DONNE TO COWLEY - THE METAPHYSICAL POETS— BA English, MA English

THE METAPHYSICAL POETS—DONNE TO COWLEY

 

OBJECTIVES

 

The objectives of this unit are to enable you to:

• Identify Donne as a metaphysical poet
• Understand Henry Vaughan’s poetry
• Know Andrew Marvell’s style of writing poetry
• Evaluate John Milton’s dedication to religion in the epic ‘Paradise Lost’
• Know Thomas Carrey’s style of writing poetry
• Understand Herrick and Cowley’s style of writing poetry

 

INTRODUCTION

The term metaphysical poets, was so called by the poet and critic Samuel Johnson. He called a certain group of poets, metaphysical poets, because he wanted to portray a loose group of British lyric poets who belonged to the 17th century. These poets were commonly interested in metaphysical issues and a common method of examining them. Their writings were marked by the innovativeness of metaphor (these included comparisons being called as ‘metaphysical conceits’). These poets did not have any official affiliation; in fact, a majority of them did not even know or read each other. The changing times had a significant influence on their poetry. The new sciences and the newly discovered morally wrong scenes of the 17th century, were also other factors influencing their poetry. These poets are generally identified as the ‘Metaphysical Poets’, which means, the poets whose topics included major things like God, creation and afterlife. They got the name only after they died, due to which they never learnt as to how they were viewed by the masses. The most popular metaphysical poets are John Donne, Andrew Marvell, Henry Vaughan among others

Metaphysical Poetry is a kind of poetry that lays stress on the belief that the logical aspect rules the emotional; signified by sarcasm, absurdity and extraordinary comparisons of unlike features; the latter often being fanciful, to the limit of peculiarity.

In this unit, you will learn about the famous metaphysical poets and their poetries. You will also learn about John Milton, a Puritan poet, along with an analysis of Book 1 of his most famous epic, Paradise Lost.

3.1 JOHN DONNE

 

John Donne, one of the most popular metaphysical poets, was an Englishman who lived in the former part of the 17th century. His contemporaries include other famous metaphysical poets such as George Herbert and Andrew Marvell.

 

His birthplace was Elizabethan England. He was born into a religious Catholic family in the year 1572. He himself happened to be an extremely devout man, who underwent a lot of persecution owing to his Catholic status. He was not permitted to go to either Oxford or Cambridge to grow to be a priest. Therefore, in order to accomplish his aims he became an Anglican. The priesthood motivated some incredible religious verse. However, it is for his love songs and sonnets that he is universally acclaimed. These are marked by their multiplicity of moods and attitudes. Donne is thought to be a metaphysical poet. Metaphysics is a part of philosophy dealing with any subject that surpasses its traceability through the senses. Therefore, the mind, the time, free will, God and here, love, are all matters of metaphysical thought. ‘The Good Morrow’ is a key sample of one of Donne’s metaphysical poems.

 

According to Dryden, ‘He affects the metaphysics, not only in his satires, but in his amorous verses, where nature only should reign; and perplexes the minds of the fair sex with nice speculations of philosophy, when he should engage their hearts, and entertain them with the softnesses of love. In this . . . Mr. Cowley has copied him to a fault.’ Probably the only writer before Dryden to speak of a certain metaphysical school or group of metaphysical poets is Drummond of Hawthornden (1585 – 1649), who in one of his letters speaks of ‘Metaphysical Ideas and Scholastical Quiddities’.

 

3.1.1  THE GOOD MORROW

‘The Good Morrow’ is a poetry consisting of twenty-one lines, categorized into three paragraphs. The poet speaks to the woman he loves as they wake up after spending the night together.

The poem starts with a direct question from the poet to his love. Purposely exaggerating, the poet speaks of his conviction that their lives only started when they fell in love. Earlier, they were just infants at their mothers’ breasts or were involved in childish ‘country pleasures’.

Michael Hall says that ‘The Good Morrow’ is a sequential and spatial poem.  It is with the help of this poem that the speaker makes a revelation of his increasing maturity and consciousness of his love as a reply to his stirring passion. The reinforcement of this union is done through the musical theme of the poem. That the poem is sequential is proved by the fact that it goes on from a figurative phase of infancy in the first stanza, to the dawn of the present in the next stanza and eventually in the final para, to an everlasting viewpoint of their relationship in the times to come. The poetry symbolizes space, in that love is initially represented as being confined to ‘one little roome’, or a cave, to expanding to fill an entire ‘world’, then contracting all this love into a powerful force that is contained in the eyes of the pair. One can also view the poem as the attainment of maturity by the narrator, which can be seen in the progression of his life of physical attraction to that of pure love, which ultimately eagerly waits to culminate in being united with his lover for eternity. Moreover, a growing awareness is experienced by the narrator about his love for the beloved. Initially he was occupied with other ladies, and he soon realized that all these ladies merely reflected the one that he was actually looking for—the true woman. Additionally, the poetry is based on a theme of awakening.

The poem starts with the speaker symbolically sleeping in a cave, similar to Plato’s analogy. However, he is finally released by his lady who makes him emerge into the daylight, ‘The Good morrow’. He is now a transformed man who is becoming increasingly aware of his love. Moreover, the speaker emphasizes this union through the musicality of the verse. Initially the poem focuses on the couple with references that emphasize ‘we’, but concludes with sound that emphasizes ‘I’. This is a representation of the union of the two halves into the one ‘I’.

Donne’s poetry is typically dramatic. A fine method of making an observation of this is to see the beginning of each poem. In The Good Morrow the ‘I’ voice keeps putting forth questions to which he insists an answer. Although the question put is a semi-rhetorical question—the other person is never allowed a moment to reply!

This is in striking contrast to the much gentle second stanza. It begins with a note of confined triumph and finishes with a convincing plea to enjoy their world. There are no uncertainties any more.

Michael Hall analysing the poem says that, there are but a numbered people who express love as completely as John Donne. Donne, in this poem, makes full use of the innumerable devices of poetry for communicating his narrator’s appealing message to his beloved. He makes use of elements, such as, structure, symbolic language, perspective and tone that supports the speaker in his undertaking, in a creative manner. In any case, all the characteristics of the poem are not completely evident because of the perceptive references and allusions by the knowledgeable poet. Instances of these elements which have not been clearly brought forth can be seen in the first para’s ‘seaven sleepers den’ phrase, the discovering metaphors of the second para and the semi-circular images of the last para.  Externally, these allusions may appear to have been recklessly made a part of the central concept. However, as the poem progresses we will be able to know that these allusions contribute majorly to further support the narrator’s message. We will find out that Donne’s poetry is a poetry that effectively makes use of the devices in order to increase the poetic capacity of the verse. The intellectual allusions and references  enhance narrator’s message to his lover.

STRUCTURE

The structure of the poem is such that it enhances the speaker’s message to his beloved. It contains three paragraphs with each paragraph including seven lines. Besides, every para has been further divided into a quatrain and a triplet. In the book, ‘John Donne and the Metaphysical Gesture’, Judah Stampfer notes that each ‘iambic pentameter quatrain is rounded out, not with a couplet, but a triplet with an Alexandrine close a, b, a, b, c, c, c.’ (142). This division is not solely reflected in the rhyme scheme, but also in the verse. For instance, the quatrain is made use of for revealing the narrator’s state of mind, whereas the triplet permits the narrator to ponder on that outlook. Besides, the first stanza methodically makes use of the assonance for reinforcing the term ‘we’, which is achieved by the long ‘e’ sound being repeated. For instance, each of these terms have been taken from the first stanza: we, wean’d, countrey, childlishly, sleepers, fancies, bee, any, beauty, see, desir’d, dreame, thee. It is evident that far from being a coincidence this is an incredible technique to lay further stress on the two lovers being united as one. In any case, Donne makes use of the assonance for the reverse influence in the final para. Rather than concentrating on the couple, the narrator concentrates on himself by the reinforcement of the term ‘I’. This is achieved by the long ‘I’ sound being repeated. For instance, each of these terms can be seen in the third para: I, thine, mine, finde, declining, dyes, alike, die. Undoubtedly, the long ‘e’ sound has been used in the third stanza, but it is the long ‘i’ sound that rules. This results in an evident contradiction to that which the narrator says, besides the musical nature of the poem. From a musical perspective, instead of being primarily focused on the union, the narrator seems to be increasingly concerned with himself.

The symbolic language that Donne uses coupled with the narrator’s perspective and the tone, add beauty to the poem. Firstly, one can see the presence of sexual symbolism in the first para. For instance, terms like ‘wean’d’ and ‘suck’d’ bring out breast symbols. Such weighty words even enable the identification of  ‘countrey pleasures’ in the form of a metaphor for breasts. One more metaphorical example is the term ‘beauty’ in line 6 that in fact is a representation of the woman. One can even notice the presence of ‘metaphysical conceits’ in the poem. An instance is the semi-circular imagery that represents the lovers in the final para. In the next para, there is an instance of hyperbole where the narrator says ‘makes one little roome, an every where’. This is evidently exaggerated and is physically impossible as well. Paradox has also been used in the poem. As an instance, where the speaker says: ‘true plaine hearts doe in the faces rest’. Evidently, this phrase is paradoxical since it is impossible for hearts to be resting in faces. One can also find an instance of metonomy in the final para with the narrator stating: ‘My face in thine eye, thine in mine appears’. The narrator here does not actually mean that his face literally appears in his lover’s eye, but that she is aware of him. Again, one can see the presence of two allusions in the poem, one with the ‘seaven sleepers den’, the other with the ‘hemispheares’. Moreover, an excellent instance of imagery in the poem exists. One can find an appearance of this in the poem itself, and in the title ‘The Good Morrow’. Besides representing the actual sunrise, it also depicts the birth of ‘The Good Morrow’. This not only represents the physical sunrise, but also symbolizes the birth of an awakened person. Besides, the speaker’s perspective is from the first-person viewpoint. In spite of the presence of two persons in the poem, it is only the voice of the male narrator that is prominent. Lastly, the tone is that of casual intimacy. There are hints pertaining to the casual atmosphere of the poem. This is made evident by taking a glance at the rough language that the narrator uses, like: ‘suck’d,’ ‘snorted’, and ‘got’. In spite of the roughness, the narrator is evidently infatuated with the women being addressed.

It is possible to interpret the phrase ‘seaven sleepers den’ which is first brought in the poem, in several ways. This phrase may most directly be hinting at a ‘Christian and Mohammedan legend of the seven youths of Ephesus who hid in a cave for 187 years so as to avoid pagan persecution during the dawn of Christianity’ (Bloom). Surprisingly, these young people instead of dying, continued to sleep for the entire period. Therefore, the narrator may possibly be drawing a comparison between the time before they became aware about their love through the term the ‘seaven sleepers’ by saying that they both ‘snorted’, or continued to sleep, in that which seemed to be a seemingly unending amount of time and between the time when they fully became aware about their love and confessed it to one another. In any case, besides line 4, no allusions exist to carry the comparison further. There is, however, another possibility. In his article, ‘Plato in John Donne’s “The Good Morrow”’, Christopher Nassaar makes a proposal that this reference could be exactly referring to Plato’s Cave Allegory (20 – 21; Fig. 1). Book VII of ‘The Republic’, gives a description of an earth in which humanity has been held as a prisoner in a cave since the time that it was born.  These ‘prisoners’ have been held in chains, which have been tied around their legs and neck. They can merely see the reflections on the wall caused by themselves and other objects that block the firelight¹. Therefore, all that the prisoners feel is real, is actually all an illusion. They are committing a mistake of thinking about shadows as being ‘shadows of shadows for reality’ (Nassaar 20). The analogy goes on with the release of a prisoner and his ascension from the cave to the external world. It is here that he ultimately discovers God, the world’s actual fact, as well as the illusionary character of the cave.¹ Donne’s narrator continues to draw comparison between his life before love with the imprisonment of Plato’s prisoners. Typically, when comparisons are drawn against against their present love, ‘all past pleasures have been merely fancies, and the women he ‘desir’d, and got’ were merely a ‘dream of this one woman’. Finally, on ascending from the cave, he realizes the supreme fact of his lover and no longer has the desire to go back to the lustful cave of the previous times.

¹ Plato ‘The Book’: T/S: MAKE THIS AS PAGE FOOTNOTE

The main objective of the exploration metaphors in the second stanza is to continue revealing that the narrator prefers his newly-built association instead of earthly and carnal things. The triplet of the second paragraph sees the narrator stating that:

Let sea-discoverers to new worlds have gone,
Let Maps to other, worlds on worlds have showne,
Let us possesse one world, each hath one, and is one.

This evident digressing from the topic, in fact, goes on to support the Platonic relationship of the first stanza. Firstly, we should keep in mind the fact that the worldly chasings of Elizabethan England happened to be very different as compared to the current times. Constantly exploring the world happened to be one of the main activities that largely interested the people. Despite it continuing for quite a period of time, it was actually in the ‘Elizabethan-Jacobean era’ when discovery ‘saw its really great florescence’ (Rugoff 137). Moreover, ‘with the Thames the most popular of local thoroughfares and with sailors scattered throughout the city, the average Londoner of Elizabeth’s day could hardly help knowing something of ships and sea travel’ (Rugoff 129). However, there were several of this period who had knowledge about the Americas; however, only some had actually gone there. Whatever knowhow they had was insubstantial. This knowledge resulted in the Elizabethans possessing an unclear view of the New World. Thus, such ‘new worlds’ signify a kind of dream, with them desiring to follow these dreams being directly associated with the illusions of the cave. The narrator sees this famous pastime merely as something being used to pacify slaves. He believes that this is far from being an activity for a liberal person like himself. He does not anymore feel that he needs to be searching for a ‘new world’ as he claims to have already found it in his being united with his lover. ‘In possessing one another, each has gained world enough’ (Bloom).

The semi-circular imagery in para three can be translated as something that is both acute in the spatial sense, and associated with a ridiculous Platonic perspective on the basis of mankind. Donne ‘collapses his geographical metaphor into the tiny reflection of each lover’s face in the other’s eye’ (Holland 63). Therefore, while he openly confesses his love for his beloved in paragraph two, the narrator also goes on to state that it is their eyes which contains their entire world of love. In any case, this perspective turns out to be very tough to be supported on seeing the lines that follow. This is due to Donne’s narrator symbolically describing the pair as two different ‘hemispheares’. What could also be possible here, could be the fact that these two ‘hemispheares’ in fact signify the eyes. In any case, as the narrator is describing the couple, what might have been more exact would have been the narrator mentioning the four couples instead of two. Moreover, the cardinal point imagery is unclear when this interpretation is being used. Moreover, the semi-circular imagery even bears allusions to an absurd speech that Aristophanes makes in Plato’s Symposium (Holland 64). In his speech, Aristophanes is seen to relate a humorous legend of how mankind originated. Typically, Aristophanes is seen to state that in the starting of time, human beings assumed the shape of a globe. Every ‘individual’ had four legs, four arms with a single head and a face on each side. According to the story, the Greek God Zeus as a punishment for annoying him made two divisions of every individual, thereby separating them into two different beings. However, in spite of being different human beings, they continued to be divine halves who unendingly sought to reunite as one body. This instinct which comes naturally of that of reuniting the halves is how Aristophanes explains love (Plato Symposium 18 – 23). Thus, Donne’s narrator is under the belief that he has found his other half in his beloved, and together they form the original whole. Moreover, this interpretation clarifies the cardinal point metaphor. For instance, the narrator states: ‘Where can we finde two better hemispheares/Without sharpe North, without declining West’. The narrator here states the absence of ‘North’ and ‘West’ in their new united spherical world. The association will be all but cold, or ‘sharpe’, it will not diminish or be ‘declining’. Rather, their relationship will be one which would be warm and filled with eternal love.

On the whole, the poem brings the poetic tools and learned allusions that Donne has so beautifully used, supporting the speaker.  First of all, we carried out an analysis of the unique structure and musical elements in the poem. Then we went on to examine the way Donne has made use of the figurative language, perspective and tone for creating a narrator that readers would find easy to believe. Then, we looked closely at ‘seaven sleepers den’ phrase, discovering that it has its roots in both Christian mythology and Platonic allegory. Then, we went on to gain a clearer comprehension of how Donne has used exploration metaphor in para two. Then we examined the Platonic base for the semi-circular metaphor in para three. Lastly, we investigated the poem from a holistic viewpoint and realized as to how each of these various elements had their own contribution to the entire message. Therefore, we can conclude by saying that Donne’s ‘The Good Morrow’ is a poem that effectively makes use of tools for maximizing the poetic capacity of the verse. It consists of intellectual references that go on to support the message of the speaker for his lover.’

