METAPHYSICAL POETRY
Shaira Tayaba
Charlie Elamparo
Robin Cobarrubia
Paulo de Mesa
Period 1
Metaphysical Poetry
Metaphysical poetry, a term first coined by
Samuel Johnson, it began its roots in 17thcentury England. This movement or type
of poetry is quite witty, ingenious, and highly
philosophical. It’s topics included love, war,
religion and more. It was a more sudden change
in style moving away from 16th century
dramatic prose and figurative language.
What is Metaphysical Poetry..
 First we should pay our attention the word
'Metaphysical'.
 It is made of 2 words 'meta' - beyond the
'physical‘(object) – meaning beyond the physical
representation of an object. For example to attain a
higher understanding of an even higher concept.
 Now, the combine sense in association with poetry
is, Metaphysical poetry in a particular sense is
beyond our physical world. It usually has means such
as heavenly, spiritually , and Intellectual thought.
During the times..
 17th‐century English poets whose work is notable for its
ingenious use of intellectual and theological concepts in
surprising metaphors, strange paradoxes, and far‐fetched
imagery.
 Prominent Poets of the time included:
1. Thomas Carew
2. Robert Southwell
3. Abraham Cowley
4. John Suckling
5. John Donne
Metaphysical Poetry
Poetic Techniques:
Themes:
 Wit
 Deep philosophical issues
 Irony
 Paradox
 Conceits
 Rhymes
 Relationships w/ people and
God
 Passage of time
 Death
 Unfolding of life’s truths
Thomas Carew (1595 – 1640)

Biography
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Son of a well-connected official
Educated at Merton College, Oxford
Worked as a diplomatic secretary in Italy, Holland, and France
His talent and skill earned him a place at court and served at Charles I’s
table
 Poems were not published until AFTER his death in 1640
 Only his friends such as John Donne and Ben Jonson got hand-written
copies of his work
 Polished and reset the fanciful notion of love for aristocratic audience
 Notable Works:
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A Cruel Mistress
A Divine Mistress
A Rapture
Another
The Spring

