Traces of Metaphysical features in John Donne Poetry IGNOU MEG 1 British Poetry

Metaphysical poetry is often characterised by the freshness and zest of its narrative voices. Questions – or interrogatives , imperatives and use of conceit are the devices that Donne powerfully uses to be a member of this group.

Examples

‘The Good Morrow’ demonstrates the abundance  of questioning in Donne’s work. The speaker asks very boldly;

I wonder by my troth, what thou and I
Did, till we loved. Were we not wean'd till then?
But sucked on country pleasures, childishly?
Or snorted we in the ’seven sleepers' den?

Enquiry/ Questioning  is depicted in 'The Canonization'.

Alas, alas, who's injured by my love?
What merchant's ships have my sighs drowned?
Who says my tears have overflowed his ground?

These questions loudly safegaurd the lovers’ rights against powerful worldly pressures.

Next feature Imperative :
Imperatives

The poem’s imperatives possess the same force, vigour and intent:

For God's sake hold your tongue, and let me love,
Or chide my palsy, or my gout,
My five gray hairs, or ruined fortune flout,
With wealth your state, your mind with arts improve,
Take you a course, get you a place,
Observe his honour, or his grace,
Or the King's real, or his stamped face
Contemplate, what you will, approve,
So you will let me love.

Commands are used similarly in 'The Sun Rising' too:

... go chide
Late schoolboys and sour prentices,
Go tell court-huntsmen that the King will ride,
Call country ants to harvest offices;

Conceits
Creative metaphors – or conceits – and comparisons are perhaps the most widely known USP of metaphysical work.

The Flea' uses a conceit as a means of flirtation – and sexual coercion – too.

Mark but this flea, and mark in this,
How little that which thou deny’st me is;
It sucked me first, and now sucks thee,
And in this flea our two bloods mingled be;

A Valediction Forbidding Mourning' is another fascinating text to consider in terms of conceits

The poet compares the depth of his love with the two legs of compass. The farther they move, more they lean towards each other.
He uses natural disasters, astrological happenings, metallurgy – to describe the durability of their love.

Similarly, in the poem, "The Good-Morrow", we find some startling and shocking or fantastic conceits  Here he says, the lover is a whole world to his beloved and she is a whole world to him, not only that they are two better hemispheres who constitute the whole world. Here the poet says,

"Where can we finde two better hemispheres,

Without sharpe North, without declining West?"

In the poem, "The Canonization", we find the use of conceit.

"Alas, alas. who's injur'd by my love?

What merchant's ships have my sighs drown'd?"

The poet assumes that a lover. ship have the power to drown ships, that his tears may flood the grounds. Here he makes use of conceit and hyperbolic tone simultaneously.

In the Poem "Hymn to God, My God, in My Sickness” he makes remarkable use of conceit.

Donne likely wrote “Hymn to God, My God, in My Sickness” sometime between 1623 and 1635. ... In the first stanza the poet compares himself to music to be used by or for God: “I shall be made Thy music” (line 3). As he awaits entry into the holy room, he “tunes” himself as an instrument.

In a nutshell, conceits and other metaphysical featurea are the swift and smootg creation of John Donne. To him, conceits come to his poetry as  naturally as earth revolves round the Sun.  He stands as an epitome of metaphysical Poet and mostly for such uses of features, he becomes the best metaphysical poet.

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