Uncertainty

The poem seems to conclude on a note of some uncertainty: ‘If … or ...’ Perchance after all Donne cannot any longer keep up the vanity that nothing will come to change their love or encroach upon it.

Donne incorporates the Renaissance conception of the human body as a microcosm into his love poetry. During the Renaissance, many people thought that the microcosmic human body mirrored the macrocosmic physical world. According to this belief, the intellect rules the body; much like a king or queen governs the land. Many of Donne’s poems—most notably ‘The Sun Rising’ (1633), ‘The Good-Morrow’ (1633) and ‘A Valediction: Of Weeping’ (1633)—envisages a lover or pair of lovers as being entire worlds unto themselves. However, rather than use the analogy to imply that the whole world can be compressed into a small space, Donne uses it to show how lovers become so engrossed with each other that they think they are the only beings in existence. The lovers are so much in love that nothing else matters. For example, in ‘The Sun Rising,’ the poet concludes the poem by telling the sun to shine only on himself and his beloved. By doing so, he says, the sun will be shining on the entire world.

The Neoplatonic Conception of Love

Donne draws on the Neoplatonic conception of physical love and religious love as being two manifestations of the same desire. In the Symposium (ca. third or fourth century b.c.e.), Plato describes physical love as the lowest stair of a ladder. According to the Platonic formulation, we are fascinated first to a single beautiful person, then to delightful people generally, then to wonderful minds, then to magnificent  ideas, and, ultimately, to beauty itself, the highest rung of the ladder. Centuries later, Christian Neoplatonists adapted this idea such that the series of love culminates in a love of God, or spiritual beauty. Naturally, Donne used his religious poetry to romanticize the Christian love for God, but the Neoplatonic conception of love also appears in his love poetry, although slightly tweaked. For instance, in the bawdy ‘Elegy 19 To His Mistress Going to Bed’ (1669), the speaker claims that his love for a nude woman surpasses pictorial representations of biblical scenes. Many love poems assert the superiority of the speakers’ love to quotidian, ordinary love by presenting the speakers’ love as a symptom of purer, Neoplatonic feeling, which resembles the emotions felt for the divine.

Religious Enlightenment as Sexual Ecstasy

All through his poetry, Donne imagines religious illumination as a form of sexual pleasure. He parallels the sense of satisfaction to be derived from religious devotion to the pleasure derived from love making—a shocking, radical comparison, for his time. In Holy Sonnet 14 (1633), for example, the poet asks God to sexually abuse him, thereby releasing the speaker from worldly concerns. Through the act of rape, ironically, the speaker will be given chaste. In Holy Sonnet 18 (1899), the speaker draws similarity between entering the one true church and entering a woman during intercourse. Here, the poet explains that Christ will be pleased if the speaker sleeps with Christ’s wife, who is

‘embraced and open to most men’ (14). Although these poems seem blasphemous, their religious passion saves them from profanity or scandal. Filled with religious passion, people have the potential to be as pleasurably satisfied as they are after love making.

The Search for the One True Religion

Donne’s speakers often wonder which religion to choose when confronted with so many churches that claim to be the one true religion. In 1517, an Augustinian monk in Germany named Martin Luther ignited a number of debates that finally led to the founding of Protestantism, which, at the time, was considered to be a reformed version of Catholicism. England urbanized Anglicanism in 1534, another transformed version of Catholicism. This time was thus dubbed the Reformation. The development of numerous sects and churches from these religions, made theologians and lay people to speculate which religion was true or false. Written while Donne was abandoning Catholicism for Anglicanism, ‘Satire 3’ reflects these concerns. Here, the poet wonders how one might ascertain the right church when so many churches make the same claim. The speaker of Holy Sonnet 18 asks Christ to clarify which bride, or church, belongs to Christ. Neither poem directly proposes one church as true religion representative, nor does either poem reject outright the idea of one true church or religion.

Motifs

The motifs used in the poem will now be discussed in detail.

Spheres

Donne’s enthrallment with spheres rests partially on the perfection of these shapes and partially on the near-infinite alliances that can be drawn from them. Similar to other metaphysical poets, Donne used vanities to extend analogies and to build thematic connections between otherwise unlike objects. For example, in ‘The Good-Morrow,’ the orator, through brilliant metaphorical jumps, uses the motif of spheres to shift from a description of the world to a description of globes to a description of his beloved’s eyes to a description of their flawless love. Instead of simply praise his beloved; the orator compares her to an unfaultable shape, the sphere, which has neither corners nor edges. The comparison to a sphere also highlights the way in which his beloved’s face has become the world, as far as the orator is concerned. In ‘A Valediction: Of Weeping,’ the orator uses the sphere shaped tears to draw out links with pregnancy, the world, globes, and the moon. As the orator cries, every tear contains a diminutive reflection of the beloved, yet another illustration in which the sphere demonstrates the perfect personality and physicality of the person being addressed.

Discovery and Conquest

Specifically in Donne’s love poetry, journeys of discovery and conquest exemplify the mystery and magnificence of the orators’ love affairs. European explorers began coming to Americas in the fifteenth century, going back to England and the Continent with formerly unimagined treasures and stories. By Donne’s lifetime, settlements had been established in North and South America, and the wealth that flowed back to England spectacularly transformed English society. In ‘The Good Morrow’ and ‘The Sun Rising,’ the orators express apathy toward recent journeys of discovery and conquest, wishing to look for adventure in bed with their beloveds. This contrast demonstrates the way in which the beloved’s body and personality prove endlessly mesmerizing to a person falling in love. The orator of ‘Elegy 19 To His Mistress Going to Bed’ terms his beloved’s body ‘my America! My new-found land’ (27), thus linking the subjugation of exploration to the subjugation of seduction. To persuade his beloved to make love, he relates the sexual act to a voyage of discovery. The relation also serves as the orator’s attempt to persuade his beloved of both the spontaneity and the inevitability of sex. Like the Americas, the orator explains, she too will in due time be discovered and conquered.

Reflections

All through his love poetry, Donne makes indication to the reflections that appear in eyes and tears. With this motif, Donne highlights the way in which beloveds and their flawless love might contain each other, forming complete, whole worlds. ‘A Valediction: Of Weeping’ depicts the process of leave-taking occurring amongst the two lovers. As the orator cries, he knows that the picture of his beloved is reflected in his tears. And as the tear falls away, so too will the orator budge farther away from his beloved until they are estranged at last. The expressions in their eyes suggest the strong link between the lovers in ‘The Good Morrow’ and ‘The Ecstasy’ (1633). The lovers in these poems see into each other’s eyes and see themselves enclosed there, whole and perfect and present. The act of staring into one another’s eyes leads to an insightful mingling of souls in ‘The Ecstasy’, as if expressions alone provided the gateway into a person’s inmost being.

Symbols

Angels

Angels embody the almost-divine status accomplished by beloveds in Donne’s love poetry. As blissful messengers, angels arbitrate between God and humans, helping humans get closer to the divine. The orator compares his beloved to an angel in ‘Elegy 19 To His Mistress Going to Bed.’ The beloved here, as well as his love for her, gets the orator closer to God because with her, he reaches paradise on earth. According to Ptolemaic astronomy, angels administered the spheres, which rotated around the earth, or the core of the universe. In ‘Air and Angels’ (1633), the orator draws on Ptolemaic concepts to relate his beloved to the aerial form presumed by angels when they appear to humans. Her love rules him, much as angels rule spheres. At the close of the poem, the orator notes that a slight variation exists between the love a woman feels and the love a man feels, a variation comparable to that between ordinary air and the airy aerial form presumed by angels.

The Compass

Perchance the most famous vanity in all of metaphysical poetry, the compass signifies the comparison between lovers: two individuals but joined bodies. The pictogram of the compass is another case of Donne’s using the language of journey and conquest to explain relationships between and emotions of those in love. Compasses help sailors navigate the sea, and, allegorically, they help lovers stay in touch across physical distances or absences. In ‘A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning,’ the orator relates his soul and the soul of his beloved to a supposed twin compass. Also called as a draftsman’s compass, a twin compass possesses two legs, one that remains fixed and one that moves. In the poem, the orator is the movable leg, while his beloved becomes the fixed leg. According to the poem, the jointure between them, and the stability of the beloved, allows the orator to trace an ideal circle while he is far from her. Though the orator can only trace this circle when the two legs of the compass are apart, the compass can in due time be closed up, and the two legs pressed together again, after the circle has been located.

Blood

Usually blood symbolizes life, and Donne uses blood to signify different experiences in life, from erotic fervor to spiritual devotion. In ‘The Flea’ (1633), a flea creeps over a pair of would-be lovers, biting and withdrawing blood from both. As the orator imagines it, the blood of the pair has become fused, and thus the two must become sexually involved, as they are already wedded in the body of the flea. All through the Holy Sonnets, blood signifies passionate devotion to God and Christ. According to Christian belief, Christ shed blood on the cross and died so that mankind might be forgiven and saved. Beseeching for guidance, the orator in Holy Sonnet 7 (1633) asks Christ to teach him to be apologetic, such that he will be made worthy of Christ’s precious blood. Donne’s devout poetry also underscores the Christian association between violence, or bloodshed, and purity. For example, the orator of Holy Sonnet 9 (1633) beseeches that Christ’s blood might wash away the memory of his sin and render him pure again.

33.1.2 CANONIZATION

The Canonization is a poem written by the metaphysical poet John Donne. First published in 1633, the poem demonstrates Donne’s wit and irony. It is addressed from one friend to another. However, it does concern itself with the complications of romantic love: the speaker presents love as an all-consuming feeling, such that lovers give up all other activities in order to be with each other. In this sense, love is harshness, which is a major conceit in the poem. The poem’s title serves dual motives: while the narrator claims that his love will canonize him into a form of sainthood, the poem by itself functions as a canonization of the pair of lovers.

In the poem, the orator asks his addressee to be calm, and allow him to love. If the addressee cannot hold his tongue, the orator tells him to criticize him for other inadequacies (other than his tendency to love): his gout, his palsy, his ‘five grey hairs’, or his ruined fortune. He reprimands the addressee to look to his own mind and his own wealth and to consider his position and replicate the other nobles (‘Examine his Nobility or his Grace, / or the King’s real, or his stamped face / Contemplate.’) The orator does not care what the addressee tells or does, as long as he lets him love. The speaker asks allegorically, ‘Who’s wounded by my love?’ He says that his groans have not sunk ships, his tears haven’t flooded places, his unfeeling have not chilled spring, and the fervour of his veins has not supplemented to the list of those killed by the plague. Soldiers still find battles and lawyers still find controversial men, despite the emotions of the orator and his lover.

The orator tells his addressee to ‘Call us what you will,’ for it is love that concocts them so. He tells that the addressee can ‘Call her one, me another fly,’ and that they are also like candles (‘tapers’), which blaze by feeding upon their own selves (‘and at our own cost die’). In one another, the lovers find the eagle and the dove, and as one (‘we two being one’) they enlighten the enigma of the phoenix, for they ‘die and rise the same,’ just as the phoenix does—though dissimilar to the phoenix, it is love that slays and resurrects them.

He says that if they are not able to live by love they will die by it, and if their prodigy is not fit ‘for tombs and hearse,’ it will be fit for poetry, and ‘We’ll build in sonnets pretty rooms.’ A well-twisted urn does as much justice to a lifeless man’s ashes as does a huge tomb; and by the same memento, the poems about the orator and his lover will make them to be ‘canonized,’ admitted to the sainthood of love. All those who listen to their story will appeal to the lovers, saying that countries, towns, and courts ‘beg from above / A pattern of your love!’

Form

The five stanzas of ‘The Canonization’ are metered in iambic lines varying from trimeter to pentameter; in every nine-line stanza, the first, third, fourth, and seventh lines are in pentameter, the second, fifth, sixth, and eighth in tetrameter, and the ninth in trimeter. (The stress pattern in every stanza is 545544543.) The rhyme scheme is ABBACCCDD in each stanza.

Commentary

This intricate poem, spoken ostensibly to somebody who objects of the orator’s love affair, is presented in the voice of a world-wise, cynical courtier who is nevertheless completely caught up in his love. The poem simultaneously caricatures old notions of love and coins ornate new ones, ultimately concluding that even if the love affair is not possible in the real world, it can become legendary through this poetry and the orator and his lover will be like saints to later posterities of lovers. (Therefore the title: ‘The Canonization’ refers to the process through which people are introduced into the canon of saints).

In the first stanza, the orator indirectly details his relationship to the world of politics, wealth, and nobility; by assuming that these are the interests of his addressee, he reveals his own background among such concerns, and he also reveals the extent to which he has moved ahead of that background. He anticipates that the hearer will leave him by himself and pursue a career in the court, toadying to aristocrats, preoccupied with favour (the King’s real face) and wealth (the King’s stamped face, as on a coin).

 

In the second stanza, he caricatures modern Petrarchan ideas of love and continues to scorn his addressee, making the point that his groaning has not sunk ships and his tears have not caused floods. (Petrarchan love-poems were full of claims like ‘My tears are rain, and my sighs storms’.) He also scorns the functions of the everyday world, saying that his love will not keep soldiers from fighting battles or lawyers from acquiring court cases—as though battle and legal squabbling were the sole interests of world outside the precincts of his love affair.

In the third stanza, the orator starts spinning off metaphors that will help explicate the intensity and uniqueness of his love. First, he speaks that he and his lover are similar to moths drawn to a candle (‘her one, me another fly’), then that they resemble the candle itself. They exemplify the elements of the eagle (strong and masculine) and the dove (peaceful and feminine) caught in the picture of the phoenix, dying and rising by love. In the fourth stanza, he discovers the possibility of canonization in verse, and in the final stanza, he explores his and his lover’s character as the saints of love, to whom posterities of future lovers will plead for help. Throughout, the tenor of the poem is unbiased between a kind of arch, mature sensibility (‘half-acre tombs’) and zealous amorous abandon (‘We die and rise the same, and prove/Mysterious by this love’).

‘The Canonization’ is one of Donne’s most renowned and most written-about poems. Its criticism at the hands of Cleanth Brooks and others has made it a fundamental topic in the case between historicist critics and formalist critics; the former argue that the poem is what it seems to be, an anti-political love poem, while the latter disagree, based on episodes in Donne’s life at the time of the poem’s composition, that it is in fact a kind of coded, ironic reflection on the ‘ruined fortune’ and dashed political hopes of the first stanza. The selection of which argument to follow is largely a subject of personal temperament. But until one seeks a solely biographical discernment of Donne, it is probably best to comprehend the poem as the sort of quaint, passionate speech-act it is, a highly complicated defense of love against the corrupting ethics of politics and privilege.

John Donne’s poetic reputation pined way before he was rediscovered in the initial part of the twentieth century. He is recalled today as the leading exemplar of a style of verse known as ‘metaphysical poetry,’ which flaunted in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. (Some of the other great metaphysical poets include Andrew Marvell, Robert Herrick, and George Herbert.) Metaphysical poetry characteristically employs unusual verse forms, intricate figures of speech applied to ornate and surprising metaphorical vanities, and learned themes conferred according to eccentric and unexpected series of reasoning. Donne’s poetry demonstrates each of these characteristics. His jarring, uncommon meters; his proclivity for abstract witticisms and double entendres; his often bizarre metaphors (in one poem he contrasts love to a carnivorous fish; in another he beseeches with God to make him pure by raping him); and his process of implicit reasoning are all attributes of the metaphysical, integrated in Donne as in no other poet.

Donne is precious, not simply as a delegate writer but also as a highly unique one. He was a man of ambiguities: As a minister in the Anglican Church, Donne acquired a deep spirituality that updated his writing throughout his life; but as a man, Donne acquired a carnal yearn for life, sensation, and experience. He is a great religious poet and a great erotic poet as well, and perhaps no other writer (with the possible exemption of Herbert) endeavored as hard to unify and articulate such incongruous, mutually jarring passions. In his best poems, Donne blends the discourses of the physical and the spiritual; over the flow of his career, Donne gave sublime articulation to both realms.

