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John Donne Selected Reading: The Flea Holy Sonnet 10 John Donnes Portrait at 23 Woman catching Flea Metaphysical Poetry The term “metaphysical“ is used to designate the work of 17th-century writers who were part of a school of poets using similar methods and who revolted against the romantic conventionalism of Elizabethan love poetry, in particular the Petrarchan conceit. It includes a certain anti-feminist tradition . John Donne was the acknowledged leader of the poets today identified as “metaphysical“ (though they themselves would not have used the term, nor have considered themselves to constitute a “school“ of poetry). No exact list of “metaphysical poets“ can be drawn up. Some were Protestant religious mystics, like Herbert, Vaughan and Traherne; some Catholic, like Crashaw; one was an American clergyman, Edward Taylor. While less easily assimilatable, Marvell shares certain affinities with the “metaphysical“ poets. The “metaphysicals“ are popular with modern readers because of their realism, their intellectualism, and their break with their immediate literary past. characteristics (1) a tendency to psychological analysis of emotion of love and religion a penchant (“hobby”) for imagery that is novel, “unpoetical“ and sometimes shocking, drawn from the commonplace (actual life) or the remote (erudite sources), including the extended metaphor of the “metaphysical conceit“ simple diction (compared to Elizabethan poetry) which echoes the cadences of everyday speech Characteristics (2) meter: often rugged, not “sweet“ or smooth like Elizabethan verse. This ruggedness goes naturally with the Metaphysical poets' attitude and purpose: a belief in the perplexity (“mess, chaos”) of life, a spirit of revolt, and the putting of an argument in speech rather than song. form: frequently an argument (with the poet's lover; with God; with oneself) The best metaphysical poetry is honest, unconventional, and reveals the poet's sense of the complexities and contradictions of life. It is intellectual, analytical, psychological, and bold; frequently it is absorbed in thoughts of death, physical love, and religious devotion. metaphysical conceit （博喻） A “metaphysical conceit” is a far-fetched and ingenious extended comparison (or “conceit”) used by metaphysical poets to explore all areas of knowledge. It finds telling and unusual analogies for the poets ideas in the startlingly esoteric（深奥的） or the shockingly commonplace - not the usual stuff of poetic metaphor. Famous Examples It is often grotesque and extravagant, e.g. Crashaw's comparison of Mary Magdalene's tear- filled eyes as “Two walking baths; two weeping motions / Portable and compendious oceans.“ Donne's comparison of his union with his lover to the draftsman's compass in “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning“ is more successful because it gives us a perception of a real but previously unsuspected similarity that is therefore enlightening. The Sources of Conceits Typical metaphysical conceits come from a wide variety of areas of knowledge: coins (mintage); alchemy; medieval philosophy and angelology (see e.g. Donne's “Air and Angels”); meteorology (sighs are blasts, tears are floods); mythology (the Phoenix's riddle, the river Styx); government (“she is the state, he is the Prince“ from Donne's “The Sun Rising“); travelling (Donne's “Go and Catch a Falling Star“); astronomy; metallurgy (“gold to airy thinness beat“); geometry (the twin compasses); law; geography. Overall explanation (1) Fleas were a popular subject for jocosehumorous and amatorylove poetry in all countries at the Renaissance. Their popularity stems from an event that happened in a literary salon (a place where poets and others came to recite poetry and converse). The salon was run by two ladies, and on occasion a flea happened to land upon one lady's breast. The poets were amazed at the creature's audacity, and were inspired to write poetry about the beast. It soon became fashionable among poets to write poems about fleas. Overall explanation(2) In this poem, the “I“ of the poem is lying in bed with his lover, and trying to get her to give her virginity to him. (It could, of course, quite easily be a FEMALE “I“ trying to seduce a MALE, but I will stick with one for convenience). While lying there, he notices a flea, which has obviously bitten them both. Since the 17-century idea was of sex as a “mingling of the blood“, he realises that by mixing their bloods together in its body, the flea has done what she didn't dare to do. Overall explanation(3) Then, he argues, since the flea has done it, why shouldn't they? To back up his argument, he refers to the marriage ceremony, which states that “man and woman shall be one flesh“. He argues that since they have mingled their bloods and are therefore “one blood“, they are practically “one flesh“ and are therefore married! Overall explanation(4) Then, he argues, since the flea has done it, why shouldn't they? To back