedral in London. He went to Oxford University at the age of 11 where he got education for three years, but took no degree. He studied law at Lincoln’s Inn, London, in 1592, and he was sounded fated for a diplomatic profession.

The writing style of John Donne was different from the other poets of his age. In his poetry there is a sudden flight from material to spiritual sphere, there is individualism, search for learning, it is also full of wit and conceits. His work is a dramatic departure from traditional verse style. Due to his style powerful spiritual Dryden, Johnsons, and Dowden referred John Donne a Metaphysical poet.

 

Introduction to John Donne’s Poem The Sun Rising

 

John Donne’s poem “The Sun Rising” originally its spelling is “The Sunne Rising” is a metaphysical love poem published in 1633. The poem is consist of thirty lines and three stanzas, and full of metaphysical imagery, conceits, and wits of John Donne. This is one of the most beautiful poems in which the speaker wants to change the rules of nature for lovers. He wants complete privacy that even the nature interruption is unbearable for him, in this way he gives more importance to love above nature and other practices of life.

Throughout the poem the speaker is trying his level best to prove his love strong and beautiful among other things in the universe. The speaker develops the idea that his love is powerful and all the universe exist within his love. The speaker personify the sun by insulting words “busy old fool”, because he wants to give more power and strength to his love. The sun also shows passing of time, so the poet is insulting the sun that love is not in yours control. Instead of interrupting lovers go and call the people arguably less important for instant, boys late for school, restful apprentices and farm workers.

 

 

Rhyme Scheme of the Poem the Sun Rising

 

Rhyme Scheme of the poem The Sun Rising follows as:

          Lines one, five, and six are metered in iambic tetramete form.

       Line two metered is metered in diameter form.

      Lines three, four, and seven, eight, nine, and ten are metered in pentameter form.

The rhyme scheme of The Sun Rising in each stanza is as: ABBACDCDEE

 

 

The poem sets in the speaker’s bedroom where the sun interrupts the privacy of the poet and his love, so there is a conflict between the speaker, his lover and the sun. The speaker personifies the sun as a “busy old fool” who has no rule in front of some authority. The sun is initially insulted before being challenged. The sun visits the bed chamber of the poet and his beloved, and that is unmannered and foolish thing to interrupts lovers privacy. At the age of Donne “you” was used in the formal and polite way while “thou and thee” was used for calling someone in informal manner.

 

 

The speaker by calling the sun thou means that the sun is an inferior being. In the third and fourth lines the speaker is asking a rhetoric question, in actual the speaker is not interested to know about his answer. Instead he wants to tell the sun that do not interfere in the affairs of lovers, bother lovers in their bedroom is unruly. Then the speaker says that its not possible for lovers to go according to yours motion, because love is beyond limits and barriers. Go and call the people whose works are not much important, you need to wake up late school boys, hunts man and farmers to go for work. The speaker is further describing powers of love and says that love is beyond time, weather, place and time of year. It never changes, it never affected by the division of clocks.

 

 

In the second stanza of The Sun Rising poet is again asking a rhetoric question, he addresses the sun that what make you that your light is so awesome. All it takes to me is a blink of an eye and can easily fade your shine in the clouds in seconds just by closing his eyes but I don’t want to waste my time by doing that. The speaker doesn’t want to close his eyes because in that way he will also miss the beautiful sight of his beloved. Now go and come and come the next day late with the news of kings and queens, the news about the Indian spices, and all the other beautiful things of the world.

 

At the end of the second stanza, the speaker is of the view that all the riches, beauties, and specialties of the world lie beside him on his bed. It means that the speaker is of the opinion that his beloved is most precious among worldly things and his love is more powerful than all the powers of the world.

 

In the last stanza of the poem the speaker continues parsing his beloved, he says my beloved is the whole world to me. The speaker says that when we are together we find ourselves so rich and happy that we need nothing else. “She is all states, and all prices I” means that they feel very satisfied and happy in one another company. He considers his beloved the whole world in the same way he considers himself a king because he has possession of his beloved. His beloved is more important for him and all the honors and riches of the world is nothing for him. The speaker says that we don’t need wealth or gold, which Alchemist claims to make from junk metal.

 “Thou, sun, art, half as happy as we”

The speaker says that the sun is not happy because he is alone so that he is half happy.  At the end of the last stanza the tone of the speaker becomes companionate, he says that you are now old but it is still your duty to keep the earth warm. He befriends the sun and invites the sun to his bedroom, the speaker says that if you shine over us you will shine over every part of the world because his bedroom is the center.