His contradictory proclivities often cause Donne to contradict himself. (For instance, in one poem he writes, ‘Death be not proud, though some have called thee/Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so’. Yet in another, he writes, ‘Death I recant, and say, unsaid by me/whatever hath slipped, that might diminish thee’.) However, his conflictions are symbolic of the powerful contrary forces at work in his poetry and in his soul, rather than of sentimental thinking or inconsistency. Donne, who lived a cohort after Shakespeare, took pro of his divided nature to become the greatest metaphysical poet of the seventeenth century; amongst poets of inner conflict, he is one of the greatest of all time.

CRITICAL ANALYSIS

In his analysis of ‘The Canonization’, critic Leonard Unger focuses largely on the wit that has been demonstrated in the poem. In Unger’s reading, the exaggerated metaphors that the narrator employs serve as ‘the absurdity which makes for wit’. In any case, Unger indicates that, during the course of the poem, its evident wit indicates to the real message of the narrator: that the lover is dissociated from the world by virtue of his contradictory values, visible in his willingness to give up worldly pursuits to be with his lover. His analysis ends with the cataloguing of the ‘devices of wit’ that can be seen all; through the poem, besides mentioning that a ‘complexity of attitudes’, promoted mainly through the use of the canonization conceit, maintains the wit within the poem.

‘The Canonization’ can be chiefly noticed in critic Cleanth Brooks’ arguments for paradox as central to poetry, a central tenet of New Criticism. In his compilation of critical essays, The Well Wrought Urn, Brooks states that a poet ‘must work by contradiction and qualification’, and that paradox ‘is an extension of the normal language of poetry, not a perversion of it’. Brooks analyses many poems to demonstrate his argument, but quotes Donne’s ‘The Canonization’ as his primary evidence. As per Brooks, the poem can be read in a superficial manner in several ways, however, the most probable interpretation is that, in spite of the wit in his tone and extravagant metaphors, Donne’s narrator is serious about both love and religion. Neither does he intend to make a mockery of religion by praising love beside it, nor does he aim to make fun of love by drawing comparisons between love and sainthood. Rather, Brooks’ argument is that, the evident contradiction in taking both seriously interprets into a more factual account of both love and spirituality. Paradox is Donne’s ‘inevitable instrument’, that allow him with ‘dignity’ and ‘precision’ to show the notion that love can be all that is essential in life. Without it, ‘the matter of Donne’s poem unravels into “facts”’.

Brooks sees paradox in a larger sense:

‘More direct methods may be tempting, but all of them enfeeble and distort what is to be said. … Indeed, almost any insight important enough to warrant a great poem apparently has to be stated in such terms’.

For Brooks, ‘The Canonization’ demonstrates that paradox is not restricted to use in logic. Rather, paradox allows poetry to escape the limits of reasonable and scientific language.

However, Brooks’ analysis is not the definitive reading of ‘The Canonization’. A critique by John Guillory indicates the superficiality of his logic. On whether to regard the equation of profane love with divine as parody or paradox, Guillory states that ‘the easy translation of parody into paradox is occasioned by Brooks’ interest’. Guillory also raises a question on Brooks’ decision of concentrating on the conflict between sacred and secular, rather than sacred and profane, as the central paradox: ‘the paradox overshoots its target’. Guillory also writes that ‘the truth of the paradoxes in question’, here the biblical quotations Brooks uses to support his claim that the language of religion is full of paradox, ‘beg[s] to be read otherwise’, with literary implications in keeping with Brooks’ agenda for a ‘resurgent literary culture’.

In the like manner, critic Jonathan Culler questions the New Critical emphasis on self-reference, the notion that by ‘enacting or performing what it asserts or describes, the poem becomes complete in itself, accounts for itself, and stands free as a self-contained fusion of being and doing’. For Brooks, ‘The Canonization’ serves as a monument, a ‘well-wrought urn’ to the lovers, just as the speaker describes his canonization through love: the lovers' ‘legend, their story, will gain them canonization’. To Culler, however, this self-referentiality reveals ‘an uncanny neatness that generates paradox, a self-reference that ultimately brings out the inability of any discourse to account for itself’, as well as the ‘failure’ of being and doing to ‘coincide’. Instead of a tidy, ‘self-contained urn’, the poem depicts a ‘chain of discourses and representations’, such as the legend about the lovers, poems about their love, praise from those who read these poems, the saintly invocations of the lovers, and their responses to these requests. In a larger sense, self-referentiality affords not closure but a long chain of references, such as Brooks’ naming his New Critical treatise The Well-Wrought Urn to parallel the urn in the poem.

 

3.1.3 A VALEDICTION: FORBIDDING MOURNING

In 1611, John Donne is known to have written ‘A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning’ to his wife, Anne More Donne. He wrote this for comforting her while he travelled to France and stayed there for a while, on government business while she stayed at home in Mitcham, England, approximately eleven miles from London. The title states, in essence, ‘When we part, we must not mourn’. Valediction is derived from the Latin verb valedicere, which means ‘to bid farewell’. (Yet another English word taken from the same Latin verb is valedictorian, that refers to a student scholar delivering a farewell speech at a graduation function). The poem then goes on to explain that an outward show of emotion would make their love cheap, reducing it to the level of the normal and monotonous. Their love, in fact, is transcendent, heavenly. Other husbands and wives for whom merely the fleshly, earthly love, exists, weep and sob when they go away from each other for a while, for they fear the loss of physical togetherness. However, since Donne and his wife have a spiritual and a physical dimension to their love, they will never actually be away from each other, he states. Their souls will continue to be one—although their bodies are separated—until he returns to England. 

In the poem, the speaker describes that he is persuaded to spend time apart from his lover. However, before leaving her, he tells her that their farewell should not be the occasion for mourning and sorrow. Just as honourable men die silently without any complaints, he says, so they’ll depart without ‘tear-floods’ and ‘sigh-tempests’, because a public announcement of their feelings in this manner would defile their love. The speaker states that while moving the earth brings ‘harms and fears’, but when the spheres experience ‘trepidation’, though the impact is greater, it is also innocent. The love of ‘dull sublunary lovers’ cannot survive separation, but it removes that which constitutes the love itself; but the love he shares with his beloved is so refined and ‘Inter-assured of the mind’ that they need not worry about missing ‘eyes, lips, and hands’.

Though he must go, their souls continue to be one. Thus, they are not suffering a breach, rather experiencing an ‘expansion’; similar to the way in which it is possible to stretch gold by beating it ‘to aery thinness’. The soul they share will simply expand to accommodate all the space between them. If their souls are split, he states, they are similar to the feet of a compass. His lover’s soul is the fixed foot in the centre, and his is the foot that moves around it. The centre foot being firm is responsible for making the circle that the outer foot draws perfect: ‘Thy firmness makes my circle just/And makes me end, where I begun’.

Form

The nine stanzas of this Valediction are quite simple in comparison to many of Donne’s poems, which use odd metrical patterns. These patterns are overlaid jarringly on regular rhyme schemes. Here, each four-line stanza is quite undecorated, with an ABAB rhyme scheme and an iambic tetrameter meter.

Commentary

 ‘A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning’ is one of Donne’s most popular and simplest poems and also probably his most direct statement of his ideal of spiritual love. In the peom ‘The Flea’ Donne has expressed explicit lustful indulgence. In this poem, however, in stark contrast, Donne professes to be devoted to the type of sacred love that transcends the merely physical. Here, sensing a bodily departure from his loved one, he summons the nature of that spiritual love to avert the ‘tear-floods’ and ‘sigh-tempests’ that are most expected during a departure. The poem is necessarily a series of metaphors and comparisons, each giving a description of a way of viewing their separation that will enable them to prevent the mourning forbidden by the poem’s title.

In the beginning, the speaker states that their farewell must be as calm as the deaths of righteous people who die without complaining. The poet believes that to mourn will mean ‘profanation of our joys’. Then, the poet draws a comparison between the harmful ‘Moving of th’ earth’ to innocent ‘trepidation of the spheres’. He equalizes the first with ‘dull sublunary lovers’ love’ and the second with their love, ‘Inter-assured of the mind’. Similar to the earth when it rumbles, the dull sublunary (sublunary meaning literally beneath the moon and also subject to the moon) lovers are all physical, who are not able  to experience separation without losing the sensation that is known to constitute and sustain their love. However, the spiritual lovers ‘Care less, eyes, lips, and hands to miss’, similar to the trepidation (vibration) of the spheres (the concentric globes that surrounded the earth in ancient astronomy), their love is not completely physical. Also, similar to the trepidation of the spheres, their motion will not have the harmful results that an earthquake has.

Next, the poet makes a declaration that, because the lovers’ two souls are united, his departing will only lead to an expansion of their single souls instead of actually causing a partition between them. In case, however, their souls are ‘two’ rather than ‘one’, they are similar to the feet of a drafter’s compass, linked with the middle foot that fixes the orbit of the outer foot and helps it to give the description of an exact circle. The compass (the instrument used for drawing circles) happens to be one of Donne’s most popular metaphors. Moreover, it is the exact image for encapsulating the values of Donne’s spiritual love, which is balanced, symmetrical, logical, grave and beautiful in its sophisticated simplicity.

Similar to several of Donne’s love poems (including ‘The Sun Rising’ and ‘The Canonization’), ‘A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning’ brings about a split between the general love of daily life and the common world and the uncommon love of the speaker. Here, the poet makes a claim that to speak ‘the laity’, or the common people, of his love would mean to defile its holy aspect. Moreover, he evidently looks down with contempt at the lifeless sublunary love of other lovers. This split leads to the creation of a type of emotional aristocracy. This is alike in form to the political aristocracy. Donne is known to have had a devastatingly ill fortune with the political aristocracy all through his life. He made comment on this in his poem, namely, ‘The Canonization’. This emotional aristocracy is similar in form to the political one but completely contradictory to it in spirit. Less in number are the emotional aristocrats to whom the spiritual love of the spheres and the compass is accessible. All through Donne’s writing, the membership of this elite never does include more than the speaker and his lover—or at the maximum, the speaker, his lover and the reader of the poem. Donne summons the reader to express sympathy for Donne’s romantic predicaments.

 

Metaphor

Donne depends mainly on extended metaphors for conveying his message. First, he draws a comparison between his separations from his wife to the separation of a man's soul from his body when he dies (first stanza). The body signifies physical love while the soul signifies spiritual or intellectual love. While Donne and his wife are separate, they are unable to express physical love; thus, they are similar to a corpse. However, Donne states, that they continue to be one in spiritual terms as well as in intellectual terms since their souls are united. So, Donne goes on that he and his wife should allow their physical bond ‘melt’ when they part (line 5). 

He follows that metaphor with others, stating they must not cry or shed emotional ‘tear-floods’ or indulge in ‘sigh-tempests’ (line 6) when they bid farewell. This kind of base sentimentality would lend cheapness to their relationship. He also draws comparison between himself and his wife to celestial spheres, like the sun and others stars. He believes that their love is so deep that it lives on a higher plane than the love of  married couples whose relationship is primarily based on physical fulfillment which, to be enjoyed, call for the man and woman to always stay together, physically. 

Finally, Donne draws a comparison of his relationship with his wife with the two legs of a drawing compass. Even though the legs are separate constituents of the compass, they are both part of the same object. The legs function in unison. If the outer leg traces a circle, the inner leg—though its point is fixed at the center—has to pivot in the direction of the outer leg. Thus, Donne states, that although he and his wife are away fro each other, similar to the legs of the compass, they continue to be together since they are the part of the same soul.

Paradox

In the sixth stanza, Donne begins a paradox, saying that his and his wife’s souls are united though they are two; therefore, their souls will forever be together although they are apart. 

Simile

Stanza 6 also brings forth a simile, which compares the expansion of their souls to the expansion of beaten gold. 

Alliteration

Donne also makes extensive use of alliteration. Following are some examples:

Whilst some of their sad friends do say (line 3)
Dull sublunary lovers' love (line 13)
(Whose soul is sense) cannot admit (line 14)
That our selves know not what it is, (line 18)
Our two souls therefore, which are one (line 21)
Thy soul, the fixed foot, makes no show
Thy firmness makes my circle just, / And makes me end where I begun (lines 35-36)

Therefore, it can be concluded that true, whole love brings about a union not only of the bodies of a married couple, but also their souls. This form of spiritual love is awe-inspiring, metaphysical, which keeps the lovers together. They are kept together both in intellectual and spiritual manner although the situations of daily life may separate their bodies. 

 

3.1.4 AT THE ROUND EARTH’S IMAGINED CORNERS

 

 ‘At the Round Earth’s Imagined Corners’ is one of the ‘Holy Sonnets’. These were published in 1633, two years following Donne’s death, but it is believed that there is considerable likelihood of them having been written at least a decade before that. Donne and his metaphysical friends were always majorly involved with English poetry. It was the 20^th century poet, namely, T.S. Eliot who promoted them. According to Eliot the ‘Holy Sonnets’ were the ‘bee’s knees’.

 

The ‘Holy Sonnets’ of Donne are popular both for their accuracy of the sonnet form and for the way in which they combine genuine religious feelings with naughty wit. Donne’s Holy Sonnet 7 (At the Round Earth’s Imagined Corners) is a classic metaphysical poem. The speaker addresses himself to angels and to God.

The speaker asks for the Christian Judgment Day to occur, later realizing that he continues to be a sinner, and changes his mind. By the conclusion of the poem, he is willing to stay on the earth for a thousand years, until he has repented of his sins and cleansed his soul.
In this poem, Donne invokes the heavenly angels and asks them to fire up Judgment Day. Similar to the one who conducts a symphony, he gives a command to them to blow their trumpets in every part of the world. The sound of the trumpets will bring the souls of the dead back to life, and they will once again be united with their bodies, just as is written in the Holy Bible.
Evidently, the gathering of dead people in the world will include both good and bad folks. As per the Christian tradition, on Judgment Day, God will separate the good from the bad. This shows the reason for the poet wanting to wake up everyone.
Then he tells God, essentially, ‘Wait, I didn’t mean I wanted Judgment Day now. We’ve got to let those dead people sleep for a bit’. Again, the speaker needs time to mourn for the dead and for his own sins. He is worried that if he has not repented sufficiently for his sins, he had better do it here while still on earth, before things go out of hand.

He implores God to teach him how to repent. He does this because he wants to belong to the category of the ‘good’ on Judgment Day. If only he would be taught of God how to repent, the effect would be similar to God signing a forgiveness deal with his own precious blood. However, it is here that the twist lies; as per the Christian doctrine, God already signed this pardon (in metaphoric terms). He did this, when he sent His son, Jesus to earth for shedding his blood for the sins of mankind.

Let us now look at the parpahrasing of the poem by each line.

Lines 1 – 2

At the round earth's imagined corners, blow
Your trumpets, Angels, and arise, arise

       The speaker commands the angels to blow their trumpets in every part of the earth.

       Evidently, this is a loud—some may interpret as ‘arrogant’—move. One cannot just go around commanding angels around. One cannot have the angels do things at his wish or command. There has to be a concrete reason or a major influence in Heaven.

       The trumpets are meant to awaken the people—the speaker gives them a command to ‘arise, arise,’ but we do not know who these people are as yet.

       The phrase that arouses immense curiosity in this whole poem is the first line, ‘the round earth’s imagined corners.’ Let’s unfold it.

       This is not 1492, when Columbus took up sailing on the ocean blue while certain still believed the earth to be flat.

       This is the initial 17th century when people are more aware and all know that the earth is round. To state that the earth has ‘corners’ shows that a person could reach the outermost part of the earth in theoretical terms.

       Donne desires those angels to be in the corners, so the sound of trumpets can be heard by all the inhabitants of the earth. He believed that the earth was flat because of which he wanted the trumpeters to go in every corner of the earth.

       There is more proof for this map theory: certain English maps from the Renaissance contained pictures of angels blowing trumpets in the four directions: North, South, East and West.

       In Biblical tradition, these angels also have names: Michael, Raphael, Gabriel and Uriel.

       The poem appears to be alluding to two sections of the Biblical Book of Revelation. The first sentence of Revelation 7 is this: ‘After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth to prevent any wind from blowing on the land or on the sea or on any tree.’ The second sentence of Revelation 8 is: ‘And I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and to them were given seven trumpets’.

       Donne appears to be mixing these two passages together. Moreover, he gives the ‘four angels’ the ‘trumpets of Doom’ possessed by the ‘seven angels’.