NOW that the winter's gone, the earth hath lost
Her snow-white robes ; and now no more the frost
Candies the grass, or casts an icy cream
Upon the silver lake or crystal stream :
But the warm sun thaws the benumbed earth,
And makes it tender ; gives a sacred birth
To the dead swallow ; wakes in hollow tree
The drowsy cuckoo and the humble-bee.
Now do a choir of chirping minstrels bring,
In triumph to the world, the youthful spring :
The valleys, hills, and woods in rich array
Welcome the coming of the long'd-for May.
Now all things smile : only my love doth lower,
Nor hath the scalding noon-day sun the power
To melt that marble ice, which still doth hold
Her heart congeal'd, and makes her pity cold.
The ox, which lately did for shelter fly
Into the stall, doth now securely lie
In open fields ; and love no more is made
By the fire-side, but in the cooler shade
Amyntas now doth with his Chloris sleep
Under a sycamore, and all things keep
Time with the season : only she doth carry
June in her eyes, in her heart January.
Analysis of Figurative
Language:
 Alliteration
 Chiasmus
 Metaphor
 Personification
 Paradox
 Pun
 Wit
 Irony
Robert Southwell (1561-1595)
Bio:
 Robert Southwell
 English Jesuit/poet
 A Jesuit is a member of a religious group, the Society of Jesus
 Arrested for treason
 Assassinate Queen Elizabeth (I)
 Worked with 2 other people
 Anthony Babington’s Plot
 Most of Southwell’s work was written in prison
 Most are religion based
 February 10, 1595
 Tried before the King’s Bench (Highest court of law)
 Hanged the next day
Notable works by Sir
Southwell:
 Epistle of Comfort
 A Short Rule of Good Life
 Triumphs Over Death
 Mary Magdalen’s Tears
“New Heaven, New War”
“This little babe so few days old,
Is come to rifle Satan’s fold;
All hell doth at His presence quake,
Though He Himself for cold do shake,
For in this weak unarmed wise
The gates of hell He will surprise”
Analysis of Figurative
Language:
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Analysis:
Metaphor – “This little babe so few days old, Is come to rifle Satan’s fold”
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Imagery – “Satan”; “He”; “gates of hell”
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Compares a “little babe” to a new Jesuit.
Fighting off the evil/”Satan”
Using Biblical figures
“He” refers to God
Preparing for a war
Feminine rhyme
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“wise” and “surprise”
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Attacking someone first (“Hell”, in this case) would be a smart choice
Theme – Overall
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Fight against evil
Heaven vs. Hell
This fits in to the metaphysical era due to its connection to a higher understanding of
religion during the times in which Southwell lived in.
Abraham Cowley (1618-1667)
Bio:
Abraham Cowley
Son of a wealthy London stationer.
Published his first volume of verse “Poetical Blossoms” when he was 15
years old.
Parliamentary party deprived him of fellowship
He then left Cambridge to join King Charles in Oxford and became Queen
Henrietta Maria's secretary.
He was imprisoned after he had returned to England.
Studied in medical after released and began writing and studying botany.
Notable Works:
 Against Fruition
 The Wish
 Anacreontics:
Drinking
 Ode. of Wit
COUNSEL 1667
 AH! what advice can I receive!
No, satisfy me first;
For who would physick-potions give
To one that dies with thirst?
A little puff of breath, we find,
Small fires can quench and kill;
But, when they're great, the adverse wind
Does make them greater still.
Now whilst you speak, it moves me much,
But straight I'm just the same;
Alas! th' effect must needs be such
Of cutting through a flame.
Analysis of Figurative
Language:
Analysis:
Metaphor: desire for help = thirst; small fire = small advice
Rhyme - first/thirst; kill/still; same/flame
Rhetorical question - "For who would physick-potions give / To one that dies with
thirst?"
Personification - of the wind and the fire.
Hyperbole- The last two lines can be interpreted as needing a advice so good that it
can cut through flame.
Theme- The theme is that advice can help us lean towards a decision but if we are
flooded with it, then we are unable to make a choice and become indecisive.
John Suckling (1609-1642)
 Mother died when he was 4 years old Father was appointed
Comptroller of James I's household in 1622
 Went to Trinity College in Cambridge but never got a degree
 Knighted in September 1630 for serving in the Thirty Years' War
 Died in 1630 by an unknown cause
Prominent works
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Why so Pale and Wan, Fond Lover
Ballad Upon a Wedding
Against Absence
The Invocation
There Never Yet Was Woman
Made
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There Never Yet Was Woman Made by Sir
John Suckling
I
THERE never yet was woman made,
Nor shall, but to be curst ;
And O, that I, fond I, should first,
Of any lover,
This truth at my own charge to other fools
discover !
2
You, that have promis’d to yourselves
Propriety in love,
Know women’s hearts like straw do move,
And what we call
Their sympathy, is but love to jet in general.
3
All mankind are alike to them ;
And, though we iron find
That never with a loadstone join’d,
’Tis not the iron’s fault,
It is because near the loadstone it was never
brought.
4
If where a gentle bee hath fall’n,
And laboured to his power,
A new succeeds not to that flower,
But passes by,
’Tis to be thought, the gallant elsewhere loads
his thigh.
5
For still the flowers ready stand :
One buzzes round about,
One lights, one tastes, gets in, gets out ;
All all ways use them,
Till all their sweets are gone, and all again
refuse them.
Analysis of Figurative
Language:
 Rhyme Scheme –
 Each stanza follow A B B C C
 Metaphors –
 bees, flowers, loadstone, iron
 Tone –
 Light-hearted (almost playful)
 Nature-based diction
 Straw, flower, bee
John Donne (1572-1631)
 John Donne, one of the most famous Metaphysical Poets. He was
also an English poet, satirist, lawyer, and priest.
 His personal relationship with spirituality is at the center of most
of his work, and the psychological analysis and sexual realism of
his work marked a exceptional separation from traditional
dramatic styles of the 16th century.
 In 1601 Donne secretly married Anne Moore with whom he had
12 children
 He died on 31 March 1631, accomplishing many a great poems
and literary works during his time.
Notable Works
 The Canonization
 The Flea
 The Sun Rising
 Hymn to God, my
god, in my
sickness.
The Broken Heart
By John Donne
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1He is stark mad, whoever says,

That he hath been in love an
hour,
Yet not that love so soon decays,
But that it can ten in less space
devour ;
Who will believe me, if I swear
That I have had the plague a year?
Who would not laugh at me, if I
should say
I saw a flash of powder burn a
day?

3If 'twere not so, what did become
Of my heart when I first saw
thee?
I brought a heart into the room,
But from the room I carried none
with me.
If it had gone to thee, I know
Mine would have taught thine
heart to show
More pity unto me ; but Love,
alas !
At one first blow did shiver it as
glass.

