Metaphysical Poems

Metaphysical Poems

The poem "A Valediction: Forbidding mourning" is a typical metaphysical poem.

The word "metaphysical" means using words with their ordinary meaning, but are describing something by means of an image or symbol. This word is first used by the critic Samuel Johnson(1709-1784) and he used it as a despise term. It applied to a group of seventeen-century poets which he complained that their poetry has too much far-fetched meaning. That means they often use vocabularies from science or law that common people will not understand. For example, the word "spheres". He thinks that they are too proud of their wit. Thus, the crowd was criticizing the metaphors; however, they were out of critical favor for the 18th and 19th century. At the end of 19th century and the beginning of 20th century, the famous essay " The Metaphysical Poets" written by T.S.Eliot made people started to have interests in this book.

There are several qualities the metaphysical poems have:

 1. Use of ordinary speech mixed with puns, paradoxes, and conceits ( a paradoxical metaphor causing a shock to the reader by the strangeness of the objects compared: some examples: lovers and a compass, the soul and timber, the body and mind)

 2. Often poems are presented in the form of an argument. (ex: The Flea) From the poem "The Flea" we can see that the speaker is trying to persuade her lover to have sexual intercourse with him by using a flea and the woman rejects him. So they are having an argument in that poem.

3. In love poetry, the metaphysical poets often draw on ideas from Renaissance Neo-Platonism to show the relationship between the soul and body and the union of lovers' souls. For example, in stanza three: " moving of the earth" implies for earthling people's physical love and the trepidation of the spheres means their holy and noble love which based on spiritual contact.

4. Abstruse terminology often drawn from science or law. For example, the word " spheres" he used in this poem is a word used especially in science.

There is a group of English metaphysical poets, such as John Donne, George Herbert, Richard Crashaw, Andrew Marvell, Henry Vaughn and Abraham Cowley.

Reference

Fu Jen U. English Literaturee Databank

The Life of JOHN DONNE

(John Donne 1572-1631)

He was a poet born in London, England, U.K. He educated at Oxford and Cambridge and studied law in London. His future career was excellent, but his secret marriage with Ann More had dismissed and cast him into prison. Thus, his hopes of public career were put to an end. He had a firm Catholic background; however, in 1593 after his younger brother Henry died in prison because of harboring a priest, he gave up his Roman Catholic faith and joined the Anglican Church. His Catholic birth and training, implanted enthusiasm in metaphysical, and influenced a lot in his later works. Later in the year of 1615, Donne was appointed Royal Chaplain and in due course, he was appointed Reader in Divinity at Lincoln's Inn. And he made him one of the most eloquent preachers of his time.

His wife, Ann More married him at the age of 17, and passed away when she was 33 years old. (1617) During their marriage, they endure many years of poverty. Therefore, although Ann had born 12 children, there were only 7 whom survived. John must have loved his wife a lot because he sacrificed everything for her, and doubtlessly, their love must have been deep and lasting. His earliest poetry consisted of the "conceited verses" (using elaborate metaphors to link seemingly dissimilar subjects). Most of these were apparently written in the 1590s. They record a series of actual or fictitious love affaires, in which the lover woos, not by praising his mistress's beauty, but by arguing, cajoling, and plunging off into philosophical speculation and flights of fancy. They show a strange blend of the conversational (most of these poems open with a phrase that might come straight from colloquial speech) with the involved, and of the outspokenly erotic with theoretical questions apparently having little to do with the experience of love. His religious poems show the same passion and ingenuity as his love poetry.

His creative years can be divided into three periods.

 1. First period (1590-1601): a time of passion and cynicism. Works: Elegies, Songs and Sonnets, Problems and Paradoxes. ( including cynical, realistic, often sensual lyrics, essays and verse satires.)

2. Second period (1601-1617): a period of anguished meditation and flattery of the great. Works: Anniversaries and funeral poems. ( reveal that his faith in the order of things had been disrupted by the growing political, scientific and philosophic doubt of the times.

3. Third period (1618-1631): religious times Works: Devotions, sermons. (shows that in transferring his loyalty from the world to God. He retained his earlier passion.

"A Valediction : Forbidding Mourning"

Paraphrase

As virtuous men pass mildly away,

 and whisper to their souls to go,

whilst some of their sad friends do say,

"Now his breath goes," and some say, "No.

When virtuous men leave mildly, he whispers to their souls to go. While some of their sad friends say, "The breath is gone", and some say "no"

" So let us melt, and make no noise,

No tear-floods, nor sigh-tempests move ;

 'Twere profanation of our joys

To tell the laity our love.

So let us get together physically and spiritually, and do not make noise, do not have tears and do not sigh .It will ruin the joy of our love if we tell the people our love. (Because they do not understand our noble love)

Moving of the earth brings harms and fears ;

Men reckon what it did, and meant ;

But trepidation of the spheres,

Though greater far, is innocent.