       According to the Book of Revelation, when the trumpets are blown by the angels, a series of evil events occur: trees get burnt, the sea gets converted into blood, meteors fall to earth, etc. It’s the end of the world.

Lines 3 – 4

From death, you numberless infinities
Of souls, and to your scattered bodies go,

       This poem is not a faithful explanation of the Biblical Last Judgment.

       Rather than prevent a series of mishaps, when the trumpets are blown by the angels, the speaker assumes it to be a sign for all the dead to awaken and go find their bodies.

       In Donne’s Christian theology, the soul leaves the body when one dies. However, they unite with the body once again on Judgment Day.

       Donne stresses that there are many people who have died all through history. The number of the dead is so huge that he just bunches them all into an unknown overestimated, uncountable sum: ‘numberless infinities’.

        To worsen matters, all these souls need to travel in search of their bodies where they died. The bodies are not all in one place—they are ‘scattered.’

Lines 5

All whom the flood did, and fire shall o’erthrow,

       The countless number of dead souls includes all the unrighteous people in the world. It includes those that were destroyed by the Biblical flood that solely Noah and his family lived through, and those who will be consumed in the ‘fires’ that end the world.

       The angels are not merely waking up a limited number of these unrigtheous people, they are waking ‘All.’

       Therefore, this line deals only with sinners. The term ‘o'erthrow’ (overthrow) signifies the defeat or the reason for the collapse of someone or something.

       The Book of Genesis in the Bible, talks about how God drowned the world after taking a decision that mankind had forgotten about Him and His laws.

       It was only the righteous Noah who was given a prior caution and was saved by the building of an ark.

       After the flood, God made a deal with Noah that there would be no more floods. However, unrighteous people still have to deal with the ‘fire’ after Judgment Day.

Lines 6 – 7

All whom war, dearth, age, agues, tyrannies,
Despair, law, chance, hath slain, […]

In this, the speaker assumes a different approach at defining ‘All’ souls.

       The poet increases the breadth of the category such that it includes all kinds of death—all the people who were ‘slain’ or murdered by different criminals.

       ‘War’ indicates those who lost their lives while fighting in a battle; ‘dearth’ refers to those who lost their lives suffering hunger; ‘age’ refers to the ones who lost their lives from natural causes; ‘agues’ indicates those who died from illness; ‘tyrannies’ refers to people who lost their lives at the hands of tyrant rulers; ‘despair’ indicates those who killed themselves; ‘law’ refers to those who were put to death lawfully, and then there’s ‘chance,’ people. ‘Chance’ people refers to  those who lost their lives in some accident. This category may appear to be inclusive of both good and bad people. For instance, good people die of illness similar to the bad.

Lines 7 – 8

[…] and you whose eyes,
Shall behold God, and never taste death's woe.

       There’s a last group of people that Donne includes: those who are living but whom those end-of-the-world fires will not consume. These are the good people who are still alive on the arrival of the Judgment Day. The poet is definitely hopeful that he will be in this last category.

       These fortunate handful of people, will never have to see death or ‘taste death's woe.’ Their ‘eyes’ will look on God in Heaven, similar to the good people who had died in the past but have been awakened.

Line 9

But let them sleep, Lord, and me mourn a space,

       Now, there is a ‘but’ when it comes to the end of the world. This is known as the ‘turn’ in the sonnet, when the poem shifts topics. The poet can be heard requesting God not to have the angels wake up all these dead people as yet for he feels that those dead people must be very tired and need their rest. (‘Sleep’ here is a metaphor for the time between death and resurrection.)

       The actual reason for this delay appears in the second half of the line: it is all about ‘me.’

       The speaker desires a certain unspecified period of time to mourn for all the dead people.

Lines 10 – 12

For, if above all these, my sins abound,
'Tis late to ask abundance of thy grace,
When we are there; […]

       The speaker is worried that his own sins might be greater than those of all the ‘sleeping’ people. In case his sins are actually that grievous, it will be too late for him to be pardoned on Judgment Day. He has to begin working toward receiving pardon now.

       His sins ‘abound’ like sand abounds in a desert. ‘Abound’ here means ‘to have a lot of’ or ‘to be well-stocked with’.

       It appears that the speaker has committed many a sin during his lifetime which is above and beyond the rest of sleeping humanity.

       In many older Christian poetry and literature, showing humility meant that you were chief sinner of them all; the worst of the worst. That is what the speaker is doing here.

       Judgment Day is referred to as a place, ‘there’.

       The speaker continues talking to God at this point. Moreover, he is thinking of the time when he will have to stand before God and give an account for all his sins.

       If he has repented adequately, God will show His ‘grace’ through forgiveness. According to Christian theology, God’s grace is ‘abundant’ enough for anyone who asks earnestly for forgiveness to be granted it.

Lines 12 – 14

[…] here on this lowly ground,
Teach me how to repent; for that's as good
As if thou hadst seal'd my pardon, with thy blood.

       In the middle of line 12, the poem shifts topics once again. The shift is signified by the contrast between ‘there’ and ‘here.’ The speaker leaves off with his splendid imaginations of resurrection and comes back to the present time.

       The speaker implores God to teach him to ‘repent’ or ask for pardon (line 13). In case he is taught of God how to repent, the consequence would be similar to the God sealing an official document of forgiveness with his own precious blood.

       (In those days of Donne, people would wax ‘seal’ for making documents official. It was like a signature. The speaker suggests that God’s blood is like his personal seal.)

       Returning to the present and the earth appears to be ‘lowly ground’ in comparison to the standing in front of God at the Apocalypse.

       However, like several of Donne’s poems, this too has a twist in the end.

       The speaker compares learning to repent to having a pardon sealed in blood. The pardon would cleanse him of all his sins.

       However, the word ‘blood’ also refers to the crucifixion of Jesus. As per the Christian thought, Jesus died for the sins of humanity. We are called upon to think of Jesus’ blood as this seal of forgiveness.

       The speaker expresses his respect for God even as he asks for God’s help. The poem itself is an act of repentance.

3.1.5 A LECTURE UPON THE SHADOW

John Donne’s ‘A Lecture Upon the Shadow’ is about the length of a person’s love life—it is too short.

The ‘cares’ are apprehensions and doubts; the ‘disguises’ refer to the false pretensions that the lovers put on so that others wouldn’t know they were in love. They are careful in this, with love ‘still diligent lest others see’. These fears vanish similar to the disappearance of shadows under their feet under the hot clarity of the noonday sun. The new shadows (fears) appearing in the afternoon differ from those that one experiences in the morning. The ‘morning shadows’ refer to apprehensions about others learning of their love; the ‘afternoon shadows’ refer to apprehensions about the other’s loyalty and sincerity. (‘These which come behind/Will work upon ourselves, and blind our eyes’.)

The last line of the poem refers to ‘first minute after noon is night.’ While the morning’s fears are short-lived, the afternoon shadows would generally grow longer all through the day. If the lovers permit the existence of these and the decaying of their love, their day will turn to night very fast. This viewpoint clips the usual cycle morning—noon—afternoon—night; it becomes morning—noon—night.

‘A Lecture upon the Shadow’ appears to be a poem that indicates the unavoidable turning down of love, while it is not. John Donne in metaphoric term equalizes sun rise and sun set with a love involvement. The metaphor states that love is known to grow, reach a climax and then fast decline, similar to the sun in its everyday course. The metaphor indicates if the poem were meant to be a clever way for the narrator of informing his lover of his negative perspective of love. However, Donne’s optimistic tone, that the words ‘except’ and ‘if’ indicate that Donne has not belief that love’s death is inevitable. Donne is of the belief that the peak of love can be sustained, but this is in conflict with the metaphor that the length of noon can never be made to prolong.

The morning, noon and evening stated in this poem parallel the rise and fall of an association that is based on love. The first stanza gives a detail of the development of love from its beginnings to its height. During the initial stages of love, young lovers generally keep their feelings private. They do so, because they want to be certain of their before making it public. This is exactly what has been done by the lovers in the poem, ‘So whilst our infant loves did grow, / Disguises did, and shadows, flow/ from us’. The lovers have worked intelligently under the guise of the shadows they them ‘selves produc’d’ in order to validate their love.

At noon, the narrator chooses not to walk anymore and explain to his lover his ‘philosophy’ of love. The narrator indicates that ‘now the Sunne is just above our head’, and they stop hiding under the cover of morning shadows. Their ‘love hath attain'd the highest degree’ and emerged from the shadows. At this juncture, the shadows they used as disguises are unseen below them and they stand in the ‘brave clearenesse’ of unchallenged light. The lovers, and all those seeing them, are aware of the virtue of their love.

However, as per the metaphor, this highest form of love has a short life because the ‘first minute after noone, is night’. The shadows which once made others blind will come again and ‘these which come behinde/will worke upon’ the lovers, blinding them. With declining of their love, these new shadows symbolize the masks each lover will be using for manipulating the other. The speaker continues by saying that ‘I to thee mine actions shall disguise’, to warn her of the lies and secrets that are to come between them. ‘The morning shadows weare away, / But’ the shadows that blind the lovers ‘grow longer all the day’ until they stand in total darkness. Though the lovers may try to refuse that they are falling out of love, ultimately, they will be unable to sustain their relationship.

This cyclical metaphor of love as the day, is applicable to several romantic relationships, but the poet weakens his own metaphor by attempting to stop the cycle at its peak. The speaker and his love have been taking a morning walk for three hours. The shadows of the morning that shrink represent the masks that the lovers shed. At noon, they stand hand-in-hand with the sun above them, lighting up their love. During the day, this point is a fast vanishing moment and, therefore, the metaphor renders it impossible for this kind of a love to not disintegrate.

In the second stanza, in spite of the inexorable, cyclical nature of the day, the poet pleads with his lover to increase the duration of the moment and make their love last. By saying, ‘Except our loves at this noone stay, / We shall new shadows make the other way’, he is actually uncovering his real optimistic philosophy of love that opposes the metaphor. The narrator warns his love that the lies and disguises that could part them depend on ‘if our loves faint’. Every day the sun rises and sets with no exception, with no respect to human action or emotion. In case their love in metaphorical terms had compatibility with the day, it would unavoidably decline. Donne, nevertheless, continues to try to reject his own metaphor when he writes ‘But, oh, loves day is short, if love decay’. (l. 24) Days do not differ in length, and if love and the day synchronized with each other, neither would love. In straight contradiction with the metaphor, the second stanza functions as a warning of what could happen if something went wrong; not as an inevitable announcement of the future.

One argument is that Donne knows of the insufficiencies of the metaphor and is warning his lover of their fate in an indirect manner. Another argument is that the selection of the day is a subconscious, but telling selection. This means that the author is making an attempt at maintaining a positive perspective, because his love is presently doing well, but knows that it will soon get over. However, if either of these arguments were relevant, then Donne would have remained from using the conditional. He did not just put these words in the poem for sustaining the rhythm and meter; he selected them since he believes that the ending of this love affair is not unavoidable.

The faults in the metaphor make one wonder as to why would a poet choose to use the day as a metaphor if it does not fully apply to love? The answer is that the morning and noon parallel the ideal relationship being described by him. Moreover, though he is hopeful about the relationship not continuing to follow the metaphor, ‘day’ remains the closest thing that came to his mind with which to compare love. Love is an often indescribable, human emotion that can never be wholly equalized with anything else. Because of the complicated nature of human emotion, specially love, a perfect metaphorical comparison is not possible. A better option for Donne would have been, rather, to give a description of love not in terms of the day, but in terms of itself and the other human emotions and qualities going along with it.

True love and the cycle of the day just do not have any metaphorical compatibility when we investigate the poet’s intention. The speaker desires that his love continue to be at the zenith it has reached. However, he states that if love goes on the path of the rising sun, then it must accordingly go on the path of the setting sun as well. The poet sets up an association between the course of the day and love. He then attempts at nullifying it when it stops to serve his objective. The one thing that Donne brings out very clearly in this poem is the intricacy of coming across a metaphor suitable to describe love.

3.2 Henry Vaughan

Henry Vaughan (1621 − April 23, 1695) was a Welsh physician and metaphysical poet.

Vaughan and his twin brother Thomas Vaughan who was a hermetic philosopher and an alcemist, were born to Thomas Vaughan and his wife Denise (née Morgan) of ‘Trenewydd’, Newton, in Brecknockshire, Wales. Their grandfather, William, owned Tretower Court.

Vaughan spent a maximum part of his life in the village of Llansantffraed, near Brecon, where he is also buried.

Vaughan obtained his literary encouragement from his native environment, choosing the explanatory name ‘Silurist’. The name was a derivative derived from the homage that he paid to the Silures, the Celtic tribe of pre-Roman south Wales which put up a vehement resistance to the Romans. The name reflects the profound love that Vaughan felt for the Welsh mountains of his native place which is now a part of the Brecon Beacons National Park and the River Usk valley. It is here that he spent a major part of his early and professional life.

Critics have made complaints that Vaughan is enslaved to Herbert’s works. This is proved by the usage of the ‘little tricks’ like sudden introductions and fanciful titles as a framework for his own work that Herbert used. They claim that he ‘failed to learn’ from Herbert. Vaughan did not have the capacity to recognize his limits. His focus on the profoundness of the poem, resulted in his losing the attention of his audience.

During these times he proves to be different from any other poet. A majority of his peculiarity comes from an evident lack of sympathy with the world around him. His distant appeal to his environment detaches him and inspires his love of nature and mysticism. This feature of his in turn affected other later poets, Wordsworth among others. Vaughan’s mind thinks in terms of a physical and spiritual world and the vague association between the two. Vaughan’s mind frequently shifted  to original, strange and remote places, the reflection of which could be seen in his poetry. He was faithful to the themes of the Anglican Church and religious festivals. However, he discovered his real voice in the more mystical themes of eternity, communion with the dead, nature and childhood. A poet of revelation, he used the Bible, Nature and self-experience for illustrating his vision of eternity. Vaughan’s poetry has a specifically modern tone.

Alliteration (conspicuous in Welsh poetry) is more comprehensively made use of by Vaughan as compared to a majority of his contemporaries who wrote English verse, most notable in the opening to The Water-fall.

Another poem, ‘The Retreat’, blends the theme of loss with the corruption of childhood, which is yet another consistent theme of Vaughan’s. Vaughan’s newly discovered personal voice and persona are seen as the consequence of the death of a younger brother.

3.2.1 The Retreate—An Analysis

In the poem ‘The Retreate’ Henry Vaughan is seen to deal with the loss of the heavenly glory. This heavenly glory is what one experiences during childhood. He conveys a whimsical desire to return to that original stage.

 

The poem is divided into two paragraphs. Each paragraph represents the two stages of the past and present; though, the subjects are not categorized into separate paras. He takes great pains in drawing a contrast between the past to the present by his usage of symbols of light and darkness. He makes use of near rhyme and couplets, iambic tetrameter, alliteration and figures of speech for adding fluidity to the poem as it is read. This poem is a sign of a yearning for spiritual devotion, innocence, purity, and an end to the corruption the world has placed on each individual.

 

The theme, as seen on the physical or surface level, seems to be very simple. However, if one goes deeper, one will discover that the poem is based on the various European idealistic, psychological, religious/mystical and philosophical doctrines in the western culture.

On the socio-cultural level, one can interpret the poem as one that reflects the strong desire to liberate the human psyche from the tortures and tyrannies of civilization. This strong desire which, it has to be mentioned, has found its expression by Vaughan in the purest, distilled and highly cultivated form of thought.

On the psychological level, the wish to return to a merry childhood can be translated, Freud said, as a breaking away from from the tough realities of life in the defense mechanism of regression; as a daydream, the root cause of which one can trace in the agoraphobia of a person, which continuously provokes him/her to find shelter in the mother’s womb.

On the philosophical level, what Vaughan says in the poem, matches with Plato’s theory of anamnesis and transmigration of the soul. However, more than all these, the motive of the poet here is instructive. He has lent to the poem a profound religious meaning and enthusiasm by drawing upon the intrinsic Christian doctrines and symbols.

