Like many literary terms, “metaphysical poetry” was not something that the designated poets themselves invented. Instead, in the decades after they flourished, it was John Dryden (1631-1700) and Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) who popularized the description. They did not mean it as a compliment. Instead, they saw this group of 16th century poets as writers who abandoned the rules of poetry and created something unnatural. It wasn’t until the 20th century, led by figures like T.S. Eliot, that the metaphysical poets were seen as something important and creative in and of themselves.
The five poets usually labeled as “metaphysical” were John Donne (1572-1631), Henry Vaughn (1621-1695), George Herbert (1593-1633), Andrew Marvell (1621-1678), and Richard Crashaw (1613-1649). Sometimes a sixth is added, that of John Milton (1608-1674), but Milton doesn’t quite fit what the other five were about. One of Donne’s short poems has entered the collective consciousness, with its famous lines of “No man is an island” and “For whom the bell tolls.”
Using conversational, everyday language, the metaphysical poets wrestled with big ideas. They often abandoned meter to delve deeper into what they were writing about. Three of them – Vaughn, Marvell, and Crashaw – lived and wrote through the tumultuous decades of the English Civil War, the execution of Charles I, the protectorate under Oliver Cromwell, and the restoration of the Stuart monarchy. Crashaw was an exile who died in poverty.
Poet, writer, and editor D.S. Martin finds the metaphysical poets to be inspirational and creative. And he’s published a poetry collection, The Role of the Moon, to pay tribute.
To continue reading, please see my post today at Tweetspeak Poetry.
Some Tuesday Readings
It is a gift – poem by Sonja Benskin Mesher.
“Butchering,” poem by Rhina Espaillat – Joseph Bottum at Poems Ancient and Modern.
“Song of Myself,” poem by Walt Whitman – Every Day Poems.
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