People always see the harms and fears that caused by earthquake. But the movement of the spheres causes more influences. However, people do not notice it .So they feel that it is harmless.

Dull sublunary lovers' love

(Whose soul is sense) cannot admit

Of absence, 'cause it doth remove

The thing which elemented it.

Dull sublunary lover's love, which depends on sense, cannot last long and is changeable, because their love remove with their lover's absence .The absence will be the elements to ruin their love.

But we by a love so much refined,

That ourselves know not what it is,

Inter-assured of the mind,

Care less, eyes, lips and hands to miss.

But our love is so pure and noble that we do not know how to describe it. The firmness of our mind does not build up by the encounter of eyes, lips and hands. (If these things do not exist, it does not matter.)

Our two souls therefore, which are one,

Though I must go, endure not yet

A breach, but an expansion,

Like gold to airy thinness beat.

Therefore, our two souls are in one. Though I must go, if we endure our love, it will not cause a breach an expansion. Like the gold transform into foil (just like endless connection between us)

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 the other do.

If we are going to separate into two, we will like the compasses. Your soul, the fixed one of the compasses does not move. It will only move when the other foot does.

And though it in the centre sit,

Yet, when the other far doth roam,

It leans, and hearkens after it,

And grows erect, as that comes home.

And though the fixed one sits in the center, yet when the other foot far wanders, the fixed one leans and listened to it. And when it comes back, the other grows erect.

Such wilt thou be to me, who must,

Like th' other foot, obliquely run ;

Thy firmness makes my circle just,

And makes me end where I begun.

You will be one of the feet of the compasses to me. If one of the feet moves, the other one moves together. Your firmness makes my circle right and I will always return to where I begun.

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Vocabulary

valediction (n.): farewell.

mourning (n.): mourning is behavior which you show sadness about a person's death.

virtuous (adj.): if you describe someone as virtuous, you mean that they behave in a moral and correct way.

 tempest (n.): violent storm.

 profanation (n.): treat a sacred thing with irreverence or disregard.

 laity (n.): lay people, as distinct from the clergy.

reckon (v.): consider, regard or take into account.

trepidation (n.): fear.

 refine(v.): clean, pure.

obliquely (adv.): not straight, indirectly

 breach (n.): breaking of or failure to observe a law.

expansion (n.): enlargement.

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Speaker / Listener

1. the speaker: the author himself.

2. listener: his lover. It is said she's his wife.

Metaphors

1. "As virtuous men pass mildly away, and whisper to their souls to go… so let us melt, and make no noise. "

Here the author uses metaphor of a virtuous man passing away that refers to his long departure, and asks his lover not to be sad, and do not cry.

2. "No tear-floods, nor sigh-tempests move. "

John Donne uses floods to compare with tears, and tempests to compare with sign. Hyperbole and natural phenomena are used to be compared to this love relationship. He uses this kind of emotional outbreak of laity's reaction to separation, so as to highlight how refined his love is.

3. "Moving of the earth brings harm and fears…though greater far, is innocent."

(the third stanza) The author implies the terrifying earthquakes as physical departure of those laity people. The movement of the spheres implies the spiritual departure of his lover and him.

We also think that the earthquakes mean the love between laity people. Their love changes quickly, and is imperfect. That's why the author, again, describes those people's loves as "dull and sublunary."( People in his period of time believe that the surface below the moon is imperfect). He thinks their love is not stable and is based on unity of physical (even sexual) element. However, he considers his and his lover's love is far greater and superior. He compares his love to the innocent and harmless movement of the spheres. Because he thinks their love is spiritual, so the long distance (or his departure) between he and his lover will not and cannot change their love.

Simile

1. "Like gold to airy thinness beat."

 John Donne compares his love to the gold which has good expansion. It can be enlarged far just like their love can spread widely and will not change for the distance.

2. "As stiff twin compasses are two: Thy soul, the fixed foot…"

The relationship of the two lovers is just like the compasses. One of the ends is apart, which implies their separation. However, they are together, just like the other ends of the compasses are combined together. Also, the outer leg represents the man, the inner leg sits his lover. Therefore, their relationship is just like compasses which closely are related to each other.

Tone/ Imagery

1. Tone: sincere.

2. Imagery: the gold, and the compasses.

Symbol

1.melt:

physically and spiritually mixed together.

2.The sphere:

perfection which represents the union of souls in a relationship.

3.The circle:

it means perfection, too.

4. The compasses:

combination of two lovers; closely related to each other. That kind of relationship which cannot be separated.