 

The poem starts with the typical mourning for the lost childhood days, ‘Happy those early days! When I Shin’d in my Angell-infancy.’ The term ‘angel-infancy’ is known to refer to that duration of life, which is marked by innocence and unawareness. If looked at from a secular viewpoint, this period of life is viewed as carrying a special attraction for all the human beings. So, the poetic aspect has not been decreased in its secular appeal. However, Vaughan is here is viewing it in terms of the mystical Christian theology. In the mystical Christian theology, the child is known to occupy an important place. On the one hand, it symbolizes innocence, while on the other it represents the Babe of Virgin Mary, Jesus Christ—a theme which continued to be a favorite, amidst the Renaissance painters like Botticelli, Leonardo da Vinci, Titian, Bellini. Vaughan’s theme here is not the exaltation of Christ as the Babe, rather the theme here is a retrospection of the way his own individual life has degenerated and degraded as compared to what he had been during his childhood. The reminiscence of that stage of life persuades him to return to that divine world, from where, according to him, his soul came. The poet, in any case, does give a theoretical justification to his notions by drawing upon the Platonic doctrine of the transmigration of the soul. In this process, the soul, Plato said, resides in the world of Ideas, of Beauty, Truth and Goodness before it gets transplanted into the human body. However, after its transplantation into substance it remembers its earlier existence no more which is caused by slowly increasing contacts with the physical world. The theoretical bias is most strongly evident in the lines where the poet says that everything was different, ‘Before I understood this place Appointed for my second race.’ But the next moment the poet uses an image, ‘a white, Celestiall thought’, which derives its symbolism from Neo-Platonic mysticism and Christian mythology. Neo-Platonism explains the manifest material world as merely an illuminated illusion of a light from a single, ever-radiant divine source, God. However, the poet’s usage of the term ‘back’ also brings to mind Adam and Eve’s looking back at the lost Garden of Eden in Milton’s Paradise Lost, ‘They looking back, all th’ eastern side beheld Of paradise, so late their happy seat, ……………………………………… ………………………………………. They hand in hand with wandering steps and slow Through Eden took their solitary way.’ (Book IV) The pain that the poet experiences on losing the childhood vision of heaven’s glory, it may be rightly said, is similar to the one experienced by Adam and Eve when the lost their place in the Garden of Eden and the following degradation in the model Biblical theme. However, the loss that the poet feels is not complete and final. The poet comes across a spiritual recovery in the Platonic doctrine of Love: he realizes that particular things of physical beauty do reflect the spiritual beauty. He is trying to state here that meditation on certain specific things of the physical world will help him upgrade to the comprehension of the Universal Beauty of God. The poet can, ‘…see a glimpse of his bright face; When on some gilded Cloud or flowre My gazing soul would dwell an houre.’

In scientific terms, this is a psychological journey at its zenith. Here the poet looks for the annihilation of the flesh, for the soul to be released and united with the heavenly source again. Though this is a Platonic concept in its purest form, it is justified in relation to the Christian theology. Similar to Moses, who at one time was granted one side of the plain of the valley of Jericho, the city of palm trees, the poet desires to return to ‘That city of Palm trees’ or heaven. This is solely a mystical notion, and this is what differentiates Vaughan from Wordsworth. Wordsworth who deals with a similar theme in his Immortality Ode has also worked out a poetic resolution, which does not undo the beauty of matter. However, Vaughan, conversely, comes across ‘weaker glories…some shadows of eternity’ in matter. He desires the suspension of all the properties of the senses from matter or reality at the moment. He is hopeful of becoming united with the divine after he dies. Simultaneously, however it must be stated that Vaughan’s vision is also apocalyptic. During Renaissance, St. John’s ‘Book of Revelation’ proved to be a perilous book of prophecy. During the Reformation the Apocalypse assumed diverse forms, among which spiritual or inner apocalypse entered the cumulative unconscious of the Europeans. It became a procedure wherein one’s inner being was purified. Therefore, it may be stated that for Vaughan ‘The Retreate’ was also a revelation.

 

3.2.2 CRITICAL ANALYSIS

According to Tyler Stauffer   ‘Poetry is a literary work where the reader must interpret the meaning behind the poem based on several different literary elements, and how they interact throughout the poem. In “The Retreat”, by Henry Vaughan, there are several different types of literary elements used to contrast the speaker’s present and past times such as: imagery, structure, and tone.
            “Happy those early days! when I shined in my angel infancy. Before I understood this place appointed for my second race.” (1-4) These first four lines of the poem contain all three literary elements used throughout this poem by Vaughan. The tone of the first four lines is that of happiness a time to live and be free. The imagery within these first four lines supports the tone and it’s sound quality. The sound is light and flowing, giving a sense of happiness yet again. The image of an angel infancy, that of a young angel, someone new to life in the after keeps the happiness going, letting that person enjoy their new state of being and enjoyment. The new experience is giving the speaker the chance to experience new thing in his life, “Could see a glimpse of His bright face.” giving him the opportunity to see his “first love,” Jesus Christ. The structure in the first stanza beginning with lines 1-4, is set to be the beginning of his new life, and looking on what he has now compared to what he had then, lending the second stanza the words to express why he wants to go back to where he once was.
            In the second stanza the speaker speaks of his longing to travel back to where he once was, living in happiness, back before he was “appointed for my second race,” put on earth. When he was put on earth he was held back from his ability to live life as he dreamed in happiness and with wishful longing. “Before I taught my tongue to wound…but felt through all this fleshly dress bright shoots of everlastingness.” (15-20) The “fleshly dress” is holding his soul back to take it’s chances and be free again where the speaker once “…would dwell an hour, and in those weaker glories spy some shadow of eternity.” The second stanza is the speakers dislike for life and his longing to leave again and be free. “O, how I long to travel back and tread again that ancient track!/…Once more reach that plain where first I left my glorious train.” (21-24) The tone of these lines gives a darker tone to the work. It’s his plead to go back to “heaven” and be in his paradise where he once was, where his happiness was everything. “That shady city of palm trees, but ah! My soul with too much stay is drunk, and stagers in the way.” The image of a drunk, staggering soul in the way is another look at the body holding his soul back and not letting it explore and return. It’s the body that is slowing him down and holding him back, keeping the soul inside. The second stanza takes his soul on a journey though “hell” in his souls point of view the place where happiness doesn’t exist the way it should and as the soul remembers it. The speaker ends his souls desire to return to it’s previous state before it’s “second race.” The soul it’s let loose again when his “fleshly dress” has made its final move, “And when this dust falls to the urn, in that stat I came, return.” The last line of the poem is the relief of the built up emotions of the speakers soul and longing to go home, setting him free to finish where he left his “glorious train,” to “tread again that ancient track.”
            “The Retreat” by Vaughan has used all three literary elements to contrast between the speaker’s present and past states. He used them wisely setting up great ways to compare the states and the souls want to return home to his last and final way of life to finish in happiness and peace’.

According to Mandy Sidelinger         ‘Henry Vaughan uses many literary and poetic elements to sustain his poem, “The Retreat”, and show realism in his words with imagery and tone. The poem also showcases a solid structure that solidifies all the ideas as a whole.
Vaughan shows a brilliant contrast between the speaker’s past and present with very obvious imagery. The speaker’s “early days” seem filled with light and have an ethereal quality. He states his early days were “happy” and he “shined in his angel infancy.” The speaker shows that he was naïve, and he was cloaked from the world’s cruelties. Before he taught his soul to question, use his speech to let acerbities flow, or sin and feel the heaviness of his conscience, the speaker was close to his creator and heaven. Even as he grew, there was only a “short space” separating him from his “first love.” This made it easy for him to still catch glimpses of the Lord’s “bright face.” Presently, the speaker “long[s] to travel back” and be in God’s light, but Vaughan’s clear imagery states that the speaker is in a time of sin and dispenses “several sins to every sense” as he makes his way through a human life. The speaker does feel as though he still “feels the bright shoots of everlastingness” through his body and waits for the day to be with the “enlightened spirit.” The imagery is seemly unambiguous and is essential to the layout of the poem.
            The tone of this poem changes throughout as discussions of the past are brought up intermittently. The past quickly brightens the tone as use of exclamation marks appear as in “Happy those early days!” and “And [to] tread again that ancient track!” In the first description of the early days, Vaughan uses adjectives such as white and celestial, but moves on to darker saturnine phrases such as “to wound”, “sinful sound”, and “black art” which give a sense of the despondency the speaker feels about his life and decisions. The vivid tone of the poem impacts the way “The Retreat” is read. The exclamations and euphoric lines show his feelings about the past, and the more gothic, elegiac lines portray the speaker’s views on his present situation.
            “The Retreat” has a very formal structure commonly used in the 1600s. Even though the poem appears long, it is quickly read because of the steady rhythm. This poem only contains two stanzas; the first shows the past and his views on the present, and the second exhibits the longing the speaker has for his past. The poem’s rhyme doesn’t follow a totally specific pattern but most lines are in a couplet form of end rhyme. Finally, the most influential part of the structure is the rhythm. Each line contains eight syllables and form an iambic tetrameter which reinforces the flow from past to present in the speaker’s dialogue.
            All the poetic elements used in the poem aid in the vivid descriptions of the speaker’s feelings. The past is easily seen as the “better” of the two and the mood of the past is seemingly bright and heavenly. The present is shown as dark and could give reader’s an uneasy feeling simply with the tone of the phrases. A compelling contrast is forged as the elements coalesce to form a comprehensive, but moving poem.

3.3 ANDREW MARVELL

Andrew Marvell (31 March 1621 – 16 August 1678) was an English metaphysical poet, Parliamentarian. He was born to Church of England clergyman (also named Andrew Marvell). As a metaphysical poet, he is linked with John Donne and George Herbert. He was a colleague and friend of John Milton.

Marvell birthplace was Winestead-in-Holderness, East Riding of Yorkshire, near the city of Kingston upon Hull. The family shifted to Hull after his father was appointed Lecturer at Holy Trinity Church there. Marvell underwent education at Hull Grammar School. A secondary school in the city is now named after him.

His most famous poems include To His Coy Mistress, The Garden, An Horatian Ode upon Cromwell's Return from Ireland, and the country house poem Upon Appleton House.

Marvell’s poetry is generally filled with wit and detailed conceits in the elegant style of the metaphysical poets. Several poems were inspired by events of the time, public or personal. The Picture of Little TC in a Prospect of Flowers was composed after the daughter of one of Marvell’s friends, Theophila Cornwell, who was named after an elder sister who had died as a baby. Marvell makes use of the picture of her surrounded by flowers in a garden for conveying the transience of spring and the fragility of childhood. This poem’s title is ironically echoed by John Ashbery's poem ‘The Picture of Little JA in a Prospect of Flowers’.

Others were composed in the pastoral style of the classical Roman authors. Here also, Marvell has the tendency of placing a specific picture in front of us. In The Nymph Complaining for the Death of her Fawn, the nymph mourns for the little animal as it dies, and conveys to us how it consoled her for her betrayal in love.

His pastoral poems, including Upon Appleton House accomplish originality and a unique tone through his reworking and subversion of the pastoral genre.

3.3.1 THE GARDEN

Andrew Marvell is a 17th century poet. One may consider him as both a puritan and a metaphysical poet. The poem, ‘The Garden’ is a reflection of the superiority of nature over human society. For the poet, before the repose one gets in the garden, the triumphs in life for which humans toil to get, are all rendered worthless as compared to the serenity that one experiences in a garden. He states, the company of men in the society in comparison to the company enjoyed by one in the garden with silence and purity appear harsh. According to the poet, the colour green and the trees reflecting that colour are beautiful. Describing the way in which the gods and goddesses hid in the garden, he writes how garden appears to be refreshing in physical, mental and spiritual terms. As the garden itself seems like heaven (a happy place), being alone in the garden enables one to enjoy two paradises in one. Being with oneself in the garden brings sheer happiness and such pleasant and blissful hours have to be counted with herbs and flowers.

A meditation

The nine stanzas of ‘The Garden’ continue in a natural manner from one to another. It is easy to see each stage of the debate or train of thought, though separate points of translation may be tough. The poem functions in much the similar manner as Keats’ Ode to a Nightingale. It is a meditation in a specific location; the place affects the course of the meditation; and at times the poet appears to be entering a new world of the imagination. In the end, the poet comes back to where he is, not really ready, perhaps. Keats continues to remain unsettled; Marvell accepts the quiet reality of his world.

Ambition

The opening of The Garden is with the theme of ambition. Human efforts look for recognition. In symbolic terms, the identification is in the form of a crown made of some tree or shrub ‘the Palm, the Oke, or Bayes’—at least that is how the crowning of victorious was done in classical times. However, the making of these crowns requires, the branches to be cut down and therefore their life is reduced. They fade, cut off from their natural source of life. If one leaves them in their natural state, they would make an offering of peace and tranquillity to the people. ‘Amaze’ here signifies ‘confuse’.

Tranquility

Marvell addresses the quiet he has found ‘here’, that is, in this garden. He draws a comparison between his present life and his past, when he was working towards achieving success in the world. We are probably reminded of Herbert’s Affliction I. That society ‘was all but rude’; by ‘rude’ he means uncivilized. So he turns around that which is associated with civilization: the city. The pastoral ideal is the real civilization. He is not lonely in this: we can trace back to the Roman poet Horace for such ideas.

Sexual passion

The third stanza picks up on sexual passion, the white and red. The colour green as a symbol of love was opposed by certain critics. Some suggested that green continued to be a colour of love, while we tend to associate it with innocence. The meaning in any case, is of contrast, so innocence or freedom from passion would appear to be its meaning. ‘Flame’ evidently signifies the ‘fire of passion’. If he plans to carve any names in any trees, it will be their own.

Examples from Classical Mythology

Classical mythology supports Marvell’s argument. Marvell cites the Greek myth of the god Apollo, who lusted for a nymph, Daphne. While he is pursuing her, her cries for help resulted in her getting transformed into a laurel. A similar transformation took place when Pan pursued Syrinx. Marvell describes it as if that was the gods’ motive, instead of merely the consequence: a neat grammatical shift.

Returning to the garden

Marvell now returns to himself. The splendour of the garden that he describes, matches Milton’s description of the Garden of Eden in his poem Paradise Lost, books IV and IX. The Bible recommends it is fertile but little more (Genesis 2:8 – 14). Poets since that time have been elaborating on the biblical text. The only ‘fall’ he experiences is not into sin, but being tripped by the luxuriant vegetation, a thought he uses also in Upon Appleton House.

The joys of meditation

Stanza six is the heart of the poem, and also the site of several interpretations. The one given here is not the only one, but has found wide acceptance. He speaks of the joys of meditation. It is here that one can see Platonic idealism: the world of ideas is in reality a bigger reality than that of sense data. For the poet, that world is expressed through the shaping power of the imagination. The inner world corresponds to the external world, but it

creates, transcending these,
Far other worlds, and other Seas

These created worlds happen to be more actual and powerful, and spontaneously contain greater truth in them. In the conditions of tranquility, afforded by the garden, the poet is free to be able to do this. The couplet:

Annihilating all that’s made
To a green Thought in a green shade

is the most exact and succinct way of expressing this. Its meaning teases us: it appears clear, and yet upon trying to describe it, the meaning all of a sudden becomes indescribable. This is the way actual poetry should work such that its paraphrasing in prose is just not possible. Donne created his own small world out of the lovers’ joint love (as in The Sunne Rising): here Marvell creates his own world from the power of imagination.

Mystical experience

Marvell even goes on to suggest a mystical experience: the soul seems to flee from the body and get elated up into the trees where ‘like a Bird it sits, and sings’. The allegory of the soul as a bird is a very old one, found in diverse myths, though Marvell can be giving a description of an actual experience in this simile. The soul is getting ready ‘for longer flight’, that is, the return journey to heaven. The reader is at the other extreme from Donne’s love poetry, as seen in The Extasie, wherein the out-of-body experience should end by returning to the body. Marvell would be glad if he never had to return.

Adam alone in Eden

Stanza eight goes back to the thought of the Garden of Eden, as seen in stanza five. Here he makes a reference to the perfect state as being, not after the creation of Eve, but before it, when Adam was alone. This does not denote that Marvell was anti females; he merely wants to prove that Adam when he was alone was in the solitary state where sexual passion would not even be a temptation. Genesis 2:18 – 25 gives a suggestion of just the opposite, thus Marvell is being purposely unorthodox here in Christian terms.

