Metaphysical Poetry - Analysis of Theme and Poets,

                                                                Metaphysical Poetry 

             

       The word metaphysical was used by Samuel Johnson for the first time in a "negative" way to describe the poetry written by john Donne and his school. But with the passing of time the same term became a term of "uprising" for the poetry of Donne and his followers.

Characteristics :- Metaphysical poetry is a poetry in which far fetched images are used to signify love and other things. The metaphysical poets never tried to bring their images from the related fields but from some other fields that has nothing to do with poetry. They brought Images from Engineering , Agriculture , Architecture , Geography , Geometry and so on.

This attempt by metaphysical poets made this poetry unique thus it was immediately noticed by the intellectual readers. All the metaphysical poets contributed remarkably to the field of English poetry.

        1. Sweetest love I do not go  by John Donne :-

                   

Yesternight the sun went hence,

And yet is here today;

He hath no desire nor sense,

Nor half so short a way:

Then fear not me,

But believe that I shall make

Speedier journeys, since I take

More wings and spurs than he.

              The following lines are taken from Sweetest love I do not go by John Donne. In this lines he writes that last evening sun set and the darkest night fell but see now it is again day and sun has already raised in the sky; the limitless sky. Though he has no desire to come back and also he has not gained the sense to raise again , still he came and a new brighter day began so don’t worry my beloved . Don’t worry about me of coming back . I will come. Sun have to go around the whole Earth and then he comes back. So don’t fear about me coming back. My journey is not this much long to go around the world. And if sun comes after this rotation I will definitely come back soon. And also I have the desire to come back. So I will come back soon.

     2. Ester Wings by George Herbert

                               Lord, who createdst man in wealth and store,

Though foolishly he lost the same,

Decaying more and more,

Till he became

Most poore:

With thee

O let me rise

As larks, harmoniously,

And sing this day thy victories:

                               Then shall the fall further the flight in me

         

          The theme was adopted from Greek ancient times . If we see the poem from side ways we can see the shape of wings. This poem is a shape. The shape represent the the faling, then rising.

        The lines which are written above, focuses on the problems causesed by human sin. This stanza represents the decline of human kind . as we all know that Adam is the first man and his mistake he had to suffer and lost the grace of god. Here in this poem George Herbert thinks that he is also like Adam and mistakes in past so he requests Christ to help him and lead him to rise.

         We can also see some songs which has influence of metaphors in them in present times in Bollywood songs and Hollywood song. For example "tere shirt da mein ta button soniye" , " chand sifarish jo karta hamari" , " As long as you love me" and many other.      

3.  The pulley by George Herbert

When God at first made man,

Having a glass of blessings standing by,

“Let us,” said he, “pour on him all we can.

Let the world’s riches, which dispersèd lie,

Contract into a span.”

So strength first made a way;

Then beauty flowed, then wisdom, honour, pleasure.

When almost all was out, God made a stay,

Perceiving that, alone of all his treasure,

Rest in the bottom lay.

“For if I should,” said he,

“Bestow this jewel also on my creature,

He would adore my gifts instead of me,

And rest in Nature, not the God of Nature;

So both should losers be.

“Yet let him keep the rest,

But keep them with repining restlessness;

Let him be rich and weary, that at least,

If goodness lead him not, yet weariness

May toss him to my breast.”

          The pulley by George Herbert in a poem which is narrated by God himself when he started giving life to all. In this poem we see that God is also being selfish when it comes to him to be remembered by human or not.

          The poem starts from when god made human and gave life to them. Then he thought to pour the glass of blessings on human . when he poured first came Strength , then came beauty and followed by it wisdom came , and then came honor ,the second last thing was pleasure . when all of this poured God suddenly stopped and said to himself. I gave them everything but the last thing is "rest" (peace of mind) and if I’ll give them rest in the life they won’t remember me and they will adore only my gift, but not me . so i will not give them rest. As a result of that they will become restless and thus they have to come to me and so the finale result will be that god is needed and remembered by everyone. 

           Poet draw god as a negative character in this poem.but if we try to see this poem from the other prospective we can see that God is acting like a man on Earth who wants attention of other human being.

 Metaphysical Poem by Me 
 (this is my first ever poem , HOPE you like it...)


                                 When The VOLCANO meets TORNADO

So thou became, two different things be,

Me as a volcano and tornado thee will be,

Love became lava ,her air wants to be free,

I wants to stay here and you can’t sit still,

In thee rain is included, fire makes me,

Burst of love from my core, set her winds

Thinking not to surrender or kneel ,

Thee never thought what life will be ,

Without flower for a bee,

The rule of the nature for the nature should be,

The heart which loves should get love from thee,

When the tornado meets the volcano on the cliff,

Both have to face the bitter truth which hid within.