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The Metaphysical Conceit in John Donne's Prose and Poetry

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The Metaphysical Conceit in John Donne's Prose and Poetry ISABELLE GUY "THIS SUBTLE KNOT" The Metaphysical Conceit in John Donne's Prose and Poetry Mémoire présenté à la Faculté des études supérieures de l'Université Laval dans le cadre du programme de maîtrise en littérature d'expression anglaise pour l'obtention du grade de Maître es arts (M.A.) DEPARTEMENT DES LITTERATURES FACULTÉ DES LETTRES UNIVERSITÉ LAVAL QUÉBEC 2007 © Isabelle Guy, 2007 I Abstract The présent thesis seeks to define the rôle played by the Metaphysical conceit in the formulation of John Donne's vision of a unified cosmos. The conceit is hère regarded as an élément of style that probes into the nature of relationships, as well as a unifying élément in Donne's works that enables him to translate into verse the intangible ties that bind a man to other human beings and to the Divine so as to render an abstract reality more apprehensible to the mind. To him, the individual self is indeed defined almost exclusively in terms of the manner in which it relates to other human beings, to the divine, or to the political and religious institutions that regulate his society. In most of the works scrutinized in the présent thesis, Donne is in fact concerned with the représentation of an idéal of communion that involves the dissolution of the individual self into a greater whole. In the works analyzed in the présent thesis, Donne almost invariably formulâtes this idéal in terms of the relationship that unités body and soûl in an individual, which he conceives as a reflection of the way in which the material and the spiritual interact in the universe. In his exploration of the ties that bind human beings together and to the Divine, the Metaphysical conceit is vital to the expression of his idéal of interrelatedness. This thesis therefore focuses on the way in which the conceit, as a literary device that compares relationships, reinforces his vision of a unified cosmos. ii Résumé Ce mémoire a pour but d'explorer l'utilisation que le poète anglais John Donne fait d'une figure de style appelée « Metaphysical conceit » dans sa description des relations entre individus ainsi qu'entre l'homme et le divin. L'intention de ce mémoire est de faire émerger le caractère unificateur de la «Metaphysical conceit» dans l'œuvre de Donne. En effet, cette figure de style permet à cet auteur de traduire en langage poétique les liens intangibles qui unissent les êtres humains les uns aux autres ainsi qu'à Dieu dans le but précis de rendre plus tangible une réalité abstraite. Pour Donne, l'être humain se définit presque exclusivement à travers les rapports qui l'unissent à ses semblables, à Dieu, ou aux institutions politiques et religieuses qui gouvernent la société au sein de laquelle il évolue. Dans la plupart des oeuvres analysés dans ce mémoire, Donne tente d'exprimer sa vision d'un idéal qui implique la dissolution de l'être dans un tout beaucoup plus vaste. Il illustre cet idéal à travers la formulation d'une image, celle de la relation qui unit le corps à l'âme chez l'homme, qui reflète en soi l'interaction qui allie le matériel au divin dans l'univers. L'étude des œuvres de prose et de poésie de Donne révèle le rôle prépondérant joué par la « Metaphysical conceit » dans la formulation de son idéal de communion. Par conséquent, l'objet de ce mémoire est l'étude de la manière dont la « Metaphysical conceit » renforce la vision qu'avait Donne de l'univers comme d'un tout uni. iii Acknowledgements I would like to express my most sincère gratitude to ail those who made it possible for me to complète this thesis. 1 wish to thank, first and foremost, my thesis director, Professor Anthony Raspa, both for his help and guidance and for accepting to share his love of literature and of John Donne with me. I could not hâve dreamed of having a better director for the writing of this thesis and 1 am most grateful to him for accepting to supervise me. His rigour and insight hâve enriched my growth as a student and I am indebted to him in more ways than 1 could possibly express. 