The Metaphysical love lyric and the Renaissance legacy

Mohamed Mahou  (c)2010

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The course of emotional experiences tends to differ very little from one era to another. More or less, the same attitudes, themes or even locutions, which originated from a previous era, may be used by other poets from another era as the direct expression of feelings and moods of their own generation. A brief survey of the metaphysical love poetry of the seventeenth century and that of the Renaissance, for instance, reveals some striking resemblances. The school of John Donne is, in fact, a continuation of the school of Christopher Marlowe and Thomas Wyatt. That does not, in any way, negate the originality of Metaphysical poets. As G.H.Mair (1969) states: “A poet is a poet first and most of all because he discovers truths that have been known for ages as things that are fresh and new and vital for himself”.¹Far from accusing Metaphysical poetry of being an imitative literary exercise, these poets intelligently use some Renaissance conventions in their love lyrics while adding a personal touch and an element of freshness that set them apart as a distinct group within the poetic tradition of the time. In his seminal essay, T.S. Eliot considers Donne a late Elizabethan, whose “telescoping images” and even feelings are close to that of Webster, Tourneur and Shakespeare². The notion that Elizabethan poetry is immature and different in relation to Donne and his peers is beside the point. Actually, the poetry of the Jacobean age seems to continue the spirit of the Elizabethan glory. Poets like Michael Drayton, Fulke Greville and Campion, to name but a few, exploited the courtly-love lyrics in a way reminiscent of Sir Thomas Wyatt and The Earl of Surry. George Herbert, a key figure in John Donne’s school, used simplicity in his poems similar to the way of a host of Elizabethan poets. Additionally, because he was an attested musician, Herbert wrote many of his lyrics for singing, a habit of the Renaissance period. In short, the Metaphysical poetry is a continuity of Petrarchan sensibility, not a break from it. The present paper is divided into two main sections. The first section is concerned with comparing and contrasting Renaissance love lyrics and Metaphysical love poems. The focus will mainly be on the courtly- love attitudes and some of outstanding features of these poems. The last part is devoted to a comparison of two poems: John Donne’s “The Bait” and Christopher Marlowe’s “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love”. This suggested comparison illustrates the fact that a Metaphysical love lyric is a new poem with some Renaissance traits.

Renaissance Courtly-love Lyrics and Metaphysical Love Poems

1. Similarities

Tottel’s Miscellany is a renowned book of English literature. It is claimed to have initiated lyrical love poetry in the English language. Thanks to Sir Thomas Wyatt and The Earl of Surry, it also initiated the imitation and adaptation of Italian metrical forms. Lyrics, poems originally set to music for performance, are usually the expression of moods and emotions, and they are often couched in the first person. Indeed, the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries are the greatest periods of lyrics writing. Not surprisingly, most love poems of the two periods show obvious parallels in terms of the subject matter and the form.

Following the Italian forms, Renaissance lyrics make use of stanzas. Poets build their poems into two parts, the octave and the sestet. The former is a two -rhymed section of eight lines at the beginning while the sestet consists of a six –line close with three rhymes. Fine love lyrics of Wyatt, Sidney and Marlowe are good examples to illustrate the point. Nevertheless, some poets such as Shakespeare and Spenser have a different approach. They use three stanza poems with a couplet as a conclusion. Similarly, Metaphysical poets, the school of John Donne, try their hands with stanzaic love poems. Some of them are written in the two part form; others follow the Shakespearian tradition. Akin to Elizabethan lyrics, the Metaphysical poets resort to the octave to introduce a problem or to present a situation. The sestet is used to make a comment on the problem or to find a solution. Some of John Donne's poems like “ Thou Hast Made Me”³, George Herbert’s “ Jordan (I)”³ and John Milton’s “ O Nightingale, That On Yon Bloomy Spray” make use of the octave and the sestet. Most of their poems, however, opt for the use of three quatrains and a couplet. Both the Italian rhyme scheme (abab/abab/cd cd cd) and the English one (abab/cdcd/efef gg) are employed by the Metaphysical poets.

