Dr. Subodh Kumar Jha Associate Professor & Head, Department of English, SNS College, Jehanabad The metaphysical poets were John Donne Herrick Thomas Carew Richard Crashaw Henry Vaughan George Herbert and Lord Herbert of Cherbury Andrew Marvel The leader of this school was Donne They are called the metaphysical poets not because they are highly philosophical, but because their poetry is full of conceits, exaggerations, quibbling about the meanings of words, display of learning and far-fetched similes and metaphors. It was Dr. Johnson who in his essay on Abraham Cowley in his Lives of the Poets used the term ‘metaphysical’. Dr. Subodh Kumar Jha 09/08/2020 2 The leader of the Metaphysical school of poets had a very chequered career until he became the Dean of St. Paul. Though his main work was to deliver religious sermons, he wrote poetry of a very high order. His best-known works are ‘The Progress of the Soul’; ‘An Anatomy of the World’, an elegy; and Epithalamium. His poetry can be divided into three parts: (1) Amorous (2) Metaphysical (3) Satirical Dr. Subodh Kumar Jha 09/08/2020 3 In his amorous lyrics which include his earliest work, he broke away from the Petrarcan model so popular among the Elizabethan poets, and expressed the experience of love in a realistic manner. His metaphysical and satirical works which form a major portion of his poetry, were written in later years. The Progress of the Soul and Metempsychosis, in which Donne pursues the passage of the soul through various transmigrations, including those of a bird and fish, is a fine illustration of his metaphysical poetry. A good illustration of his satire is his fourth satire describing the character of a bore. They were written in rhymed couplet, and influenced both Dryden and Pope. Dr. Subodh Kumar Jha 09/08/2020 4 Donne has often been compared to Browning on account of his metrical roughness, obscurity, ardent imagination, taste for metaphysics and unexpected divergence into sweet and delightful music. But there is one important difference between Donne and Browning. Donne is a poet of wit while Browning is a poet of ardent passion. Donne deliberately broke away from the Elizabethan tradition of smooth sweetness of verse, and introduced a harsh and stuccato method. His influence on the contemporary poets was far from being desirable, because whereas they imitated his harshness, they could not come up to the level of his original thought and sharp wit. Like Browning, Donne has no sympathy for the reader who cannot follow his keen and incisive thought, while his poetry is most difficult to understand because of its careless versification and excessive terseness. Dr. Subodh Kumar Jha 09/08/2020 5 Thus with Donne, the Elizabethan poetry with its mellifluousness, and richly observant imagination, came to an end, and the Caroline poetry with its harshness and deeply reflective imagination began. Though Shakespeare and Spenser still exerted some influence on the poets, yet Donne’s influence was more dominant. Dr. Subodh Kumar Jha 09/08/2020 6 Robert Herrick wrote amorous as well as religious verse but it is on account of the poems of the former type — love poems - for which he is famous. He has much in common with the Elizabethan song writers but on account of his pensive fantasy, and a meditative strain especially in his religious verse, Herrick is included in the metaphysical school of Donne. Dr. Subodh Kumar Jha 09/08/2020 7 Thomas Carew on whom the influence of Donne was stronger, was the finest lyric writer of his age. Though he lacks the spontaneity and freshness of Herrick, he is superior to him in fine workmanship. Moreover, though possessing the strength and vitality of Donne’s verse, Carew’s verse is neither rugged nor obscure as that of the master. His ‘Persuasions of Love’ is a fine piece of rhythmic cadence and harmony. Dr. Subodh Kumar Jha 09/08/2020 8 Richard Crashaw possessed a temperament different from that of Herrick or Carew. He began his poetic career by writing verses on love, but later on he drifted to pure religious poems. his best works include ‘The Flaming Heart’& “The Step to the Temple”,. Though less imaginative than Herrick, and intellectually inferior to Carew, at times Crashaw reaches the heights of rare excellence in his poetry. Like Donne and Herbert, Crashaw indulged freely in metaphysical conceits, and like them he wrote great religious poetry. In many ways, Crashaw is not metaphysical: his poems reveal no complexity of mind, no conflict or tension, the manner is not colloquial, and the images are pictorial rather than intellectual, lacking the homeliness of Donne and Herbert. His poetry is emotional rather than thoughtful and his long, irregular odes are full of gaudy extravagances and sensuous decoration, often showing an undisciplined rapture though he is capable of simple beauty. Dr. Subodh Kumar Jha 09/08/2020 9 Henry Vaughan though a mystic like Crashaw, was equally at home in sacred as well as secular verse Though lacking the vigour of Crashaw, Vaughan is more uniform and clear, tranquil and deep. Dr. Subodh Kumar Jha 09/08/2020 10 George Herbert is the most widely read of all the poets belonging to the metaphysical school, except, of course, Donne. This is due to the clarity of his expression and the transparency of his conceits. His poems are characterised by precision of language, a metrical versatility and ingenious use of imagery and metaphysical conceits. In his religious verse there is simplicity as well as natural earnestness. He is the saint of the metaphysical school of poetry. He firmly believed that man should take his entire gift to God’s service. He is best known for his poems published posthumously under the title “The Temple”. His poems are peculiarly honest, intimate, sincere and modest. It is the simplicity of Herbert that is the secret of his power. Dr. Subodh Kumar Jha 09/08/2020 11 Lord Herbert of Cherbury is inferior as a verse writer to his brother George Herbert, but he is best remembered as the author of an autobiography. Moreover, he was the first poet to use the metre which was made famous by Tennyson in ‘In Memoriam’. Dr. Subodh Kumar Jha 09/08/2020 12 Marvel is famous for his loyal friendship with Milton, and because his poetry shows the conflict between the two schools of Spenser and Donne. Andrew Marvell was the only Puritan among the metaphysical poets. But he was not a sour or gloomy type of man like the puritan of the age. Though he wrote verses which speak of his religious ardour, yet his poems distinctly reveals his joyous humanism and love for wine, women and song. Marvell’s poetry is based on the adoration of nature. He is the first to sing the beauty and glory of gardens and orchards. He takes delight in buds, blossoms and bushes. His “The Garden” foreshadows Keats through its sensuousness, and Wordsworth through its optimistic and severe meditative mood. Marvell also wrote love poems which were mostly tissues of conceits. Some of his love poems are very graceful; they hold us by their passion. His lines “To a Coy Mistress” have Donne’s strength and passion without his obscurity and run easily and harmoniously. They are the masterpiece of metaphysical poetry. Dr. Subodh Kumar Jha 09/08/2020 13 Other poets who are also included in the group of Metaphysicals are: Abrahanm Cowley (1618-1667), Edmund Waller (1606-1687). Cowley is famous for his ‘Pindaric Odes’, which influenced English poetry throughout the eighteenth century. Waller was the first to use the ‘closed’ couplet which dominated English poetry for the next century. Dr. Subodh Kumar Jha 09/08/2020 14 Thanks Dr. Subodh Kumar Jha 09/08/2020 15 .