JOHN DONNE AND OTHERS METAPHYSICAL POETS OF 17TH CENTURY

JOHN DONNE AND OTHERS METAPHYSICAL POETS OF 17TH CENTURY

    JOHN DONNE

John Donne was born in 1575, he started writing in 1590’s through the Jacobean age and died in 1631.Thus he is a conceiting link between the Elizabethan age and Puritan Age. The age of Donne comprising the last decade of 16^th century and early decades of 17^th century is therefore, an age of transition. By this time the Renaissance impulse has exhausted itself, the Elizabethan zest for life is gone, and the Elizabethan exuberance and optimism has been succeeded by a mood of apprehension, disillusionment and defeat.

The poetry of John Donne may be divided into two groups-(1) Secular poems and (2) Divine poems. The secular poems comprise:

SONG AND SONNETS

• The Elegies
• The Satires
• Verse Letters
• Epithalamiums
• The progress of Soul
• Epicedes and Obsequies
• The Anniversaries

DONNE RELIGIOUS POETRY

• The Divine Poems
• Holly Sonnets
• Miscellaneous Divine poems

DONNE’S PROSE WORK

• Paradox and Problem
• Biathanatos
• Pseudo-martyr
• Ignatius His Conclave
• Essays in Divinity
• Devotions
• Sermons

GEORGE HERBERT

The age of Herbert’s poetry is limited; he wrote only on religious themes and nearly all his poems are comparatively short lyrics. Their quality, however, both in content and techniques, invites the adjective ‘great’. Herbert was not troubled by doctrinal doubts, for he accepted whole-heartedly the tenets of Church of England; nor is there any mysticism in his poems. His own words, in his last  message to Nicholas Farrar, clearly describe their subject matter. “ A picture of the many spiritual conflicts that have past betwixt (God and my soul, before I could submit mine to the will of Jesus, my master, in whose service  I have now found perfect freedom. “ He writes of the problem of resignation and of his sense of his unworthiness; he explores and analyses as subtly as Donne his own emotional relationship with God, constantly striving towards the closer knowledge of God and of himself.

One aspect of Herbert’s poems, which is likely to strike the reader at once, is that many of them are direct colloquies with God, expressed in a conversational tone of remarkable intimacy, which ,however, is controlled with such tact that it never degenerates into sentimentality. The effect is completely natural because of Herbert’s ability to suggest the speaking voice. This he does with ease and range- from the courtly to the vigorously colloquial- that give his verse a dramatic quality which his fondness for dialogue makes particularly noticeable.

Herbert’s poetry expresses the combination of intellect and sensibility and the flexibility of attitude characteristic of metaphysical wit; but his use of imagery and conceit differs considerably from that of Donne. He does not draw his images from scientific or scholastic learning, as Donne often does, but from familiar everyday sources.

Despite his intellectual vigour and subtlety of Herbert’s poems, they are always graceful and usually lucid, Moreover, they are expressed in language of a purity which drew from Coleridge the comment; nothing can be more fine, manly and unaffected.

THOMAS CAREW

Like that of his greater successor, Marvell, Carew’s poetry combines the influences of Donne and Jonson and he was fully aware of his debt. His Elegie upon the death of the Deane of Paul’s , Dr. John Donne, is not only a fine poem but a remarkable demonstration of critical insight; and his poem to Ben Jonson records the awareness of the value of careful artistry which the Cavaliers learnt from him.

Carew has neither the intellectual range and profundity nor the intensity of passion of Donne, and he does not use Donne’s dramatically forceful, broken rhythms, Though he praises Donne in Elegie for doing away with the classical impediment, his own work is strewn with classical references.

Though Carew was a rake and a frivolous courtier, it must not be assumed that his work is superficial and merely charming.

RICHARD CRASHAW

The main body of  Crashw’s poetry appeared in steps to the Temple (1646), a collection of religious poems to which a section of secular poems. The Delight of Muses, was attached. The title Steps to the Temple recalls Herbert, but Crashaw was utterly unlike Herbert as a poet.

Crashaw is a uneven poet, lacking in discipline and critical sensibility. His feeling is expressed in verse of great work.

HENRY VAUGHAN

Vaughan’s earlier, secular verse is represented chiefly by To Amoret. His secular verse is much inferior to the religious poems of Silex Scintillans. It is extremely derivative, but what is more important is that the  poems seem to be written rather because Vaughan wanted to write poetry than because he has anything urgent to say. When he models himself on Donne, his use of experience.

The poems of Silex Scintillants show that a great development has taken place. The influence of George Herbert, which Vaughan acknowledged, is obvious enough in the abundant borrowings of theme, titles, metrical forms and phrases from the temple.

ANDREW MARVELL

Marvell was not a great originator such as Donne, or even technically inventive as Herbert was, though his handling of verse is masterly, Rather, his work reveals the successful assimilation and fusion of two great  poetic influence  of the early 17^th century. It combines the passionate , probing intellectuality of Donne with the clarity and poise of Jonson.

But Marvall is now admired for others characteristics as well; characteristics that T.S Eliot had in mind when he wrote that the special quality of Marvell’s verse is ‘ Quality of civilization’ of a traditional habit of  life.

