METAPHYSICAL POETRY, AND IN RELATION TO.
Metaphysical poetry is concerned with the whole experience of man, but the.
intelligence, learning and seriousness of the poets means that the poetry is about the.
profound areas of experience, especially about love, romantic and sensual; about.
man's relationship with God - the eternal perspective, and, to a less extent, about.
pleasure, learning and art.
Metaphysical poems are lyric poems. They are brief but intense meditations,.
characterised by striking use of wit, irony and wordplay. Beneath the formal.
structure (of rhyme, metre and stanza) is the underlying (and often hardly less.
formal) structure of the poem's argument.
Wit and conceit were both aspects of a mental set, shared by writers looking for.
analogies and connections between things.
Conceit.
Definition: an idea or concept expressed in a clever way. Often took form in.
ingenious and consciously far-fetched metaphor. Conceits attempt to capture elusive.
insights into the nature of human experience, which are partly feelings and partly.
intellectual perceptions. They play between literal and figurative meaning.
Wit.
Definition: the apt association of thought and expression, calculated to surprise and.
delight by its unexpectedness.
A 17th century poet could display his wit in skilful logical argument. The density of.
texture in s poems come from the way in which they are developed by close.
argument: "----are some of s favourite little words. Quite.
often his enthymemic logic is obviously and outrageously fallacious - meant to amuse.
and amaze, like his witty conceits. Therefore, readers appreciate s poetry, as.
they are almost taken in by the fallacious pseudo-logic, seeing the brilliance of the.
deception, and then seeing that there was a point being made.
As well as manipulation of ideas, wit could be displayed in verbal expression, eg.
puns, quibbles, paradoxical word-play, pithy compressed and elliptical expressions.
In fact, some of the rapidity of thought in Donne comes from the compressed.