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Structure

1. Stanza one: We consider it as a "foreword". It tells readers not only the reasons why this poem formed but also the background and situation of the poem. It talks about a man is going to leave far away and ask his lover not to be sad for their love is noble.

2. Stanza two to five (the first persuasive view point): The speaker convinced the woman, his lover by telling her that his departure will not change their love for their love is based on inter-assured of the minds, not on physical contact, such as eyes, lips and head. The author also tells readers that their love is noble so laity people cannot understand it. Besides, he uses metaphors. For example, in stanza three, he compares the pain of two lovers physical separation to the earthquakes.

3. Stanza five to the last stanza (the second persuasive view point): The speaker still uses metaphors such as the endless expansion of gold to imply no matter how far they are apart, they are always together. He also compares their closely related and inseparable relationship to the compasses which its two legs are combined together whenever. The compasses means that even one part of them are separated, the other parts are still together. Plus, the outer leg moves (the man), the inner leg (the woman) moves, too. This metaphor describes perfectly their relationship.

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"A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning"

The poet begins by comparing the love between his beloved and himself with the passing away of virtuous men. Such men expire so peacefully that their friends cannot determine when they are truly dead. Likewise, his beloved should let the two of them depart in peace, not revealing their love to “the laity.”

Earthquakes bring harm and fear about the meaning of the rupture, but such fears should not affect his beloved because of the firm nature of their love. Other lovers become fearful when distance separates them—a much greater distance than the cracks in the earth after a quake—since for them, love is based on the physical presence or attractiveness of each other. Yet for the poet and his beloved, such a split is “innocent,” like the movements of the heavenly spheres, because their love transcends mere physicality.

Indeed, the separation merely adds to the distance covered by their love, like a sheet of gold, hammered so thin that it covers a huge area and gilds so much more than a love concentrated in one place ever could.

He finishes the poem with a longer comparison of himself and his wife to the two legs of a compass. They are joined at the top, and she is perfectly grounded at the center point. As he travels farther from the center, she leans toward him, and as he travels in his circles, she remains firm in the center, making his circles perfect.

Analysis

The first two of the nine abab stanzas of “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning” make up a single sentence, developing the simile of the passing of a virtuous man as compared to the love between the poet and his beloved. It is thought that Donne was in fact leaving for a long journey and wished to console and encourage his beloved wife by identifying the true strength of their bond. The point is that they are spiritually bound together regardless of the earthly distance between them.

He begins by stating that the virtuous man leaves life behind so delicately that even his friends cannot clearly tell the difference. Likewise, Donne forbids his wife from openly mourning the separation. For one thing, it is no real separation, like the difference between a breath and the absence of a breath. For another thing, mourning openly would be a profanation of their love, as the spiritual mystery of a sacrament can be diminished by revealing the details to “the laity” (line 8). Their love is sacred, so the depth of meaning in his wife’s tears would not be understood by those outside their marriage bond, who do not love so deeply. When Donne departs, observers should see no sign from Donne’s wife to suggest whether Donne is near or far because she will be so steadfast in her love for him and will go about her business all the same.

The third stanza suggests that the separation is like the innocent movement of the heavenly spheres, many of which revolve around the center. These huge movements, as the planets come nearer to and go farther from one another, are innocent and do not portend evil. How much less, then, would Donne’s absence portend. All of this is unlike the worldly fear that people have after an earthquake, trying to determine what the motions and cleavages mean.

In the fourth and fifth stanzas, Donne also compares their love to that of “sublunary” (earth-bound) lovers and finds the latter wanting. The love of others originates from physical proximity, where they can see each other’s attractiveness. When distance intervenes, their love wanes, but this is not so for Donne and his beloved, whose spiritual love, assured in each one’s “mind,” cannot be reduced by physical distance like the love of those who focus on “lips, and hands.”

The use of “refined” in the fifth stanza gives Donne a chance to use a metaphor involving gold, a precious metal that is refined through fire. In the sixth stanza, the separation is portrayed as actually a bonus because it extends the territory of their love, like gold being hammered into “aery thinness” without breaking (line 24). It thus can gild that much more territory.

The final three stanzas use an extended metaphor in which Donne compares the two individuals in the marriage to the two legs of a compass: though they each have their own purpose, they are inextricably linked at the joint or pivot at the top—that is, in their spiritual unity in God. Down on the paper—the earthly realm—one leg stays firm, just as Donne’s wife will remain steadfast in her love at home. Meanwhile the other leg describes a perfect circle around this unmoving center, so long as the center leg stays firmly grounded and does not stray. She will always lean in his direction, just like the center leg of the compass. So long as she does not stray, “Thy firmness makes my circle just, / And makes me end where I begun,” back at home (lines 35-36). They are a team, and so long as she is true to him, he will be able to return to exactly the point where they left off before his journey.

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