Flea_Versus_Nightingale

The term “metaphysical poetry” which flourished in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries employs unusual verse forms, complex figures of speech applied to elaborate and surprising metaphorical conceits, intellectual tone, abundance of subtle wit, dramatic tone and philosophic element. Although these poets – John Donne, George Herbert, and Andrew Marvell- differed from one another, all three exercised an important influence on the society of the next generation. They were innovating, had freethinking and they wanted to break the boundaries. They broke down their time’s dogmas, and the aim of this article is to point out in what sense they are ahead of their time. While doing that it is useful to touch upon the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. These centuries were a time of exploration, both scientific and geographical. “The New World was being explored, and astronomical observations by Copernicus, Kepler, and Galileo led to the discovery of a new order of the heavens. England also saw the emergence of modern, experimental science, which proposed to discover the true order of the physical world”. (Conrs, 2004; p. 124). Science had enroached on belief, and of that enroachment Donne was profoundly aware. Once science had invited attention to its own anatomy of the world, “the fables, mythologies, and even all the hierarchies of sentiments and images which poets had used, seemed unacceptable and childish” (Evans, 1940; p. 44). Donne’s lyric poetry is quite reverse to that age. He deliberately rejected the conventional conceits and images such as flowers, sky, moon, etc. He coined new images which were an outcome of popular belief of scientific discoveries. His vocabulary is rich and diversified. “Donne as an individualist defining his role in an age of social, economic, religious, and political change.” (Peters, 1985; p.263). The distinguishing quality of metaphysical poetry as practiced by Donne and his successors is “not simply philosophical subtlety or intellectual rigor but a peculiar blend of thought and passion, of the colloquial with the ingenious, of realistic violence and meditative refinement” (Daiches, 1960; p. 360) . The way to appreciate the Metaphysical Poetry and Poets follows to examine primarily Done who is accepted the milestone of Metaphysical poetry and also his successors. These distinguishing features can be put in this way; First and foremost, in that times “new science” did not receive wide acceptance. However Done responded with a mixture of excitement and anxiety to such ideas as these: And new philosophy calls all in doubt/The element of fire is quiet put out/The sun is lost, and the earth, and no man’s wit/Can well direct him where to look for it. (Jones, 1969; p. 372). In this respect, he foresaw and used the “new science” – which would be gain acceptance several decades later- unlike most of the writers of his age. This indicates one proof of his broadmindedness. Besides, “To His Mistress Going to Bed” Donne calls his beloved’s body “... O my America! My new-found-land...”, thereby linking the conquest of exploration to the conquest of seduction. To convince his beloved to make love, he compares the sexual act to a voyage of discovery. Like America, the speaker explains, she will be discovered and conquered, too. Moreover, their verse style strikes the reader by directness of the speaking voice and familiar tone of speech. It surprises and shocks the reader. They suggest not only with courtly politeness, but also with direct colloquial vigour. For instance; Busy old fool, unruly sun,/Why dost thou thus/Through windows and through curtains call on us'/Must to thy motions lovers’ seasons run' (The sun rising, Donne). Stress, intonation, gesture are imposed on us as we read; we have the sense of a living speech, individual and intimate. It has a colloquial vigour. Donne’s originality in diction includes words not merely from the vocabulary of science but from colloquialism. Emphasizing male and female sexuality in the poems is also a prevalent point of reference in metaphysical poetry. The most spectacular example of this is may be “The Flea” of Donne. He uses “flea” as a conceit, to represent a sexual unian with his significant other. Using paradoxical metaphors, puns, ambiguities, double meanings, witty conceits are feature of what makes them. “The Definition of Love” by Marvell features puns, ambiguities, paradoxes, and double meanings with the subject of despair and the imposibility of desire. Despair is paradoxically described as “magnanimous”. Magnanimous Despair alon/Could show mr so divine a thing,/Where feeble Hope could ne’er have flown/But vainly flabbed its tinsel wing. Donne took metaphors from all spheres of life, especially from crafts and the sciences, and made frequent use of the 'conceit': a surprising, ingenious, far-fetched turn of ideas. .../If they be two, they are two so/As stiff twin compasses are two;/Thy soul, the fixed foot, makes no show/To move, but doth, if th’ other do (A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning, Donne). Furthermore, “Compass” symbolizes the relationship between lovers: two seperate but joint bodies. This simile is the most famous example of the “metaphysical conceit”. Donne used conceits to extend analogies and to make connections between dissimilar objects. In “To His Coy Mistress” Marvell compares the love to a vegetable in a waggish metaphore; “... /My vegetable love should grow/Vaster than empires, and more slow/...”. Imagery also impresses readers by its variety and its avoidance of the conventionally ornamented. “Ladies, look here; this is the thankfull glasse,/That mends the lookers eyes: this is the well/That washes what it shows…” (Herbert, The H. Scriptures 1). It is identical with the freshness and vividness, the feeling that we are now seeing something we had always heard about from others. Metaphysical poetry was not so much a movement per se as it was a school of thought; a way of assigning an other-worldly description to a known theme. All these stated so far in a way that, metaphysical poets marked an era with their authentic and creativity. They distinguished themselves from the previous poets, in that, they used science as a source of inspiration for their poems, which is a further proof of their intellectuality. Another significance of these poets reveal itself in their realistic attitude towards the theme of love. Unlike Elizabethan poets, the predecessors of the metaphysic poets, they do not idealize love, but do not revile it, either. They have a belief of co-existence of spiritual and bodily love at the same time. REFERENCES Helen Peters, H. (1985); The Review of English Studies, New Series, Vol. 36, Oxford University Pres, http://www.jstor.org/stable/515384 . Gardner, Helen Ed. (1972) The Metaphysical Poets. Penguin. 1972. Jones, R. Foster (1969). The Seventeenth Century; Studies in the History of english Thought and Literature from Bacon to Pope. Stanford University Press, Stanford, California Evans, B. Ifor (1940). Tradition and romanticisim; Studies in English Poetry from Chaucer to W. B. Yeats. Methuen & Co. Ltd., London. Ford, Boris Ed. (1956). From Donne to Marvell; A Guide to English Literature 3. Penguin Books, Britain. Daiches, David (1960). A Critical History of English Literature Volume 1. The Ronald Press Company, London Conrs, N. Thomas, Edt (2004). The Cambridge Companion To English Poetry; Donne To Marvell. Cambridge University Pres Tillyard, E. M. W. (1972). The Elizabethan World Picture. Harmondsworth: Pelican.