WHAT IS META POETRY by Bradford Smith

- MP discussed amply but defined vaguely

- Variously mentioned from Drummond to Dryden, Johnson to Eliot
- But never clearly distinguished clearly from the rest of poetic literature
Grierson: All great poetry is metaphysical
- The exemplar of the meta muse – fulfilment of physical love and death
- Death and the metaphysical concern of dissolution and the psychological
analysis of emotion
- Approach primarily from the intellect
Metapoetry is concerned with life, love and death and it is metaphorical, but the
collar does not hold true.
- MP is concerned with Life, Love and Death presented with intellectual depth
and philosophical inquiry
- It is Metaphorical and the metaphors aren’t just ornamental but serve to
challenge conventional thinking and provide insights into abstract ideas
- A blend of Intellectual rigor, argumentative structures and paradoxical
imagery is what makes it unique
Johnsons attack under the term metaphysical referred to the type of poetry of which
Donne is the great exemplar.
Word also bears the meanings “having real being or essential nature of reality” and
being “concerned with the analysis of experience”
- The etymology of the word since meta-physics, or coming after physics, the
knowledge of the natural world, might well be adapted for a poetry which
makes such large and fruitful use of an imagery based upon realistic, physical
terms.
Miss Taggard: MP is not confined to an age, it is recurrent throughout all poetry
Search for definition concern largely on Donne and his 17 th C followers, Herbert,
Carew, Marvell.
“Metaphysical Poetry is a paradoxical inquiry, imaginative and intellectual,
which exhausts, by its use of antithesis and contradiction and unusual
imagery, all the possibilities in a given idea. This idea will predominantly be a
psychological probing of love, death, or religion as the more important
matters of experience in the life of the poet and will be embodied in striking
metaphorical utterance or in the use of the common {familiar) or the
scientific word.” – Smith
Outstanding characteristics of their poetry:
1. Peculiar flavor of their thought
2. It’s close application to a well-developed striking and accurate imagery –
imagery is used not because it’s pretty, but because it fits the idea. The Meta
 poet has a way of making his image and his idea one, the image an
explanation rather than an embellishment.
3. Metaphors are not high-flown however ingenious they maybe and the poet
prefers a type of common imagery peculiar to himself.
4. Uses terms employed by - astronomer, lawyer, tradesman, and turns them to
the use of a highly effective metaphorical vein and delights in physical
concepts and somatic terms.
5. Sensual thought whether it move towards eroticism or to an almost morbid
pondering of death
6. Thought encompasses large horizons bending the universe into the small
circle of man’s comprehension
7. There’s no ordered philosophy; complexity unresolved is apparent
8. Complexity as a keynote of his nature – complexity born of a desire to
examine and analyze everything in his experience.
9. Eye is too keen to accept an ordered view of a disordered world
10.Intellect controls this poetry
11.Passion is examined and probed not eulogized
12.A blend of all the contrarieties of nature – Skeptic, religious, sensual,
scholarly, fanciful, abstruse
Grierson suggests “the psychological nature of the poetry – its probing of love and
religion.”
- The poet is an analyst of his own moods and experiences but is unable to
unify love and religion in his life, both being vital to his experience.
- This view of the metaphysical is valuable in its emphasis on an inner conflict
of sensuality and spirituality and in its characterization of the verse as
psychological.
- Common opinion has assigned subjectivism to the romantic period of the
nineteenth century.
- Important to recognize a deep current of self-interest in the literature of the
seventeenth century
- A psychological probing for accurate and profound analysis far exceeds the
vagueness and generalities of the romantic poets.
- The poetry is psychological and born of a need to find (and perhaps not
finding?) a thoughtful pattern for the universe.
The small, every-day image linked with a large idea, concern and realization and
tortured wonder at the complexity of life and the universe are the true marks of the
metaphysical poet.
- Image and meaning are one; the former seems essential to an expression of
the latter for both are uniquely the poets own.
- Imagery is important, enough cannot be said about the precision and
appropriateness of metaphysical metaphor.
The Radical image as Professor Wells calls it in his Poetic Imagery.
 - The comparison between the two terms of the metaphor is incongruent,
ingenious, and the minor term possesses, intrinsically, little imaginative
value.