A floral clock

In the final paragraph, Marvell goes back to where he is. It is here that for the first time he comments on the clock made out of plants and flowers. One can still see these sometimes in ancient gardens or parks. Time does pass away; he is not still in the timelessness of eternity. However, it passes so gradually that it does not pose a threat to anyone. Time and eternity are extremely close together. Moreover, life being transient, holds no meaning at all. This was the consciousness which was known to haunt several of Marvell’s contemporaries, and even Marvell himself in ‘To his Coy Mistress’. The power of the imagination, in the absence of the destructive force of sexual love, can result in bringing them close to each other.

As with many of his poems, Andrew Marvell composed The Garden to first present his perspective and then present a logical argument for it. In The Definition of Love, for instance, he writes about unrequited love, emphasizing that Fate itself acts against true love. In The Garden he adopts a similar negative perspective taking it to its misanthropic heights, trying to argue that being united with nature and maintaining distance from other people is the best way to live.

  Every poet has a certain trait and habit defining their original style—some more so than others. Marvell’s style can be specifically identified, as he makes common usage of many strategies and images that can be identified easily. The Garden therefore features several of Marvell’s permanent ingredients. The notion that lies at the centre of the poem is the idea of undefiled nature, of a world without the interruptions of mankind: Marvell’s own Eden. In his poetry, he loses no opportunity to exalt the virtues of a kind of hermitage, of being at peace with oneself and the universe in its entirety; this can also be seen as central themes in poems such as The Picture of little T.C. in a Prospect of Flowers and Bermudas, to name but two. The Garden carries it to its extremes, however, presenting its case most fervently. The two-line epigram which is as follows

  Society is all but rude,

To this delicious Solitude.

sums up his argument in a concise manner—Marvell would rather prefer a life of isolation to the busy interaction with other people that is part of an ordinary life. Also, this appears to be very much Marvell’s viewpoint: generally in poetry it is not clear if the poet shares the similar opinion as the speaker; with Marvell’s work, it always appears evident that it does contain his original perspective.
 

Yet another of Marvell’s regular themes that is used in The Garden is that of classical and biblical references. The paradise he describes is much similar to the garden of Eden, and Greek and Latin references abound:

 
Apollo hunted Daphne so,

Only that She might Laurel grow.

And Pan did after Syrinx speed,

Not as a Nymph, but for a Reed.

 
On the same note, he frequently makes use of striking indication (for the time). ‘Stumbling on Melons’ and mentioning ‘The Nectaren’ would have highly impressed the people of Marvell’s period; these fruits had only recently been discovered in the New World—it was in every meaning of the word a period of discovery. Moreover, Marvell attempts at showing his knowledge of ongoing events in any way he can.

  The language used is also characteristically Marvellian. The very first line, ‘How vainly men themselves amaze’ is a distorted syntax that is analogous to bearing Marvell’s signature on the poem (as with ‘And yet I quickly might arrive’ in The Definition of Love).

As far as the structure of the poem is concerned, the poem views the argument in a rational manner. Not depending on the reader’s simple acceptance of his own ideas, Marvell constantly drives home the point that a misanthropic, peaceful living is far more preferred to the confusion and noise of society. He starts by laying down his prime point, that culminates in the aforementioned epigram, going on to argue that the trees are far more beautiful than women. Later he describes the luscious greenery of the garden in succulent detail, including some exotic and classical references to make his argument have weight. He ends with some philosophical discussion of how the soul is at home amongst the greenery. The comparison between the plants and women is something of a vanity; normally, one would not think of comparing the two—Marvell makes use of this method in several of his poems for illustrating a point in an extraordinary and interesting manner; possibly to lend his theories a different viewpoint.
 
A literal paraphrasing of the poem is as follows:

 ‘vainly men amaze’ reminds us of Milton’s frequent references to vanity.

‘the palm, the oak, or bays’ shows that the listing is same as is done in the epic form; every item individually means war, public life and poetry. There is a sense that it appears impossible for men to be able to achieve such superior recognition in every arena.

‘uncessant labors’ refer to the unending toil of Adam and Eve in the Garden.

‘some single herb or tree . . . / Does prudently their toils upbraid / Society is all but rude, / To this delicious solitude.’ Here Marvell appears to be avoiding society for nature. Marvell especially avoids the company of women, as he evidently prefers the beauty of the trees to the beauty of any woman; he comments on the cruelty in carving a woman’s name on a tree trunk as the woman signifies such playfulness and the tree is real beauty.

Similar to Milton, Marvell alludes to Daphne and Apollo and the importance of the tree in their story (‘laurel grow’) as well as allusions to Pan (‘after Syrinx speed, not as a nymph, but for a reed’) which also signifies the importance of the reed that may or may not reflect music. Marvell’s narrator seems to delight in nature since ‘Ripe apples drop about my head’ and nature satisfies all his desires; he is filled with ecstasy on being surrounded by beauty.

‘Annihilating all that’s made / To a green thought in a green shade’ means that he has placed all the trials of his mind on the garden created by god for him.

‘My soul . . . There like a / bird it sits, and sings / Then whets, and combs its silver wings’ is a line which stirs up the image of an angel or dove (stated in Psalms 68:13) and also Milton’s Wisdom who ‘plumes her feathers, and lets grow her wings’ in ‘sweet retired solitude’. (Comus 375 – 80)

‘Such was that happy garden state, / While man there walked without a mate’ means that Marvell’s narrator appears to be satisfied and happy without a wife or help mate.

‘Two Paradises ‘twere in one / To live in Paradise alone.’ Means that Adam would have been happier in the absence of Eve.

‘Skilful gardener’ means if it is God or Adam who actually tilled the soil?

Finally, we can sum up by saying that The Garden is a poem that is known to wear its Marvellian origins on its sleeve so that everyone can see; the common writing techniques and themes made use of by him are clear and undisguised.

 

3.4 JOHN MILTON

John Milton, a Puritan poet, was one of the greatest poets of the English language, popularly known for his epic poem Paradise Lost (1667). Milton’s strong, rhetoric prose and the articulacy of his poetry had an enormous effect especially on the 18^th century verse. Besides poems, Milton published pamphlets that defended civil and religious rights.

‘Of Man’s first disobedience, and the fruit
Of that forbidden tree whose mortal taste
Brought death into the world, and all our woe,
With loss of Eden.’
(from Paradise Lost)

John Milton’s birthplace was London. His mother, Sarah Jeffrey, who an extremely religious woman, was the daughter of a merchant sailor. Milton’s father, whose name also was John, had risen to affluence as a scrivener or law writer—he also composed madrigals and psalm settings. The family was rich enough to afford a second house in the country. Milton’s first teachers were his father, from whom he inherited a passion for art and music, and the writer Thomas Young, a graduate of St Andrews University. Milton participated in small family consort. He frequently played a small organ and he had ‘delicate, tuneable voice’. When he turned twelve years of age, Milton was admitted to St Paul’s School near his home. After five years, he took admission in Christ’s College, Cambridge. While he considered himself to be ordained for the ministry, he started writing poems in Latin, Italian and English. One of Milton’s earliest works, ‘On the Death of a Fair Infant’ (1626), was composed after his sister Anne Phillips had suffered a miscarriage. ‘In inventorem bombardae’ (On the inventor of gunpowder), a piece in a series on the occasion of the Gunpowder Plot, has Milton’s first depiction of Satan.

Milton could not get accustomed to life in the university. He was contemptuously called, ‘The Lady of Christ’s’. Moreover, beginning a fist fight with his tutor, resulted in his expulsion for a term. After he left Cambridge, Milton gave up on is initial plan of becoming a priest. He did not take to any profession but passes six years at relaxation in his father’s home, composing meanwhile l'allegro, Il Penseroso (1632), Comus (1634), and Lycidas (1637), concerning what death meant, which was composed after the death of his friend Edward King. Milton wrote in Latin as was common for the time. His first published poem was the sonnet ‘An Epitaph on the Admirable Dramatic Poet, W. Shakespeare’, which was printed anonymously in the Second Folio of Shakespeare's works (1632).

In 1635, the Miltons shifted to Horton, Buckinghamshire. It was here that John continued his studies in Greek, Latin and Italian. He travelled to France and Italy in the late 1630s. In Paris, he met the jurist and theologian Hugo Grotius and the astronomer Galileo Galilei in Florence—there is mention of Galileo’s telescope in several places in Paradise Lost. His conversation with the popular scientist, Milton recorded in his celebrated plea for a free speech and free discussion, Areopagitica (1644), in which he said that books ‘preserve as in a vial the purest efficacy and extraction of that living intellect bred in them’. Milton got back to London in 1639, and established a school with his nephews and a few others as pupils. He had plans of writing an epic based on the Arthurian legends, but then gave up his literary pursuits, partially because of the Civil War, which resulted in a division in the country as Oliver Cromwell fought against the king, Charles I.

His growing concern with the Puritan cause, made Milton publish a series of pamphlets that opposed episcopacy (1642), on divorce (1643), in defense of the liberty of the press (1644), and in support of the regicides (1649). He also served as the secretary for foreign languages in Cromwell’s government. Following the death of Charles I, Milton expressed in ‘The Tenure Of Kings And Magistrates’ (1649) the opinion that the people have the right to depose and punish tyrants.

In 1651, Milton lost his sight, but like Jorge Luis Borges centuries later, blindness helped him to kindle his verbal richness. ‘He sacrificed his sight, and then he remembered his first desire, that of being a poet,’ Borges wrote in one of his lectures. One of his assistants was the poet and satirist Andrew Marvell (1621– 78), who spoke for him in Parliament, when his political opinions gave rise to much controversy. Following the Restoration of Charles II in 1660, Milton was imprisoned as a noted defender of the Commonwealth, but was soon set free. However, for opposing, Milton was made to pay an enormous fine. Besides public burning of Eikonklastes (1649) and the first Defensio (1651) in Paris and Toulouse, Milton got saved from more punishment, but he lost his riches. The manuscript of Paradise Lost he sold for £5 to Samuel Simmons, and was promised another £5 if the first edition of 1,300 copies sold out. This was done in 18 months.

Milton wedded thrice. His first marriage began on unhappy terms; this experience prompted the poet to write his famous essays on divorce. He had married in 1642 Mary Powell, who was of seventeen years at that time. She soon became bored with her busy husband and returned home. She stayed there for three years. Their first child, Anne, was born in 1646. Mary died in 1652. Four years later Milton wedded Katherine Woodcock; she died in 1658. For her memory Milton devoted the sonnet ‘To His Late Wife’. In the 1660s, Milton shifted with his third wife, Elizabeth Minshull, again a much younger woman, to what is now Bunhill Row. The marriage was a blissful one, despite the vast gap in their ages. Milton spent in Bunhill Row the final years of his life, except a short tour to Chalfont St Giles in 1665 during a period of plague. His late poems Milton dictated to his daughter, nephews, friends, disciples, and paid amanuenses.

In The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce (1643), composed after Mary had deserted him, Milton’s argument was that a real marriage was one of the mind as well as of the body. He stated that the pure and virtuous were more probable to find themselves ‘chained unnaturally together’ in inappropriate unions as compared to those who had led a loose life during their youth and enjoyed more diverse experience. Though Milton was high in his moral scruples and principles, some of his religious beliefs were highly unconventional, and entered into conflict with the official Puritan stand. Milton who did not believe in the divine birth, ‘believed perhaps nothing’, as Ford Madox Ford says in The March of Literature (1938).

Milton died on November 8, 1674, and was buried beside his father in the church of St Giles, Cripplegate. It has been claimed that Milton’s grave was desecrated when the church was being repaired. All the teeth and ‘a large quantity of the hair’ were taken as mementos by the grave robbers.

Milton’s accomplishment in the field of poetry was identified after the appearance of Paradise Lost. Prior to it, the writer himself had expressed certain doubt of the worth of his work: ‘By labor and intent study (which I take to be my portion in this life), joined with the strong propensity of nature, I might perhaps leave something so written to after-times, as they should not willingly let it die’. (from The Reason of Church Government, 1641) Milton’s celestial vision has occasionally provoked critical discussion. T.S. Eliot too has criticized the author and has described him as one whose sensuousness had been ‘withered by book-learning’. Eliot claimed that Milton's poetry ‘could only be an influence for the worse’.

The theme of Fall and being driven out from Eden had been in Milton’s mind from the 1640s. His ambition was that of composing an epic poem to rival the ancient poets, such as Homer and Virgil, whose grand vision in Aeneid left traces in his work. Originally, it was issued in 10 books in 1667, and in 12 books in the second edition of 1674. Milton, who desired to be a great poet, had also to cope up with the overpowering impression of Shakespeare, who had died in 1616  Milton was seven at that time. In his own hierarchy, Milton placed highest in the scale the epic, below it was the drama.

Paradise Lost is not very easy to read with its odd syntax, tough vocabulary, and complicated, but humble style. Besides, its heavenly vision is not really based on the Copernican system, but more in the traditional Christian cosmology of its day, where the Earth (and man) is the center of the universe, not the sun. The poem narrates a biblical story of Adam and Eve, with God, and Lucifer (Satan), who is thrown out of Heaven to corrupt humankind. Satan, the most beautiful of the angels, is at his most impressive: he wakes up, on a burning lake in Hell, to find himself surrounded by his stunned followers. He has been defeated in the War of Heaven. ‘All is not lost; th' unconquerable Will, / And study of revenge, immortal hate, / And courage never to submit or yield... /’. Milton created a dominant and sympathetic portrait of Lucifer. His character has similarities with Shakespeare’s hero-villains Iago and Macbeth, whose personal ambition is transformed into metaphysical nihilism.

Milton’s perspective influenced profoundly such Romantic poets as William Blake and Percy Bysshe Shelley, who considered Satan to be the actual protagonist of the poem—a rebel against the tyranny of Heaven. The disturbed times, in which Milton lived, is also visible in his theme of religious conflict. In The Marriage of Heaven and Hell Blake stated that Milton is ‘a true Poet, and of the Devil’s party without knowing it’. Several other works of art have been inspired by Paradise Lost, among them Joseph Haydn’s oratorio The Creation, Alexander Pope's The Rape of the Lock and The Dunciad, John Keat’s poem Endymion, Lord Byron’s The Vision of Judgment, the satanic Sauron in J.R.R. Tolkien’s saga The Lord of the Rings. Noteworthy, Nietzsche's Zarathustra has more superficial than real connections with Milton's Lucifer, although Nietzsche knew Milton’s work.

 3.4.1 PARADISE LOST BOOK 1

Paradise Lost is John Milton’s explanation of Genesis into an epic poem.

Of Mans First Disobedience, and the Fruit
Of that Forbidden Tree, whose mortal tast
Brought Death into the World, and all our woe,
With loss of Eden, till one greater Man

The poem starts with Milton invoking a muse to come and assist him write this memorable epic.

Sing Heav’nly Muse, that on the secret top
Of Oreb, or of Sinai, didst inspire
That Shepherd, who first taught the chosen Seed,
In the Beginning how the Heav'ns and Earth
Rose out of Chaos: Or if Sion Hill [ 10 ]
Delight thee more, and Siloa’s Brook that flow’d
Fast by the Oracle of God; I thence
Invoke thy aid to my adventrous Song,
That with no middle flight intends to soar
Above th’ Aonian Mount, while it pursues [ 15 ]
Things unattempted yet in Prose or Rhime.
And chiefly Thou O Spirit, that dost prefer
Before all Temples th’ upright heart and pure,
Instruct me, for Thou know’st; Thou from the first
Wast present, and with mighty wings outspread [ 20 ]
Dove-like satst brooding on the vast Abyss
And mad'st it pregnant: What in me is dark
Illumin, what is low raise and support;
That to the highth of this great Argument
I may assert Eternal Providence,

The scene then shifts to hell, where Satan and his fallen angels have been ousted from heaven after their attempt of rebellion against God. Filled with bitterness, they attempt at making the best of things. They decide to build the palace Pandemonium, all the time engaged in their taking a decision whether to take revenge against God by battle or by deception.

After considerable discussions and arguments, they ultimately reach a decision that they would make an attempt at sabotaging the new world of earth and mortal man that God has created. Satan embarks on his journey for earth, and meets his offspring, Sin and Death, at the gate of hell. They let him pass, and he journeys onward. Meanwhile, God sees Satan going towards earth and forecasts the fall of man. When nobody else does, God’s Son offers to sacrifice himself for saving mankind.