Related to the form, both Renaissance and Metaphysical poets use the pentameter, the most common meter in English poetry. It is a line of ten syllables alternately unstressed and stressed. Anthony Easthope (1983) confirms that “there is a solid institutional continuity of the pentameter in England from the Renaissance to at least 1900.”⁴ As a rule, the iambic pentameter distinguishes the proper poetic lyrics from the improper poetic ones. Put broadly, Anthony Easthope affirms that this meter designates a proper way of speaking that is compatible with the bourgeois norms. For Renaissance poets, it is a heritage that should be preserved. For Metaphysical poets, the use of the pentameter is a strategic move, which aims at being part and parcel of tradition as well as being critical of it through inventing different types of its variation. In fact, as Easthope points out, the iambic pentameter becomes a rule that a poet is expected to work within.

Another similarity between Renaissance lyrics and the Metaphysical poems is that they pertain to the theme of love. Though it is portrayed differently, love remains a dominant subject matter in the two periods. A quick reading of the titles of some poems will corroborate this fact: In Renaissance love poetry, we find Sidney’s “Astrophel and Stella, “come, sleep, O sleep!” and” Leave me, O love”; Spencer’s “One Day I wrote her name upon the sand”. In the seventeenth century, there were famous love poems, too, such as “Love III” and “The Flower” by George Herbert, Andrew Marvell’s “To His Coy Mistress” and “The Definition of Love”, John Donne’s “Love Growth”, “Loves Infiniteness”, and Richard Leich’s “ Sleeping on Her Couch’’. Lyrics in both periods focus on the capacity of language to vehicle emotions and personal feelings. However, critics criticize metaphysical love poets for not expressing real love. This is, to be sure, one of the salient differences between the lyrics of the two periods.

2. Differences

Although they share some similarities, Elizabethan love lyrics and Metaphysical love poems differ in various aspects. In an attempt to come up with a new genre, the Metaphysical poets introduced some changes to the field of love poetry. Indeed, such changes would not really be classified as a break from the tradition; rather, they highlight the increase of sensibility in these poets. T.S. Eliot affirms: “The poets of seventeenth century (up to the Revolution) were the direct and normal development of the precedent age.”⁵ This development of sensibility, previously felt in Sidney’s and Shakespeare’s poems, “devour” any type of experience, be it simple or complex. Poets from both the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries tried to reject and resist the overpowering influence of Italian and French poetic conventions. Consequently, the love lyric genre witnesses a deformation at the level of both the subject matter and form.

The language, as a major aspect of love sonnets, undergoes a noticeable change. The Elizabethan poets make use of simple diction and familiar structure. They often opt for the use of refrains, which may sound ridiculous. As a very simple example, Wyatt in one of his lyrics entitled “The Lover Complayneth the Unkindness of his Love”, repeats the line “My lute for I have done” eight times. Refrains like these are appreciated when poems are sung. Oddly enough, theses refrains may be meaningless, like the following example from Shakespeare’s play As You Like it; “a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino” In the seventeenth century, love lyrics, with some exceptions, were not intended for singing. Freed from demands of song, love lyrics use ordinary speech with paradoxes and conceits. In addition to a play with language and syntax, Metaphysical poets play on some poetic conventions of the Renaissance. For instance, the Metaphysical love lyrics unfailingly offer great intellectual content using compressed words and thoughts. This development in the English language is but natural. C.V. Wedgwood (1970) states:

Language was still without abstract terms, the hideous ‘isms’ of philosophy and religion. Necessity was the mother of invention and this lack of abstracts compelled writers to invent concrete images to express general ideas.⁶

A good deal of what seems to separate Elizabethan from Metaphysical love lyrics lies in the use of imagery and conceits. The lynchpin of Elizabethan decorum is based on clarity and simplicity, containing images of nature and allusions to classical mythology. Some sonnets of Shakespeare (sonnet 130 and 138) and Sidney’s “Astrophil and Stella”, for example, are referred to as indecorous or, to be more precise, “anti Petrarchan” because of their unusual content. Thanks to their glances backward on Shakespeare’s and his peers’ style, the Metaphysical poets explore and push the Petrarchan images further. Metaphysical images and conceits employ curious learning in their unusual comparisons that make some demands upon the reader. Samuel Johnson disapproves of this juxtaposition of the dissimilar. According to him, these are “the most heterogeneous ideas…yoked by violence together.”⁷ Among the most famous Metaphysical conceits are to be found in the following poems: John Donne’s “Valediction Forbidding Mourning” and Andrew Marvell’s “On a Drop of Dew”. In his poem, Donne pictures love as a unity in separation through comparing the lovers’ souls to a pair of compasses. Andrew Marvell, in his own manner, compares the soul with a drop of dew. This stylistic difference is not to be considered a break from the Elizabethan love lyrics; it is, it must be admitted, another development of the Petrarchan love sonnet after the one performed and anticipated by Sidney and Shakespeare. T.S. Eliot observes that:

It is difficult to find any precise use of metaphor, simile, or other conceit, which is common to all the poets (Metaphysical) and at the same time important enough as an element of style to isolate these poets as a group ⁸

In fact, it is legitimate to consider the Metaphysical poets a contiguous and continuous evolution of the Petrarchan love lyric.

The theme of love, or the exploration of the experience of desire, is portrayed differently by the Elizabethan and Metaphysical poets. Early Renaissance love lyrics describe a single view of love. The persona is dutiful, adoring, and full of enthusiasm whereas the mistress is beautiful, proud and unreceptive. The persona’s misery is described in his continuous pursuit to attain the desirable female figure. The first twist in this tradition comes from Sidney and Shakespeare. In their lyrics, the lady is not blond and she is very accessible and no longer virtuous. In addition to their blend of lust and love in their poems, Sidney and Shakespeare lay much focus on their art and less on the beloved beauty. A more noticeable variation is initiated with the emergence of Donne’s school. The latter brings an unlimited situations and experiences to the view of love.

Love, as a major subject in Metaphysical sonnets, is used as a springboard to voice certain concerns in society, namely politics and religion. John Dryden is critical of John Donne because he fails to entertain women’s minds with the softness of love. For Dryden, love should be natural and related to the physical. This does not, in any sense, mean that Metaphysical poets have a unique view of love. In fact, love can be an experience of the body, the soul, or both, or it can be religious or merely sensual. To illustrate, in John Donne’s poem, “The Extasie”, love is described as a sublime union of two souls. In Andrew Marvell’s poem, “To His Coy Mistress”, the poet is actually addressing the physical love. George Herbert’s “Love III” embodies a religious sense of admiration. It is worthy to mention that metaphysical poets often contradict themselves from one poem to another, a fact frequently attested in Donne’s love poems⁹. Indeed, the extravagant approach of the Metaphysical poets to the theme of love is an adaptation with a variation of Sidney’s and Shakespeare’s style.

Christopher Marlowe’s “The Passionate Shepherd To His Love” and John Donne’s “The Bait”: Similarities and Differences

To compare and contrast the lyric poetry of the two periods, two key figures will be considered: Christopher Marlowe (1564- 93), “the most exquisitely sensuous of all the great Elizabethan poets”¹⁰ and John Donne (1572-1631), the founder of the school of “strong lines”. As young men, they were both rash and impulsive. They mostly devoted their time to writing love lyrics; and they went through much suffering because of their subversive non-conformist views. Christopher Marlowe was criticized as being an avowed atheist and a notorious homosexual. Likewise, John Donne was condemned as an anti-religious, erotic poet. In addition to these similarities in their lives, some of their poems yield some affinities as well. “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love” and “The Bait” are relevant cases in this regard.

The theme of love is a common ground between the two poems. “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love” is considered to be one of the most famous love poems in English literature. The shepherd, a persona in the poem, tries to woo his love to come and live with him and be the passion of his life. Through the portrayal of the surrounding environment, he addresses an invitation to his beloved. He describes the countryside as being pure and beautiful, reflecting, in a way, his professed natural and pure love. Similarly, John Donne portrays his pursuit to convince his woman to join him. Through describing fishing and fish, he is reasoning his sexual allure. The artificial nature of his love can be immediately felt by the reader. Love in Donne’s poem is not as sweet as in Marlowe’s. The speaker in “the Bait” lays much focus on the unpleasant aspects of love as it shown in the following lines: “Bedded fish in bank out-wrest” (line22), “And cut their legs with shells and weeds” (line18). By contrast, Marlowe portrays love in a platonic way: “Melodious byrds sing Madrigalls” (line 8), “With buckles of the purest gold.” (line 16).

