Metaphysical Conceit in the Poetry of John Donne

    Many of John Donne's poems contain metaphysical conceits and intellectual reasoning to build a deeper understanding of the speaker's emotional state. A metaphysical conceit can be defined as an extended, unconventional metaphor between objects that appear to be unrelated. Donne is exceptionally good at creating unusual unions between different elements in order to illustrate his point and form a persuasive argument in his poemsTheir work is a blend of emotion and intellectual ingenuity, characterized by conceit or “wit”—that is, by the sometimes violent yoking together of apparently unconnected ideas and things so that the reader is startled out of his complacency and forced to think through the argument of the poem. Metaphysical poetry is less concerned with expressing feeling than with analyzing it, with the poet exploring the recesses of his consciousness. The boldness of the literary devices used—especially obliquity, irony, and paradox—are often reinforced by a dramatic directness of language and by rhythms derived from that of living speech.

Definition of Metaphysical Poetry

You've probably heard of haikus, lyrical poems and limericks. All of those types of poetry have specific qualities that allow us to group them together. Metaphysical poetry is a little bit different. The poems classified in this group do share common characteristics: they are all highly intellectualized, use rather strange imagery, use frequent paradox and contain extremely complicated thought.

What Does Metaphysical Mean?

The word 'meta' means 'after,' so the literal translation of 'metaphysical' is 'after the physical.' Basically, metaphysics deals with questions that can't be explained by science. It questions the nature of reality in a philosophical way. Metaphysics can cover a broad range of topics from religious to consciousness; however, all the questions about metaphysics ponder the nature of reality. And of course, there is no one correct answer to any of these questions. Metaphysics is about exploration and philosophy, not about science and math.

Characteristics

The group of metaphysical poets that we mentioned earlier is obviously not the only poets or philosophers or writers that deal with metaphysical questions. There are other more specific characteristics that prompted Johnson to place the 17th-century poets together. Perhaps the most common characteristic is that metaphysical poetry contained large doses of wit. In fact, although the poets were examining serious questions about the existence of God or whether a human could possibly perceive the world, the poets were sure to ponder those questions with humor. Metaphysical poetry also sought to shock the reader and wake him or her up from his or her normal existence in order to question the unquestionable. The poetry often mixed ordinary speech with paradoxes and puns. The results were strange, comparing unlikely things, such as lovers to a compass or the soul to a drop of dew. These weird comparisons were called conceits. Metaphysical poetry also explored a few common themes. They all had a religious sentiment. In addition, many of the poems explored the theme of carpe diem (seize the day) and investigated the humanity of life. One great way to analyze metaphysical poetry is to consider how the poems are about both thought and feeling. Think about it. How could you possibly write a poem about the existence of God if you didn't have some emotional reaction to such an enormous, life-altering question?

What Is a Metaphysical Conceit?

During the 17th century, the metaphysical poets such as John Donne, Andrew Marvell, John Cleveland, and Abraham Cowley used a literary device known as the metaphysical conceit. A metaphysical conceit is a complex, and often lofty literary device that makes a far-stretched comparison between a spiritual aspect of a person and a physical thing in the world. Quite simply, a metaphysical conceit is an extended metaphor, which can sometimes last through the entire poem. A metaphysical conceit works to connect the reader's sensory perceptions to abstract ideas. Although the conceit slowly went away after the 17th century, due to being perceived as artifice, some later poets like Emily Dickinson used it. Let's take a look at some metaphysical conceit examples from a few famous poems.

John Donne's Metaphysical Conceit

John Donne is considered the pioneer of metaphysical poetry, and he made heavy use of the metaphysical conceit. For example, in his poem 'A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning,' he compares the souls of a couple to the points on an architect's compass. The two things are unalike on the surface, but Donne works the conceit to bring about comparisons between the two items. Let's take a look at this set of lines:

'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.
And though it in the center sit,
Yet when the other far doth roam,
It leans, and hearkens after it,
And grows erect, as that comes home.'

What Donne is saying is that the speaker's lover is akin to the 'fixed foot' of the compass, which always stays in place. The speaker is compared to the part of the compass that moves. Thus the feet of the compass always move together, and the lovers are like the compass because they