Fall’n Cherube, to be weak is miserable
Doing or Suffering: but of this be sure,
To do ought good never will be our task,
But ever to do ill our sole delight, [ 160 ]
As being the contrary to his high will
Whom we resist. If then his Providence
Out of our evil seek to bring forth good,
Our labour must be to pervert that end,
And out of good still to find means of evil; [ 165 ]
Which oft times may succeed, so as perhaps
Shall grieve him, if I fail not, and disturb
His inmost counsels from thir destind aim.

Satan flies to the sun. It is here that he deceives the Archangel Uriel into taking him to Paradise. On finding Adam and Eve in the Paradise, Satan is filled with jealousy of their happiness. He hears Adam warning Eve that they mustn’t eat the fruit from the forbidden Tree of Knowledge. During that time, Uriel warns Gabriel and some other Archangels about one of the fallen angels having gained entry into Paradise. God’s angels catch Satan who is in the disguise of a toad, attempting to whisper to Eve in her sleep and is flung of Eden. God ultimately asks Raphael, another Archangel, to go and give a warning to Adam and Eve about Satan He asks him to remind them that they have the power of free will to determine their fate. Raphael tells Adam and Eve everything about Satan and his rebellion, and how God’s Son threw them into hell. He speaks of a time when heaven and earth could be united, leaving Adam and Eve with a final warning.

Unfortunately, Satan hasn’t been adequately threatened and dissuaded from entering the Paradise. He comes back to Paradise in the shape of a mist. He then gets into a serpent. He feels extremely happy on finding Eve all by herself. He goes to her and speaking in the voice of a human, begins to convince her that she must eat from the Tree of Knowledge, as eating it only resulted in his becoming ‘more perfect’ and she too could become a goddess. Adam, distressed at Eve’s folly, argues what he should do until he ultimately eats from the tree, joining her in her fate. Adam and Eve now for the first time begin to experience the feeling of lust for each other. They then become inimical toward each other, and ultimately become aware and feel ashamed about their nakedness. God’s Son reaches earth and tells them they will not die right away, but declares painful punishments for them, such as painful childbirth for Eve and her daughters for all generations and hard labour in the fields for Adam and his sons for all generations.

In the mean time, Sin and Death learn that Satan has been successful in his plan. They then start building a pathway for his speedy access between hell and earth. Satan returns to hell anticipating celebrations, but he and his followers are changed into serpents. A copy of the Tree of Knowledge, which converts into ashes rather than bear actual fruit, torments them. Back on earth, Adam and Eve ultimately make amends. God then sends Archangel Michael to send them out of Paradise. However, first Michael makes Adam see visions about other unfortunate events that will arise as a result of his disobedience. Adam is unhappy in the beginning, but soon lights up when he learns that God’s Son will one day reward the righteous and give punishment to the sinners. Eventually, Adam and Eve walk out of the Paradise, filled with sadness, hand in hand, awaiting their future.

 

Major Characters

God: He is the creator of the universe, heaven, hell, angels and man. He is omnipresent and omnipotent, but bestows man with free will to decide his actions. God is father of the Son, upon whom he is known to bestow the power to judge man. Satan rebels against God, doubts his omnipotence and challenges his authority.

Satan: God’s enemy. At one time he was one of the highest-ranking Archangels in heaven (known as ‘Lucifer’ there), Satan’s pride and rebellion result in his being thrown down into hell, where he rules and sets up the Pandemonium. He finally destroys Paradise by assuming the shape of a serpent and tricking Eve into eating from the forbidden Tree of Knowledge. He is the father of Sin and Death.

Son: God’s son and equal, who is bestowed with the power to judge man. He offers to become mortal to save man, but after crucifixion, he is resurrected. He is given the glory in quelling Satan’s rebellion. He also confronts Adam and Eve after their transgression and, after clothing them, doles out their punishments.

Adam: The first human, created by God. The husband and ‘ruler’ of Eve, who was created from his rib. He is warned by Raphael not to transgress. He decides to join Eve in her mortality and against his better knowledge, follows her and eats the forbidden fruit. His punishment includes hard labour in the field and mortality.

Eve: The second human, created from Adam’s rib. Adam’s wife and often described both seductively and submissively. She is deceived by Satan into eating the forbidden fruit, and receives the punishment of becoming mortal and suffering pain in childbirth.

Raphael: The Archangel sent by God to warn Adam and Eve about Satan and remind them of their free will. He engages in a long discussion of Satan’s rebellion and the universe’s creation at Adam’s request.

Michael: Archangel who, with Gabriel, leads the forces of good against Satan and his followers during their rebellion in heaven. He is important for both jabbing Satan and moving mountains. Later, he comes to escort Adam and Eve from Paradise, and tells them of both good and bad events, which will come to pass.

Minor Characters

Muse/Urania: Invoked by Milton at certain points in the poem to give him the inspiration to carry on.

Beelzebub: A fallen angel, and Satan’s chief supporter, he is the main advocate of the plan of sabotaging the Paradise and mortal man.

Moloch: A fallen angel. He believes that open war should be waged against God and heaven.

Belial: A fallen angel. He thinks that hell isn't that bad, and if God isn't angered, he might remit the punishment of the fallen angels anyway.

Mammon: A fallen angel. He argues that it doesn't make any sense to worship someone you hate, and thinks that the fallen angels should make the best out of hell.

Sin: Satan’s daughter, who sprung out of his head. Satan impregnated her, and she gave birth to Death. With Death, she guards the gates of hell. She is half woman and half dogs.

Death: Son of Sin. He rapes her, giving birth to the dogs that eat her bowels. With Sin, he guards the gates of hell.

Chaos: Ruler of the abyss between hell and earth with his consort Night. He aids Satan in getting to earth.

Night: Chaos’ consort. Rules the abyss with him, and aids Satan in getting to earth.

Uriel: Archangel of the sun. Uriel is fooled by Satan on his way to earth. Helps to later kick Satan out of Paradise.

Gabriel: Archangel and guard of the Paradise. He demands an explanation of Satan when he finds him in Paradise.

Ithuriel: Archangel. With Zephon, he discovers Satan trying to whisper into Eve’s ear in Paradise.

Zephon: Archangel. With Ithuriel, he discovers Satan trying to whisper into Eve’s ear in Paradise.

Abdiel: Angel who originally goes to rebel with Satan, but stands up to him and chooses to remain faithful to God.

3.5 Thomas Carew
	Thomas Carew was the son of an influential official. He was educated at Merton College, Oxford and the Middle Temple in London. He worked as a diplomatic secretary in Italy, Holland and France, and fast earned the reputation of a poet. His talent got him a place at court, and he was privileged to serve at Charles I’s table. In 1634, his masque Coelum Britannicum was performed before the King. His poems, similar to those of other gentlemen of the era, did not go for publishing during his own lifetime but circulation of hand-written copies among his friends did take place. These included Ben Jonson and John Donne, who both exercised a strong influence on Carew’s poetry; in his Elegy Carew proclaims Donne ‘the universal monarchy of wit’. Another poet he admired greatly was the Italian Giambattista Marino, whose wit and extravagant lifestyle resembled Carew's own. Though he failed to accomplish the stature of Donne or Johnson, Carew was an elegant writer whose contribution to literature was typical of the stylish Cavalier school. A collected edition of his poems appeared shortly after his death.     3.5.1 True beauty The poem ‘True Beauty’ speaks about beauty that will not fade with time and age. It brings out the character and desires of the poet regarding his love. The poet comes across as being someone who is wise and understanding and opts for things of substance. He is not taken in by outward show or physical appearance, but looks at the intellectual qualities of his love. The poet gives a beautiful and purer meaning of beauty. According to the poet, true beauty is one which is far removed from the beauty of outward appearance and show. True beauty lies within a person and can be seen by virtue of one’s characteristics. In the first part of the poem,  the poet says that if one needs ‘rosy cheeks’, ‘coral lips’ or ‘star-like eyes’, to keep the flame of his love burning, then his flame would surely extinguish with time. This will happen because outward beauty which is only skin-deep, does not last forever and fades away with passage of time. Outward appearance, according to Carew, is merely superficial and will decay with passage of time and onset of age. The poet says that just as time makes beauty to decay so also will the flames of passion get extinguished. The flame of one’s passion should remain for times and not get put off by outward appearance or outward beauty since ‘beauty is only skin deep’.   In the second part of the poem, the poet says that what he finds most desirable in his love would be ‘a smooth and steadfast mind/Gentle thoughts, and calm desires/Hearts with equal love combined. He feels that only these aspects of beauty remain everlasting and never fade away. The beauty that arises due to these qualities remains fresh forever and does not fade away with passage of time. He goes on to say that hearts which are completely dedicated to each other and love each other with equal intensity ‘kindle never-dying fires’. Such are the things that the poet says he desires in his love and before these aspects of beauty he scorns ‘Lovely cheeks or lips or eyes’.   Carew’s poems are intense lyrics. They open to us, in his own phrase, ‘a mine of rich and pregnant fancy’. His metrical style was deeply influenced by Jonson and his imagery by Donne, for whom he had an almost unquestioned admiration. Carew had a lucidity and directness of lyrical utterance unknown to Donne. It is probably, his greatest distinction that he is the earliest of the cavalier song-writers by profession, of whom John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester, was a later example, poets who turned the disreputable incidents of an idle court-life into poetry which was often of the rarest delicacy and the purest melody and colour. The longest and best of Carew’s poems, ‘A Rapture’, would be more widely appreciated if the rich flow of its imagination were restrained by greater reticence of taste.

3.6 ROBERT HERRICK

Robert Herrick, a cavalier poet, was born in August 1591. He was the seventh child and fourth son of a London goldsmith, Nicholas, and his wife, Julian Stone Herrick. Herrick lost his father when he 1year and 2 months old. When he turned 16, Herrick started a ten-year apprenticeship with his uncle. The  apprenticeship concluded after just six years.  When Herrick turned twenty-two, he completed his matriculation from Saint John’s College, Cambridge. He completed his graduation in the year 1617.

In the following decade, Herrick is known to have become Ben Jonson’s disciple on whom he composed five poems. In 1623, Herrick received holy orders, and after six years, he became vicar of Dean Prior in Devonshire. His post was meant to be for a term of a total of thirty-one years. However, Great Rebellion of 1647, resulted in his removal from the position due to his Royalist sympathies. After Charles II was restored, Herrick was restored to his position of Dean Prior. It was here that he lived from 1662 until he died in October 1674. He remained a bachelor, and a majority of the women whom he mentions in his poems are thought to have been fictional.

His main work is Hesperides; or, the Works Both Human and Divine of Robert Herrick, Esq. (1648). A collection of religious poems printed in 1647 appears inside the same book under a separate title page bearing the name His Noble Numbers. The complete collection consists of more than 1200 short poems. These poems range in form from epistles and eclogues to epigrams and love poems. It was the classical Roman poetry that is believed to have been extremely influential, due to which Herrick wrote on pastoral themes that dealt mainly with English country life and village customs.

3.6.1 A COUNSEL TO GIRLS

The 17^th  century lyric poems, such as Robert Herrick’s cavalier poem ‘Counsel to Girls’, and Andrew Marvell’s metaphysical poem ‘To His Coy Mistress’ are similar in many ways; yet are also contrasting in certain features. These poems of love and life can be summarized in the quote, ‘Gather ye rosebuds while ye may, Old Time is still afyling…’ from ‘Counsel to Girls’. This quote is an embodiment of the theme of Carpe Diem shared in these poems. Robert Herrick’s ‘Counsel to Girls’ is a cavalier poem which was composed in the 17th century. In the poem, the narrator is an elderly person with life experience. The narrator is speaking with a younger woman regarding life and love. The narrator asks the younger person to enjoy life while she can, as it will soon pass away. In this lyric poem, many examples of personification have been used, like the ‘Lamp of Heaven’. The lamp or sun personifies life. The poet makes use of the various positions of the sun for representing the various phases of life. Sunrise symbolizes youth while sunset symbolizes death, which is fast approaching.

The glorious Lamp of Heaven, the Sun,
   The higher he's a-getting
The sooner will his race be run,
   And nearer he’s to setting.

 

The entire theme of this poem is Carpe Diem. Andrew Marvell’s ‘To His Coy Mistress’ is a metaphysical poem that is full of passion. Marvell, the speaker is trying to get a young woman to stop feeling shy. He tries to make her love him and personifies their love growing like vegetables. Marvell also symbolizes time by saying that time gradually eats away love. He wants her to capture the day and love him in return.

 

Both the poems are similar and unlike in many aspects. Both have alike Carpe Diem themes. Both poems also deal with a kind of unreturned love. Besides, the two poems share the same genre as lyric poems. The lyric poems also emphasize the preciousness of youth. The quote, ‘Time’s winged chariot hurrying near…’ from ‘To His Coy Mistress’ denotes that time cannot last forever, that the one being addressed to must enjoy her youth and seize the day to the maximum. From ‘Counsel to Girls’, the quote, ‘Tomorrow will be dying’, is the similar whole notion that Marvell makes use of in ‘To His Coy Mistress’.  Even though the same in certain ways, the poems also bear contrast in many aspects. The tone in ‘To His Coy Mistress’ is shows far more urgency as compared to the lighthearted tone of ‘Counsel to Girls’. The narrators of the poem are different as well. Marvell makes use of himself in his metaphysical poem, but in a number of Cavalier poems the narrators are frequently people with a rich experience of life and the hindrances of love. Although very similar in many ways, a fine line dividing Cavalier and metaphysical poetry continues to remain.

 

 

3.7ABRAHAM COWLEY

Abraham Cowley was the leading poet of his time. He was known for his versatility, his sophistication, and his unique contributions to English verse and prose. He is often mentioned as being the last of the metaphysical poets, although it is popularly known that he considered himself to be a follower of Spenser and Jonson instead of Donne. All through his career he used diverse forms and styles of poetry. He adapted classical and Renaissance models and also imitated his immediate predecessors’ use of elaborate, paradoxical metaphors. Cowley’s prose style has been greatly appreciated, from his own days to date, due to its unaffectedness, elegance and simplicity. His aesthetic theories, never codified, can be seen implicitly in a number of his odes and also more directly in prefaces and notes to major works. He considered the concepts of order and decorum as central to the poet’s art and believed that the study of natural philosophy would take the poet’s potential to its peak for creating a factual representation of Divine order. His adapting Anacreon, Horace and Pindar, made Cowley to become the earliest English writer who repudiated word-for-word and line-for-line transcriptions in favour of much liberated translations. This made the 18th century translators and imitators of classical writings, which also included Alexander Pope, acknowledge their gratitude to him. His Pindaric odes brought the irregular ode in English for the first time influencing poets like Gray, Collins, Wordsworth and Shelley. The Horatian themes of solitude, liberation and the small, unaffected pleasures of village life can be seen recurring all through Cowley’s poems and essays. The Restoration poets like Lovelace, Vaughan and Marvell took up these poems and essays and developed them. Cowley’s literary popularity began declining in the second half of the eighteenth-century, and two hundred years later commentators do not have the same opinion about his stature. While certain emphasize his indebtedness to Donne, others stress the creative nature of his most important work.

Biography

Cowley was born in London, a few months after his father’s death. He has been differently described by modern scholars as a stationer or a grocer. The family, that included seven children, was financially well-off. Cowley went to the Westminster School around 1628 and was very soon elected a King’s Scholar. An extremely talented student, he wrote prodigiously while at Westminster. He went up to Trinity College, Cambridge in 1636, got his B. A. in 1639, and was admitted to Trinity as a Minor Fellow in 1640. During his stay at Cambridge, Cowley wrote some of his most popular poems. One of his poems, namely ‘Ode on the Death of Mr. William Hervey’, made Henry Jermyn, a famous courtier and later Earl of St. Albans, notice his work. Cowley’s natural conservative nature and his being associated with the Royalists resulted in his fleeing Cambridge—a Puritan stronghold—sometime in 1642 or 1643. He reached Oxford, where Charles I had established his headquarters. Here, he became progressively engaged with the king’s cause. Cowley became an emigrant in the initial years of the Civil War, and settled down in Paris, where Queen Henrietta Maria had set up a court in exile. From 1644 till around 1654, Cowley remained in the queen’s service, and acted as a cryptographer and messenger. He often visited Flanders, Holland, Scotland, and the Channel Islands as her representative. On returning to England he was taken under arrest in London on April 12, 1655, by Cromwell’s agents. When he was released many months later, he discovered some Royalist factions and Parliamentarians did not trust him any more. This loss of trust was partially due to his activities over the past decade and partially due to his writings during his time in prison. Cowley met with disappointment in expecting an important reward recognizing his services to the monarch. However, his fellowship at Trinity was restored and patrons like the Duke of Buckingham and the Earl of St. Albans undertook the onus of the responsibility for his living arrangements all through the rest of his life. He started a course of study in medicine and was created ‘doctor of physic’ by Oxford in 1657. At this time he was also actively involved in forming the Royal Society, the earliest scientific society in Britain and one of the oldest in Europe. In the spring of 1663, he retired to Barn Elms in Surrey, and continued to visit and correspond with friends and got informally trained as a botanist. Two years later, he left Barm Elms—and his gardens which were cultivated with utmost care—and shifted to Chertsey. It was here that he died on 28 July 1667. As per his friend, the diarist John Evelyn, Cowley’s body was taken to Westminster Abbey ‘in a hearse with six horses and all funeral decency, near a hundred coaches of noblemen and persons of quality following’. Cowley is buried in the Abbey, next to the remains of Chaucer and close by those of Spenser.