Equally important, Donne and Marlowe make use of different images. Marlowe uses idyllic images to convince his mistress to respond to his invitation. He promises to bestow various presents and pleasures on her. His images comprise implicit sexual undertones: “beds of roses”, “fragrant poesies”, “A cap of flowers” and “A gown of the finest wool”. Marlowe’s hyperbolic tone along with the flowery imagery epitomize the pastoral style of the English poetry in the late Renaissance period. By contrast, Donne adopts a markedly serious tone and resorts to explicit sexual imagery. In his extended metaphor, Donne uses unfamiliar diction such as: “crystal brooks”, “silken lines”, “golden sands”. These images exemplify the metaphysical additions to the love lyric poetry. Additionally, both poets hold sexist attitudes. They consider woman as nothing more than an object or as a mere source of pleasure. To make matters worse, Donne puts forward a very negative image of women by describing them as deceitful (line 25) and traitorous (line 23). Donne’s and Marlowe’s sensual speculations alongside the objectification of women constitute some of the defining conventions of the Renaissance poetry.

The form of the two poems discloses points of similarity as well as some divergences. Marlowe’s poem is composed in the iambic tetrameter (four stressed/ unstressed syllables) with six stanzas. Like most Elizabethan poets, he does not object to the use of repetition. The line “Come live with me, and be my love” is repeated three times in the poem. In a similar fashion, Donne uses the iambic tetrameter with seven stanzas. In the three first stanzas of “the Bait”, the tone is rather playful like Marlowe’s. But the remaining four stanzas embody a serious and harsh mood. The use of argument and counter argument is typical of Donne’s poems, broadly speaking. These techniques are cleverly used in this poem. The last stanza introduces a paradox in which the woman is portrayed both as the bait and as the fish. Marlowe’s poem, on the other hand, encompasses no surprise; his beloved remains adorable and charming throughout the lyric. The contentment and the innocent romantic love of the speaker in “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love” tally with the Elizabethan pastoral formula.

Comparing these two poems reveals the fact that some features of Petrarchan love lyrics still exist in the metaphysical poetry. The fact that Donne begins with two lines from Marlowe’s poem is of high significance. This shows that the Metaphysical poetry is a continuity of Renaissance “glorious” poetic heritage. Ironically, Marlowe’s poem embodies “all the pleasures” (Marlow’s poem, line 2) of the Petrarchan sonnet while Donne’s speaker proposes “some new pleasures” ( Donne’s poem, line 2). Actually, both the Elizabethan and Jacobean poets are, as Dryden affirms, “a legendary giant race.”

Notes

1. Mair, G. H. English Literature 1450-1900 ( London and New York: Oxford University Press, 1969) 21
2. Eliot, T. S. “The Metaphysical Poets” in Gerald Hammond. ed. The Metaphysical Poets ( Hong Kong: The Macmillan Press, 1974) 85
3. In fact, these are holy poems. They are used here to illustrate the point since a lyric can also be religious.
4. Easthope, Antony. Poetry as Discourse. ( London and New York: Methuen, 1983) 53
5. T. S. Eliot, “ The Metaphysical Poets”
6. Wedgwood, C.V. Seventeenth-Century English Literature ( Oxford and New York: Oxford university Press, 1970) 7
7. Johnson, Samuel quoted in C.V. Wedgwood Seventeenth-Century English Literature (Oxford and New York: Oxford university Press, 1970) 55
8. T. S. Eliot, “ The Metaphysical Poets” 84
9. Love is different in Donne’s poems. In the poem, “The Sun Rising”, for example, love is fulfilled and celebrated. But in “The Canonization”, love is viewed as a religion.
10. Quennell Peter. Hanish Johnson. A History of English Literature. (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1973) 48
11. Ibid. 93

Works Cited

1. Easthope, Antony. Poetry as Discourse. London and New York: Methuen, 1983
2. Eliot, T. S. “The Metaphysical Poets” in Gerald Hammond. ed. The Metaphysical Poets. Hong Kong: The Macmillan Press, 1974
3. Mair, G. H. English Literature 1450-1900. London and New York: Oxford University Press, 1969
4. Quennell Peter and Hanish Johnson. A History of English Literature. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1973
5. Wedgwood, C.V. Seventeenth-Century English Literature. Oxford and New York: Oxford university Press, 1970