Discussion Topic
Comparing and Contrasting Metaphysical Poets' Styles and Themes
Summary:
Metaphysical poets, such as John Donne and Andrew Marvell, often shared themes of love and religion, using complex imagery and arguments to explore these topics. Donne's works, like "The Flea," intermingle secular and religious themes, while Marvell's "To His Coy Mistress" employs a carpe diem motif to discuss love. In contrast, George Herbert's poetry is predominantly religious, marked by straightforward imagery and a tone of assured divine love, differing from Donne's often anxious religious tones.
What are the similarities between Metaphysical poets, as shown in their poems?
In England, during the reign of Charles I, there were two political movements: the Cavaliers and the Puritans. Perhaps not so uniquely, there were two literary movements—most specifically in poetry—of the Cavalier and Metaphysical poets.
They two movements (political and literary) were defined by a Carpe Diem attitude (the Cavaliers) as opposed to a religious ideology (Puritans and Metaphysicals).
...the term “Metaphysical poets” was coined to refer to certain writers, primarily of religious verse.
This is not to say that one had to be a Puritan to be a Metaphysical poet—however, the two groups had the same profound focus in life based on religious themes. This genre of poetry was not a passing phase:
...the term “Metaphysical poets” remained useful to literary historians for more than two hundred years.
But, it should be noted that Metaphysical poets were not always religious in their writing . Some of their poetry was...
Unlock
This Answer NowStart your 48-hour free trial and get ahead in class. Boost your grades with access to expert answers and top-tier study guides. Thousands of students are already mastering their assignments—don't miss out. Cancel anytime.
Already a member? Log in here.
love poetry and similar characteristics can be seen in these poems.There are a number of names associated with Metaphysical poetry. Perhaps the two of the most well-known were John Donne and Andrew Marvell.
Ironically, Donne (who was later known as a devoutly religious man in his later years) started his career writing love sonnets. "The Flea" was written with the express purpose of seducing a woman: the theme of the poem is that if a flea bites a man and a woman, their blood is intermingled and they are as one, so that having sex is not a problem.
It suck’d me first, and now sucks thee,
And in this flea our two bloods mingled be.
Donne goes on to say that the flea enjoys a more intimate relationship that he and the woman he is pursuing:
Yet this enjoys before it woo,
And pamper’d swells with one blood made of two;
And this, alas! is more than we would do.
O stay, three lives in one flea spare,
Where we almost, yea, more than married are.
Here Donne has noted that while the flea has "enjoyed" both of them, Donne has not "enjoyed" the woman he woos.
Andrew Marvell's work may sound like Donne's...
Andrew Marvell, influenced by the work of Ben Jonson and John Donne, was the last major poet with their qualities and habits of mind.
What is so similar between "The Flea" and Marvell's very famous "To His Coy Mistress" is that each presents an argument by the speaker to entice a woman to enter into a sexual relationship with him. The speaker notes that if life were to go on forever, taking their time in their relationship would be no worry:
Had we but world enough, and time,
This coyness, lady, were no crime.
We would sit down and think which way
To walk, and pass our long love's day...
In essence, the author is saying "Life is short," and this is his argument, that they make the best use of their time together.
If time were not an issue...
I would
Love you ten years before the Flood;
And you should, if you please, refuse
Till the conversion of the Jews.
Because life is short, Marvell encourages this woman to join him in sweet love-making. Though they cannot make time stand still, they can "make much of time."
Thus, though we cannot make our sun
Stand still, yet we will make him run.
Both poems intend to woo; rather than religious, they are love poems with the same intent.
Additional Source:
http://www.luminarium.org/sevenlit/marvell/coy.htm
How do writings of "Metaphysical Poets" differ?
Although John Donne and George Herbert are both often classified as “metaphysical poets,” their writings reveal differences as well as similarities. Among those differences are the following:
- Donne wrote both secular poems and religious poems, whereas Herbert almost exclusively wrote religious poems.
- Donne’s poems often deal with secular and even erotic love, whereas Herbert’s poems rarely if ever deal with those kinds of love.
- The tone of Donne’s religious poems (especially in his Holy Sonnets) is often anxious and dark, whereas the tone of most of Herbert’s religious poems is typically rooted in an assurance of God’s love. Donne’s speakers often worry that they will not be saved; Herbert’s speakers either assume that they will be saved or are eventually surprised by some indication of salvation. One need only contrast, for instance, the tone of Donne’s Holy Sonnet 14 (“Batter my heart, three-personed God”) with the tone of Herbert’s “Love (3).”
- The religious purposes of Herbert’s poetry are usually immediately obvious. The religious purposes of some of Donne’s apparent secular poems are sometimes only implied or only perceived once the irony of the poems is recognized.
- Donne’s religious poetry often seems obviously (and even harshly) Calvinist in its theology, whereas the Calvinism of Herbert’s poetry is not nearly as strongly emphasized
- Donne’s imagery is often complex, puzzling, and challenging; Herbert’s imagery is more often simple, straightforward, and traditional.
- Herbert is more likely than Donne to experiment with different and often unusual stanzaic forms, as in “The Altar,” “Easter Wings,” and “The Collar.”
- Herbert’s God seems more actively reassuring than Donne’s. Here, for instance, is the opening stanza of Herbert’s “Love (3)”:
Love bade me welcome: yet my soul drew back,
Guilty of dust and sin.
But quick-ey'd Love, observing me grow slack,
From my first entrance in,
Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning,
If I lack'd anything. [emphasis added]
Here, in contrast, are the closing lines of Donne’s Holy Sonnet 2, which are addressed to God:
Why doth the devill then usurpe on mee?
Why doth he steale, nay ravish that's thy right?
Except thou rise and for thine own worke fight,
Oh I shall soone despaire, when I doe see
That thou lov'st mankind well, yet wilt'not chuse me,
And Satan hates mee, yet is loth to lose mee.
It would be possible to cite many more examples like these – examples in which the speakers of Donne’s religious poems sound anguished while those of Herbert’s religious poems offer evidence of God’s constantly abiding love.