Mohamed Mahou (c)2010
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Renaissance
Courtly-love Lyrics and Metaphysical Love Poems
Christopher
Marlowe’s “The Passionate Shepherd To His Love” and John
Donne’s “The Bait”: Similarities
and Differences
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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.
- 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.
- 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.
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
- Mair, G. H. English Literature 1450-1900 ( London and New York: Oxford University Press, 1969) 21
- Eliot, T. S. “The Metaphysical Poets” in Gerald Hammond. ed. The Metaphysical Poets ( Hong Kong: The Macmillan Press, 1974) 85
- In fact, these are holy poems. They are used here to illustrate the point since a lyric can also be religious.
- Easthope, Antony. Poetry as Discourse. ( London and New York: Methuen, 1983) 53
- T. S. Eliot, “ The Metaphysical Poets”
- Wedgwood, C.V. Seventeenth-Century English Literature ( Oxford and New York: Oxford university Press, 1970) 7
- Johnson, Samuel quoted in C.V. Wedgwood Seventeenth-Century English Literature (Oxford and New York: Oxford university Press, 1970) 55
- T. S. Eliot, “ The Metaphysical Poets” 84
- 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.
- Quennell Peter. Hanish Johnson. A History of English Literature. (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1973) 48
- Ibid. 93
Works
Cited
- Easthope, Antony. Poetry as Discourse. London and New York: Methuen, 1983
- Eliot, T. S. “The Metaphysical Poets” in Gerald Hammond. ed. The Metaphysical Poets. Hong Kong: The Macmillan Press, 1974
- Mair, G. H. English Literature 1450-1900. London and New York: Oxford University Press, 1969
- Quennell Peter and Hanish Johnson. A History of English Literature. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1973
- Wedgwood, C.V. Seventeenth-Century English Literature. Oxford and New York: Oxford university Press, 1970