2Ah, what a trifle is a heart,
If once into love's hands it come !
All other griefs allow a part
To other griefs, and ask
themselves but some ;
They come to us, but us love draws
;
He swallows us and never chaws ;
By him, as by chain'd shot,
whole ranks do die ;
He is the tyrant pike, our hearts
the fry.
4Yet nothing can to nothing fall,
Nor any place be empty quite ;
Therefore I think my breast hath
all
Those pieces still, though they be
not unite ;
And now, as broken glasses show
A hundred lesser faces, so
My rags of heart can like, wish,
and adore,
But after one such love, can love
no more.
Analysis of Figurative
Language:
 In his poem “The Broken Heart”, Donne takes a relatively simple idea
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1.
2.
3.
4.
- that love destroys the heart, and portrays it into a series of
elaborate metaphors and imagery.
In each stanza, Donne personifies love in different angles:
Comparing to the plague. Metaphorically, it means that it applies
to everyone and that it grows until inevitably consuming the host.
Portrays love as a monster that destroys human beings.
Uses his own personal experience to depict when a love personally
destroyed his heart. He does this to offer his opinion where the
instant he saw his beloved, love shattered his heart like glass.
He portrays the heart as a mirror, after heartbreak the heart
remains intact, however somewhat like the shattered remains of a
broken mirror, able to reflect only emotions such as warmth and
affection, but no longer love.
Continued Analysis..
 Each stanza follows a rhyme scheme of ABABCCDD.
 This poem is an excellent example of Donne’s style during the
metaphysical movement, transforming a relatively simple idea
(love destroys the hearts that feel it) into a unique, elaborate
poem full of startling images and implications.
 The first stanza is metaphorical and explanatory, where it
states that love destroys the hearts that feel it and Donne
compares love to a plague.
 Truly an example of a metaphysical poem, for where do you
find a poet who can easily compare love to death by a violent
disease. Donne uses this basic idea, however irrelevant they
may seem, in order to illustrate the destructive nature of love
and the dangers of falling in love, for it may “swallow us” all.
AP Style Questions
 1. In literature, there are many references to nature and the
natural world that go beyond the literal meaning of the object.
Choose a work with literary merit and write an essay in which you
describe how the comparison to nature enhances the work and
its meaning.
 2. Compare two works of literary merit that both deal with God
and his effect on the natural world. One work must be from
before the 1700s and the other must be after the 1700s. Be sure
to discuss the feelings of the people of the time and how it
influences the author.
 3. (In reference to the poem There Never Yet Was Woman Made)
The following poem is by the metaphysical poet Sir John
Suckling. Read the poem carefully. Then write a well-developed
essay in which you analyze how the poet conveys his feelings
towards women of the time through the use of literary devices
such as metaphors and diction.
Sources
 http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/thomas-
carew
http://thereaderonline.co.uk/2009/03/16/featuredpoem-the-spring-by-thomas-carew/
http://www.cummingsstudyguides.net/Guides5/S
pring.html
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http://www.luminarium.org/renlit/southbio.htm
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14081a.htm
http://www.luminarium.org/renlit/eliza.htm
http://www.luminarium.org/sevenlit/donne/broken.h
tm
Interactive Lesson

The idea of the metaphysical movement can be simplified to
the time when people separated from common sense and saw
a bigger picture with life’s concepts.
 The idea that perception, and what’s accepted as
truth, must be only surmised to the five human
senses. But agreement on this idea denies the
existence of any spiritual concept, and denies
someone access to their higher potential.
 Does it seem crazy to say that there is something beyond what we
can sense with our physical bodies?
 Seeing the BIG PICTURE will help you see
everything that could possibly be involved in
what you’re looking at.
 By seeing something much more of
a whole rather than a single unit,
one can achieve a higher
understanding.
WATER
Iphone
Occupy Wall Street
Brain Function Quiz
Quiz questions
1.What do metaphysical poems usually focus on in terms of themes?
a)
Funny Current Events
b)
Political Affairs
c)
Educational System
d)
Deep Philosophical Issues
2.What was the theme of the poem “Counsel” ?
a)
That advice can both be helpful but sometimes it may be bad
b)
That the release of the flood will corrupt philosophical views
c)
That with great power, comes great responsibility
d)
Doing nothing will result in nothing
3. In basic simplicity, Metaphysical poets sought to see what?
a)
The big picture
b)
Immortals on 11/11/11
c)
Freedom
d)
Death and sadness
Quiz part II
4.When was Thomas Carew's works published?
a) 1994
b) 2012
c) 1565-1640
d) 1337
5.Who coined the term Metaphysical poetry?
a) Samuel Johnson
b) John Shepard
c) Clark Kent
d) Hal Jordan
Le Quiz continued..
6.Which literary devices were mostly used during the time?
a) Tone
b) Simile and metaphor.
c)
Personification
d) Diction
7.In the poem, “The Broken Heart” What did John Donne compare the heart to?
a) A Halo
b) A Covenant
c)
A Flood
d) A Mirror