1 would also like to extend a heartfelt thank you to Professor Elspeth Tulloch for her encouragement, and to the Département des littératures for accepting this project. My warmest thanks go to my family for their unwavering faith in me. 1 would like to express my most sincère gratitude to my dear Marc-André, whose love and patience enabled me to complète this work. Finally, 1 wish to thank the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada for its financial support. iv 7 o my dearest Marc-A ndré... Who makes my circle just, And makes me end where I begun. V And you want to travel with him And you want to travel blind And you ihink maybe you'Il trust him For he's touchedyourperfect body with his mind. Léonard Cohen vi TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iii TABLE OF CONTENTS vi CHAPTER I - THE METAPHYSICAL CONCEIT AND THE CRITICAL WORLD: A DEFINITION 1 CHAPTER II - "SO WE SHALL/BE ONE, AND ONE ANOTHER'S ALL": THE AMOROUS MICROCOSM 25 CHAPTER III - "I AM A L1TTLE WORLD MADE CUNMNGLY": THE POET AND HIS GOD 51 CHAPTER IV - "NO MAN'S AN ISLAND, ENTIRE IN 1TSELF": MAN AND SOCIETY 76 CONCLUSION - "THAT SUBTLE KNOT, WHICH MAKES US MAN" 105 BIBLIOGRAPHY 108 Chapter 1 The Metaphysical Conceit and the Critical World A Définition The Metaphysical School of poetry in England can be considered as having been inaugurated by the Jesuit poets Jasper Heywood and Robert Southwell in the late sixteenth century. Yet it is only a génération later through the works of Heywood's nephew, John Donne, that poetry in the Metaphysical style acquired the vitality, soulfulness, and wit that allowed for its triumphant revival in the beginning of the twentieth century. Donne's appeal as a poet lies mostly in his particular handling of the Metaphysical conceit, an élément of style which has corne to be perceived as the hallmark of the Metaphysical tradition. Early in the twentieth century, it was this élément of Donne's style that attracted T.S. Eliot. For décades after the publication of Eliot's influential review of Grierson's anthology of Metaphysical poetry in 1921 and the argument it contained, the conceit was perceived as a literary device that joined together unrelated éléments in a far-fetched comparison for greater imaginative effect. At the same time it had corne to be considered as representing a dissociation of sensibility. However, since Eliot's time, perceptions of the conceit and Donne's style hâve changed and evolved. At the end of the last century and at the beginning of ours, new approaches to the conceit appeared that at least, 2 historically-speaking, can be thought of as doing more justice to its complexity and its beauty than the approach to conjoined unrelated éléments that Eliot's criticism employed. Technically speaking, historically, the conceit owes its structure to Aristotle's metaphor of proportion in which of "four things the second is to the first as the fourth is to the third" (Poetics, 41). As for the term 'metaphysics', it usually refers to a branch of philosophy concerned with first principles which probes into the nature of things (Webster New World Dictionary and Thésaurus, electronic version). The Metaphysical conceit may therefore be regarded as a literary device that investigates relationships in order to find out what defines their nature. The conjunction of the meaning of thèse two terms, "conceit" and "metaphysical", not only describes the functioning of a literary device, but may also serve to define Donne's epistemological approach to the created universe. In fact, in both his verse and in several of his prose texts, Donne's manner of investigating the world seems concerned with the exploration of the ties that bind a human being to other individuals, and to the divine. This assessment of Donne's epistemology contrasts sharply with the views expressed by several prominent authors of the earlier twentieth century such as Carey, Leishman, Parfitt, and Eliot himself, who hâve described Donne as being sometimes a self-centered, egoistical man - as an apostate and an abject flatterer who was strongly motivated by his pursuit of advancement. Nevertheless, récent critical assessment has refuted thèse views. The second part of the twentieth century has been in fact characterized by a shift of interest on the part of Donne scholars from his rhetoric to the epistemological discourses that hâve influenced his poetry. This change of focus has led the critical world to the considération of the poet's philosophical conception of man and création. As a resuit, critics such as Kaskela, McKevlin, and Presti-Russel hâve defined Donne in terms of his quest for relatedness and his faith in humanity. 3 Whereas récent criticism conveys a more accurate understanding of Donne's philosophical outlook on the world and men, none of the critics previously mentioned has concentrated on an in-depth investigation of his use of the Metaphysical conceit in his description of the relationships available to human beings. Following upon the works of the twentieth century scholars who hâve investigated either Donne's handling of the conceit or his interest in the ties that unité men to each other and to the divine, this thesis will explore Donne's use of the Metaphysical conceit in his description of three différent clearly identifiable types of relationships: between men and women, among human beings in gênerai, between man and the Divine.
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