- These images always result in a distinct shock to the reader.
- The intellectual exercise seems to retard, for a moment, imaginative
sympathy. But not for long.
- The image stands, at last, in strong contrast to mere exuberance of phrase.
- Closely allied to the Radical Image is the use of common everyday phrases
and of scientific terminology.
Unusual metaphorical effects are obtained in the use of words of ordinary talk.
- Marvell’s “my vegetable love should grow” usage results in an impingement
of added meaning upon terms of common speech.
- Creates an imagery that is at once alive and familiar but striking because of
its ingenious use of seemingly dull material.
Professor Williamson finds an apt expression for the peculiar concern of these poets
with death. He calls it the 'metaphysical shudder. Marvell is an excellent example:
Then worms shall try
That long-preserved virginity.
A tight Logical Structure about MP
- Makes it almost akin to the geometric proposition with its “given” and “to
prove”
- Marvell’s to His coy Mistress – Given: Her Coyness – To Prove: Coyness is
criminal
- Proof: Following of all the reasons necessary for the conversion of his
mistress to his own beliefs.
 Not “world enough and time
 Deserts of eternity stretch before them
 Beauty and song shall be of little worth
 Youth must be enjoyed
 But “it were profanation’
: The point is thus obvious
The exhaustive treatment of metaphor – The careful and precise relation of many
points between the major and minor terms throughout a long poem – The Extended
Image.
Metaphysical thought:
- Metaphysical poet whether by chance or requirement is almost always
sensual and usually erotic somewhere or other in the course of his utterance.
- It makes apparent the reason for the delight in somatic terms and the use of
physical or physiological terms in his imagery.
No Stringent Rules
 - The poet is bound by no stringent rules.
Sentimentality is banned
- Any preachment coming direct from the emotions and not interpreted and
expounded by the intellect is not metaphysical
- This is not to say, however, that there is no emotion, for the poetry becomes
at times almost ecstatic.
- The paradox is that emotion is restrained although it is abundant; even
though it achieves transport it is not allowed to overflow.
- Intellect stands at the floodgate of emotion and keeps even the turbulent
stream of impassioned poetry within her banks – Smith
Poetry is metaphysical in another sense:
- Poet is concerned in his relation to the world – The difference between the
circles of the universe and of man’s mind concerns him.
- As such Man is able to take into his circle the whole universe, relating the
detail of his own life to the larger canvas of general experience and natural
law.
Metaphors are bold, the attitude toward religion one of fearlessness or at least of
skepticism.
The verse is logical rather than intuitive.
Sincerity is a hallmark of good metaphysical verse; without it the method of
metaphorical poetry is unsuccessful.
A distinctive imagery and diction and a unique intellect are the signs by which it
may be detected. The imagery is always crystal-clear, serving as a window through
which the thought may be observed, not as an ornament which detracts from the
central design
Universality of Human Experience
- The metaphysical poet is interested first in his own life and experiences
- Next in the life and actions of those who are close to him.
- The careful analysis of these things leads, quite without premeditation, to a
human understanding of far greater universality than the theological
apologist or the romantic effusionist can attain.
- The deeply probing finger of the metaphysical poet seems to uncover both
personal and universal truths.
- In climbing the hill to his own satisfaction, he discovers that the world lies
spread before his feet.
- If men wonder about themselves and the world and so long as they must go
to intellects greater than their own for analysis and vision, and for the
conviction that other men have sought to solve the same problems,
metaphysical poetry will continue to be of importance.
- The contradictions and complexities of existence have nowhere else been as
well expressed.
Andrew Marvell’s to His Coy Mistress covers all the things enumerated in the
definition of metaphysical poetry by Bradford Smith
- The Metaphysical combination of thought and image
- The sensuality
- The universal outlook
- The distinctive common diction (my vegetable love)
- The metaphysical shudder
All things that have made metapoetry are here combined in a perfect poem.
But at my back I always hear
Times winged chariot hurrying near,
And yonder all before us lie
Deserts of vast eternity.
HOW DO WE RECOGNIZE METAPHYSICAL POETRY – ANDREW CUTROFELLO