              ABRAHM COWLEY

Cowley’s great reputation after the Restoration was due to the fact that though he wrote in the metaphysical manner so far as he used conceits, puns, argument and so on, his mind was radically different from Donne’s. He lacked intensity of  passion and depth of insight. His wit is a matter of ingenuity, and his images are usually decorative and fanciful rather than a means of exploring experience or resolving conflict. He lacks the fusion of thought and feeling which produces the characteristic metaphysical intensity, and the experiences he conveys are less complex.

It is in fact, the Augustan tendency in Cowley which made him so popular in his own time and well into the eighteen century. He wrote in the metaphysical manner and his work could be enjoyed as ‘fanciful’ or  ‘quaint’ but it made no demands on Augustan readers such as are made by the poetry of Donne.

SWIFT'S PROSE STYLE (GULLIVER TRAVEL) BY JONATHAN SWIFT

    SWIFT'S PROSE STYLE      

Swift is undoubtedly, the greatest prose writer of his age and one of the greatest writers of all times. Many critics like Williams Deans, Howells, Dr. Johnson, Coleridge and T.S Eliot called Jonathan Swift the greatest writer of the prose. T.S Eliot goes so that as to call, Swift the greatest writer of English prose, and the greatest man who has ever written great English prose. Evidently there are some reasons for his greatness

  

One of the causes of the popularity of “Gulliver Travel” is the simple and direct narrative style of the book. The plain description gives us the impression that the author is describing which he has himself seen or experienced. Here, for example is his description of , How Gulliver was served good in Lilliput.

        “ I had three hundred cooks to dress my victuals .Dr Jonathan Style was pompous and bombastic, was the first to appreciate the simplicity of Swift’s style. He said, “The reader of Swift needs no previous knowledge.” Coleridge, whose own prose was marked by metaphysical subtlety, also paid a tribute to simplicity of Swift style. He said, “ Swift style is in its line: the manner is a complete expression of the matter."

  

When Swift started writing he did not adopt the prose style of his predecessors. Swift style is lucid and terse. He seems to have no difficulty in finding words to express exactly the impression which he wishes to convey. His sentences come home to the reader, like  the words of great orator or advocate with convincing force. He realizes so clearly what he is describing that the reader is , of necessity and impressed.

Swift defined style as “ proper words in proper places.” This definition fits his own writing perfectly well. Swift’s prose is an example of the right words in the right place. His words are selected that they convey exactly the impression he wishes to create. He  selects the most appropriate words to express his thoughts. The words suit the subject perfectly. Sometimes he even ignores the rules of grammar in order to express himself in a way which will create the correct impression. There is a little ornament: there is none of divine simplicity of Bunyan : there is none of the majesty of Milton, but there is workman-tike adaptation of means to end. Referring to his style, Dr. Jonathan has said; His style was well suited to his thoughts, which are never decorated by sparkling conceits, elevated by ambitious sentences or variegated by far-sought learning.”

According to Matthew Arnold, the qualities of good prose are are ‘unfairly’, regularity, precision and balance.” These are exactly the qualities of Swift’s prose. He always says clearly and precisely what he means. As an example, we can see the description of a minister of state given by Gulliver to his Honyhnhnm master.

                        “ I told him that a first or chief minister of state who was the person I intended to describe, was a creature wholly exempt from over joy and grief, love and hatred, pity and anger; at least make use of no other passions but a violent desire of wealth, power and titles; that he applies his words to all uses, except to the indication of his mind; that he never tells a truth, but with an intent that you should take it for a lie, nor a lie, but with a design that you should take if for a truth."

  These sentences are pointed and direct and the plain statement of the minister’s character only heightens the conformity of the hypocrisy and villainy. His style suits the matter precisely.

  As  a story teller Swift is unsuppressed for his approach to the art of fiction he combines the richness of adult intelligence with the clarity and directness of a child’s mind. As a result, his Gulliver’s Travel has a two-folded appeal. For a child, it is simple narrative of the travels of Gulliver to some strange lands, and his interesting experiences there. For the intellectuals it is a satire on the follies of his age as well as of human beings in general. His style enables him to tell a story clearly with exactly the right amount of detail and to describe equally clearly such complicated processes as the capture of the Blesfuscu fleet, or the schemes of projectors. The book is written with such consummate ease that we are apt to overlook the skill with with which Swift achieves this object.

It is often said that Swift’s prose style lacks imagination and passion. A French critic says: “ Swift style lacks eloquence of ideas and sentiments. Eloquence in his sense is mind’s highest reach and widest conquest. It is the creative energy of life itself, manifested on those frontiers which we call variously religion, philosophy and poetry.” But these views lack vitality and are deficient in truth.

The age of Swift is called “ The Age of Prose and Reason”. Swift came under the influence of his age—an age when imagination and emotions were subordinated to reason and wit. People believed in the supremacy of reason ; and their thoughts were determined by reason. Hence, Swift describes both imagination and emotions. He tries to convince his readers. He appeals to their minds not to their heats. Moreover, he offers a “ criticism of life” ; and criticism has no link, Whatsoever, with imagination and emotions. There are no imaginative flights, nor soaring into the infinite, no raptures of idealism, no fine frenzies of passion; there is just charity.