The Metaphysical Poetry 

What is a Metaphysical poem? 

 Metaphysical poetry is concerned with the whole experience of man, but the intelligence, learning and seriousness of the poets mean that the poetry is about the profound areas of experience especially about love, romantic and sensual; about man's relationship with God the eternal perspective; and, to a less extent, about pleasure, learning and art. 

The term “metaphysical poetry” was first coined by the literary critic and poet Samuel Johnson [1709 -1784] in his book titled “Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets” [1781]. Therein began the study of poems composed by a group of 17th-century British poets that included John Donne, George Herbert, Richard Crashaw, Andrew Marvell and Henry Vaughan.

 General Features: 

A group of poets emerged in the second half of the 16th century whose poetry is identified as metaphysical poetry. It was Dr Samuel Johnson- a classicist of the neo-classical age who named the poetry of Donne and his School as metaphysical poetry.  Johnson used this term while writing about the life of Abraham Cowley in his biographical work with the title “The Lives of English Poets" Dr Johnson wanted to criticise the poetry of Donne and his followers by using the term metaphysical poetry. But with time the passing of time the same term became a term of appraisal for their poetry. Dr Johnson has passed one remarkable comment that the metaphysical poets stood a trial of their finger but poetry failed in the trial of the ears. But what Dr Johnson wants to state is that there is no music poetry and rhythm in their poetry.  

The metaphysical John Donne, George Herbert, Richard Crashaw, Andrew Marvel made a conscious attempt to differ from others and particularly from their predecessors, so that their poetry may be noticed by the readers. One critic Helen C White mentions that it was the demand of time for the metaphysical poets to differ from the poets of the previous age. Had they continued writing poetry just like the former poets, their poetry would have been rejected by the readers. Due to new learning and reformation of the Elizabethan age, the intellectual level of the readers had gone upward and so the metaphysical poets tried to be intellectual in the writing of their poetry. 

The best way for the metaphysical poets to differ from the poets and to be intellectual in the writing of their poetry was to use farfetched images conceits. They tried using images from those fields which were thickly associated with the theme of their poetry. To express either love or their faith in Christianity, they brought their images from different. fields just like Biology, Architecture, Engineering, Agriculture, Geometry, Geography and even political science this gave a unique identity to their poetry. Several examples can be given about how they brought images from distant and remote fields the first example is of John Donnel who made use of a biological image of the flea the express the love in this title of that poem is "The Flea”. George Herbert made use of an image from the field of mechanical engineering to express his faith in Christianity. The example is of a poem with the title “The Pully”. pully is an Image of the field of mechanical engineering but in this poem that image is used to state that restlessness is about a pully that gives a connection between the creator and creation. Andrew Marvell made use of geometrical images for the expression of love. The example is "To His Coy Mistress” in brief on metaphysical poets who made extensive use of farfetched images in their poetry. 

Highlighting one remarkable feature of metaphysical poetry Dr Johnson States that their poetry stood a trial of their finger but not ears, this means that music in there is poetry which they wrote there is no rhythm to be found in the poetry of the metaphysical poets. 

 The Sun Rising by John Donne:

The sun Rising by John Donne is an example of the use of the metaphysical image to deal with the theme of love. Donne employs the image of the rising sun for dealing with the theme of love. The rising sun is an image that is generally used for the expression of new hope and optimism but Donne employs the image for expressing love. The poem is addressed by the lover to the rising sun and the tone of the poem is to criticise the rising sun. The rising sun is generally welcomed by people but here in the present poem, the lover is unhappy with the rising sun. He rebukes the sun because the sun is a “busy old fool, unruly sun.”