Major Works

The first compilation of Cowley’s works, Poeticall Blossoms, got published when he was all of fifteen years of age. Besides, his elegies and other occasional poems in Spenser’s style, it consists of two plays. The first, Pyramus and Thisbe, was composed at the tender age of ten. It is a verse romance in heroic couplets that displays the author’s acquaintance with Ovid’s Metamorphoses and also with the Petrarchan tradition. The second, Constantia and Philetus, written two years hence, is a tragic romance that is a combination of the amazing Ovidian conceits with Horatian themes of village simplicity and serenity. Before leaving Westminster, Cowley started work on Loves Riddle, a pastoral comedy in blank verse and song, the sources of which are Terence, Plautus, Sidney, Daniel, Shakespeare and Guarini; he finished writing this play when he was in Cambridge and composed two others there as well, the performance of both of which both took place at Trinity College. Naufragium Joculare (The Comic Shipwreck), a satirical poem on education, schoolmasters, and students, is a five-act Latin comedy with outlines of the plot taken from Terence and Plautus. The Guardian was composed within a week, as per its author. It was composed for the visit to Cambridge by the Prince of Wales, later Charles II, on March 12, 1641; a ‘comedy of humours’ after the style of Jonson but even a derivative of Shakespeare, Marlowe and Kyd, it is a satire specifically on the Puritans and the contemporary society in general. Almost, after twenty years, it underwent revision by Cowley as Cutter of Coleman Street which was his sole professional production. It was often performed in the Restoration period and was regularly performed well into the 18^th century. The Mistresse, a sequence of love poems written approximately between 1636 and 1646, was published in 1647. A hugely famous compilation, that underwent reprinting all through the 17^th century, it is modelled on Donne and is a reflection of the contemporary fashion for romantic lyrics full of paradox, hyperbole and extended conceits. These poems are also a part of The Miscellanies, published nine years later. However, from a modern viewpoint other parts of this volume carry great significance, particularly the Pindariques, the Davideis, ‘Of Wit, On the Death of Mr. William Hervey’, ‘On the Death of Mr. Crashaw’, and the author’s notes and prefaces. The Pindaric odes are more imitations than interpretations. Abounding in wit and originality, they display diverse rhyme schemes besides line and stanza length. In these kind of Pindarics as ‘The Resurrection’, ‘The Muse’, and ‘To Mr. Hobbes’, Cowley’s complete focus is on the function of poetry and its corresponding association with philosophy. The final compilation of Cowley’s writing published in his lifetime is Verses, Lately Written upon Several Occasions. It consists of prose essays with poems following which are nearly imitations of Horace and Virgil. The prose style is revolutionary—colloquial yet classical. The theme is extremely personal, as Cowley examines his career, recalling his initial, contradictory impulses toward loneliness and vagueness on the one hand and poetic fame on the other. The Librii Plantarum, composed when the author was dwelling in rural retirement, signify both his passionate interest in botanical knowledge and his lifelong concerns with the relationship between man and nature. Other important works from the final years of Cowley’s life include A Proposition for the Advancement of Experimental Philosophy (1661), a systematically detailed plan for educational reform; ‘To the Royal Society’ (1667), a Pindaric ode praising Bacon and the ‘new philosophy’; and eleven short essays, published post his death, that exalts the Horatian notion of retirement from the world in prose that is significant for precision, wit and grace.

Critical Reception

Throughout his life and the Restoration, critics praised Cowley for his originality and articulacy. Milton is said to have even declared that Spenser, Shakespeare and Cowley were the three greatest poets of England. Well into the 18^th century, commentators greeted the range and scope of Cowley’s work, his creativity and his versatility. Samuel Johnson’s assessment, published in 1779, indicates a change in attitude and has continued to be highly influential, specifically with regard to his classification of Cowley as one of the final metaphysical poets. For approximately two hundred years after that, Cowley had less defenders. Commentators in general patronized him as an intermediary figure, the eventual practitioner of a style which was steadily declining, sensitive to famous tastes and movements but without any profoundly bearing convictions regarding his art. In 1931, Arthur Nethercot published a book length study of Cowley that stressed the unique contributions of the author to English literature. After twenty-five years, Robert Hinman in a similar manner tried to revive Cowley’s reputation, and called attention to the poet’s continual trials of reconciling 17^th century intellectual movements with traditional aesthetic and religious thought. In 1963, David Rawlinson advanced modern appreciation of Cowley’s work by emphasizing his innovativeness, propinquity and clarity of expression. After five years, Harvey Goldstein provided a close reading of the ode ‘Of Wit’, and interpreted it as a personification of Cowley’s conviction that the poet should subordinate linguistic elements to the bigger concerns of design and structure. Also examining Cowley's poetic theories, Paul Korshin found evidence in several works of an increasing movement away from the excesses of the metaphysical style toward an emphasis on balanced judgment and the regulation of wit by the intellect. Comparing the influence of disparate traditions on Cowley's work, Timothy Dykstal discerned in the Davideis a conflict between Christian rationalism and classical ideals; in the critic's judgment, the epic is incomplete because Cowley's religious perspective prevented him from representing the virtues of pagan heroism in the context of a biblical narrative. Three critics who have emphasized the impact of topical events on Cowley's work include Allan Pritchard, Thomas Osborne, and James Keough. Pritchard assessed The Civil War in the context of its composition during the initial days of that conflict. Calhoun’s focus was on other partisan propaganda composed by Cowley during this period: his two verse satires. And Keough provided a new reading of the ‘Brutus’ ode—written in 1655, after the establishment of the Protectorate—as a statement of resigned acceptance of the Royalist defeat.

The dignity that he earned was so great that upon his death he was buried next to Chaucer and Spenser at Westminster Abbey.

 

3.7.1 A SUPPLICATION

The poem ‘A Supplication’ is a part of Book 3 of the epic poem, Davideis by Abraham Cowley. Davideis is the first English epic on a biblical theme, preceding Milton’s Paradise Lost by more than two decades. The epic is divided into four books, with each book stating the life and times of King David. David was a shepherd boy in the Bible who rose to become the king of Israel due to his God-fearing ways. His undying love for the Lord and his complete dedication and devotion to heavenly ways made God to raise him to the stature of a king. Youngest of the eleven sons of Jesse, David earned popularity by defeating Goliath of Philistine with just a sling and a stone. He was anointed king over Saul, who was the then reigning king.

 

In this poem, A Supplication, David is wooing Saul’s daughter, Michal with whom he was greatly in love. Saul’s son Jonathan was David’s closest companion and the two had great loved and understanding of each other.

 

In the poem, David heart is filled with the pain that one experiences when one is in love and is unable to do anything about it. Michal too is in love with him but acts indifferent in his presence. This causes him even more pain and since he fears that his disclosure of his love for her can offend her and make her decline his proposal.

 

In the first stanza, he finds comfort in his muse, the musical lyre whom he invokes by asking it to wake up and tell his tale of love. He asks his lyre to tell his tale in sounds that would invoke her feelings as well. In the lines ‘Though so exalted she/ and I so lowly be’, David makes reference of his lowly stature and her noble birth, since he was just a shepherd and she the daughter of a king. He asks his muse, the lyre, to make her understand that it is such various notes of music that create the harmony of music.

A lyre is a musical instrument, much like the harp, with strings, to bring melodious music.

 

In the second stanza, he asks his muse to apply all its charms in order to win over her love.

 

In the third stanza, he appears to be giving up all hopes of winning his love. He chides the muse by calling it ‘weak’ and saying that its virtue is useless in this pursuit of love. He then goes on to say, that the lyre cures all wounds with its melodious music, while his love only knows to wound and not to heal. Therefore, he says that the lyre will prove ineffective in quenching the fire of his passion. However, he once again praises the lyre by saying that it is a medicine to other ailments and a ‘nourishment to love’.

 

In the fourth stanza, the poet has concluded that his muse too will prove ineffective in helping him win over his love. Thus, he asks his muse to go back to sleep. For it will never be able to help him succeed in winning over his love, nor will it be able to involje gentle thoughts in her. He asks the lyre to keep all his superficial happiness and joy aside and allow his master to die. The last line ‘let thy master die’ shows the intensity of pain that David is suffering due to his love for Michal. So mush is the pain caused by this love that he simply wants to give up his life and die.

 

            3.8       SUMMARY

 

In this unit, you have learned that:

 

The term metaphysical poets was coined by the poet and critic Samuel Johnson. He called a certain group of poets, metaphysical poets, because he wanted to describe a loose group of British lyric poets of the 17th century. These poets had a common interest in metaphysical issues and a common method of examining them.

John Donne, one of the most famous metaphysical poets, was an Englishman who lived in the former part of the 17th century. His contemporaries include other famous metaphysical poets such as George Herbert and Andrew Marvell.

Donne is precious, not simply as a delegate writer but also as a highly unique one. He was a man of ambiguities: As a minister in the Anglican Church, Donne acquired a deep spirituality that updated his writing throughout his life; but as a man, Donne acquired a carnal yearn for life, sensation, and experience.

Henry Vaughan (1621 − April 23, 1695) was a Welsh physician and metaphysical poet.

Vaughan and his twin brother Thomas Vaughan who was a hermetic philosopher and an alcemist, were born to Thomas Vaughan and his wife Denise (née Morgan) of ‘Trenewydd’, Newton, in Brecknockshire, Wales. Their grandfather, William, owned Tretower Court.

Vaughan obtained his literary encouragement from his native environment, choosing the explanatory name ‘Silurist’. The name was a derivative derived from the homage that he paid to the Silures, the Celtic tribe of pre-Roman south Wales which put up a vehement resistance to the Romans.

Andrew Marvell (31 March 1621 – 16 August 1678) was an English metaphysical poet, Parliamentarian. He was born to Church of England clergyman (also named Andrew Marvell). As a metaphysical poet, he is linked with John Donne and George Herbert. He was a colleague and friend of John Milton.

Marvell’s poetry is generally filled with wit and detailed conceits in the elegant style of the metaphysical poets. Several poems were inspired by events of the time, public or personal.

John Milton, a Puritan poet, was one of the greatest poets of the English language, popularly known for his epic poem Paradise Lost (1667). Milton’s strong, rhetoric prose and the articulacy of his poetry had an enormous effect especially on the 18^th century verse.

Thomas Carew, earliest of the Cavalier song writers, was the son of an influential official. He was educated at Merton College, Oxford and the Middle Temple in London. He worked as a diplomatic secretary in Italy, Holland and France, and fast earned the reputation of a poet.

Carew’s poems are intense lyrics. They open to us, in his own phrase, ‘a mine of rich and pregnant fancy’. His metrical style was deeply influenced by Jonson and his imagery by Donne, for whom he had an almost unquestioned admiration. Carew had a lucidity and directness of lyrical utterance unknown to Donne.

Robert Herrick, a cavalier poet, was born in August 1591. It was the classical Roman poetry that is believed to have been extremely influential on him, due to which Herrick wrote on pastoral themes that dealt mainly with English country life and village customs.

Abraham Cowley was the leading poet of his time. He was known for his versatility, his sophistication, and his unique contributions to English verse and prose. He is often mentioned as being the last of the metaphysical poets, although it is popularly known that he considered himself to be a follower of Spenser and Jonson instead of Donne.

Throughout his life and the Restoration, critics praised Cowley for his originality and articulacy. Milton is said to have even declared that Spenser, Shakespeare and Cowley were the three greatest poets of England.

 

            3.9       GLOSSARY

 

Metaphysical Poets: They were the poets of the 17^th century, whose topics included major things like God, creation and afterlife.

Metaphysical Poetry: It is a kind of poetry that emphasizes the intellectual over the emotional.

Angels: They embody the almost-divine status accomplished by beloveds in Donne’s love poetry.

Holy Sonnets: These were poems by John Donne which mainly dealt with God and His Heavenly kingdom.

Paradise Lost: A twelve-book epic by John Milton, it is Milton’s explanation of Genesis. 

 

3.10 SELF-ASSESSMENT QUESTIONS (SAQs)

 

A)    MULTIPLE-CHOICE QUESTIONS

 

Objective Type

 

1.       What did John Donne switch to when he was not allowed to go to either Cambridge or Oxford to become a priest?

(a)    Catholicism

(b)   Protestantism

(c)    Anglicanism

(d)   Hinduism

2. On what note does the poem ‘The Good Morrow’ seem to conclude?

      (a) Faith

      (b) Peace

      (c) Reconcilement

      (d)  Uncertainty

3. What are the ‘Holy Sonnets’ of Donne popular for?

      (a) Their accuracy of the sonnet form and for the way in which they combine genuine religious feelings with naughty wit.

      (b) Their obscurity and incomprehensible nature

      (c) Their love for nature

      (d) Their being centered on worldly issues

4. From where did Henry Vaughan obtain his literary encouragement?

(a) From his native environment

(b) From his school

(c) From his friends

(d) From a foreign country he visited

5. What is the poem ‘The Garden’ by Andrew Marvell a reflection of?

      (a) The superiority of nature over human society

      (b) The inferiority complex of poets

      (c) The relationship between a lover and his love

      (d) The peaceful existence of mankind

6. How does Satan feel on seeing Eve all by herself?

      (a) Happy

      (b) Sad

      (c) Lonely

            (d) Jealous

 

7. Who deeply influenced Carew’s metrical style?

      (a) Milton

      (b) Jonson

(c) Donne

(d) Wordsworth

 

8. Name the first compilation of Cowley’s works?

      (a) Davideis

      (b) Poeticall Blossoms

      (c) Metamorphoses

      (d) Loves Riddle

 

B)    TRUE OR FALSE

9. The term metaphysical poets was coined by William Shakespeare.[T/F]

10. Donne draws on the Neoplatonic conception of physical love and religious love as being two manifestations of the same desire. [T/F]

11. In the poem ‘The Retreate’ Henry Vaughan is seen to deal with the loss of the heavenly glory. [T/F]

12. Milton’s strong, rhetoric prose and the articulacy of his poetry did not have any effect on the 18^th century verse. [T/F]

13. Carew’s poems are intense lyrics. [T/F]

14. Robert Herrick, was a metaphysical poet. [T/F]

15. Davideis is the first English epic on a biblical theme, preceding Milton’s Paradise Lost by more than two decades. [T/F]

 

 

C)    Short-Answer Questions

 

16. Write a short note on the neoplatonic conception of love.

17. Give a short critical analysis of any one of Donne’s poems.

18. What is Marvell’s view on tranquility as seen in the poem ‘The Garden’.

19. Why is ‘Paradise Lost’ not very easy to read?

20. How are the two poems, ‘To His Coy Mistress’ by Andrew Marvell and ‘Counsel to 21. Girls’ by Robert Herrick both similar and different?

22. Write a short literary background of Abraham Cowley.

 

D)    Descriptive –Type Questions

 

23. Donne incorporates the Renaissance conception of the human body as a microcosm into his love poetry. Discuss

24. Give the paraphrasing for Donne’s ‘At the Round Earth’s Imagined Corners’.

25. Give a detailed critical analysis of the poem ‘The Retreate’.

26. Analyse the role of Satan in the epic poem ‘Paradise Lost’.

27. Throughout his life and the Restoration, critics praised Cowley. Comment