Metaphysical Poets: An Equivocal Generation

Mohamed Mahou (c)2010

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Metaphysical poetry is a movement that appeared in the seventeenth century by John Donne and his followers. It was a digression from the main current, characterized by sweet tones and other Elizabethan courtly-love conventions. Indeed, the overriding feature of this movement is its ambiguity, a fact which triggered off criticisms that slowed down and even eclipsed its pace in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. There are two of the major problems in approaching this movement: working out a clear-cut definition and coping with the feeling of unease while reading some “metaphysical” poems for the first time. Hence, the term “strong-lined” poets which is used as a disapprobation by some critics.

It is difficult to define Metaphysical poetry and it is also hard to decide what poets to include in this school. That’s why, some critics, like Helen Gardner, in her book, The Metaphysical Poets (1957), avoided giving any definition of a “Metaphysical” poem because “it does not seem profitable.”In fact, Gardner’s view is not beside the point. Even the term school or movement is difficult to apply to these poets because they were not formally affiliated; most of them did not even know or read each other. In addition, as Gardner has pointed out, none of these poets ever thought of himself as writing something named metaphysical. Another striking point is the fact that the degree of the use of metaphysics differ from one poet to another. Helen Gardner states: “All these poems are metaphysical, but some are more metaphysical than others.”

In his seminal essay, “The Metaphysical Poets” (1921) T.S. Eliot points out that critics are prejudicing the case of these poets by using the adjective” metaphysical”. According to T.S. Eliot, these poets were “a direct and normal development of the precedent age.” Eliot insists on the unity of European sensibility and it is a mistake to consider seventeenth century poets “a distinct school.”

The term “metaphysical” was first used by John Dryden and Samuel Johnson. It was applied to European poets of seventeenth century such as John Donne, George Herbert, Andrew Marvel and Henry Vaughan. Dryden and Johnson disapprove of “the unnaturalness” of these poets. Dryden said of Donne:

He affects the metaphysical, not only in his satires, but in his amorous verses, where nature only should reign; and perplexes the minds of the fair sex with speculations of philosophy, when he should engage their hearts, and entertain them with the softness of love. In this…Mr. Cowley has copied him to a fault”

Patently, metaphysical poets go beyond the physical. They acquired a reputation for originality and intricacy. They investigated the world by rational discussion of its phenomena rather than by emotions and intuition. They came under the influence of the development of sciences and the rise of Protestant teachings. The reader of these poems will stare in bewilderment when noticing the extensive use of paradoxical images, often called “metaphysical conceits.” Added to that is the concentration of meaning which, in fact, “confuses the pleasures of poetry with the pleasures of puzzles.” Thus, huge demands and challenges fall upon the reader to make these poems out. This leads some critics like Samuel Johnson to deduce that these poets aim at showing their learning as their whole endeavour.

What may fitfully assuage the reader’s bewilderment and confusion is the use of ordinary situations and colloquial voices in metaphysical poems. Helen Gardner puts forward: “Dryden praised Donne for expressing deep thoughts in common language. He’s equally remarkable for having extraordinary thoughts in ordinary situations.”In a parallel fashion, T.S.Eliot states that the seventeenth century poets were able to “devour” any kind of experience, be it simple or complex. By way of contrast, Romantic poets, later on, adopted this style, trying to democratize poetry. These poets, like their predecessors, chose incidents of common life and used a language really spoken by people. In his “Preface to Lyrical Ballads” (1802), W. Wordsworth emphasizes that the low and rustic life is “the better soil of passions of the heart.” It would be appropriate to affirm that metaphysical poets used ordinary situations, but with an outstanding difference. Unlike Romantic poets, the poetry of strong lines was mired in ambiguity and hyperbolic abstractions. There was a tendency to use scientific and mechanical tools such as compasses and telescopes in love lyrics, woven strangely in “a passionate paradoxical reasoning.”

Indeed, this brief and intense meditation has leveled harsh criticisms at metaphysical poets. Donne’s celebrated metaphysical images are described by Samuel Johnson as “the most heterogeneous ideas…yoked by violence together.” Alexander Pope in his poem,” The Essay on Criticism”, describes the strong-lined poets as the fools who seek “a critic’s noble name.” Alexander Pope states:

“Some are bewildered in the Maze of schools,

And some made coxcombs Nature meant but fools

In search of wit these lose their common sense

And turn critics in their own defense.”

Even T.S.Eliot, a strong adherent of the movement, found some faults with these poets. He claims that they were too much interested in philosophy and they were engaged in “task of trying to find the verbal equivalent for states of mind and feeling.” Though he has conceded that their work is often intellectually stimulating, Johnson claimed that the metaphysical poets failed to move the affections and to reach the sublime.

As a conclusion, the school of Donne was made for clever and well educated readers. Lazy ones will have to read and reread their poems and will eventually make a little out of them. In fact, the difficulties presented by metaphysical poets or the equivocal generation will be a challenge not only for the readers, but also teachers. The latter will face the problem of finding beauty in a dry soil of, to use Pope’s words, “half-learned witlings.” The use of extensive conceits may kill strong-lined poems like “bodies perish through excess of blood.”

Written by: MAHOU Mohamed

26- 10- 2010

References:

- Alexander Pope, “An Essay on Criticism”

- Helen Gardner, The Metaphysical Poets (1957)

- T.S. Eliot, “The Metaphysical Poets” (1921)

- Norton Anthology