Metaphysical Poems and Cavaliar Poetry - Essay Example

Metaphysical Poems and Cavaliar Poetry English literature of the 17th century can be deservedly calledthe literature of revolutionary breaking point of post-Elizabethan era, for it developed within rigorous ideological and social strife. Three main stages can be distinguished in literature of that period: one covering anterevolutionary decades, the second lasting during the years of revolution and republic existence, and the third one coinciding with the period of restoration. The breaking character of the epoch and acuteness of sociopolitical collisions in England predetermined complexity and multifaceted nature of literary processes and poetry development in particular. The seventeenth-century poetry is marked by the opposition of two main forces differing in an array of religious, political and cultural issues1 – cavalier poetry and metaphysical school. The former were predominantly the members of royalty supporting the reign of the king, while the latter were mainly religious people belonging to middle class and advocating puritanism in Protestantism. Thereby, cavalier and metaphysical poetic schools are recognized as prevailing tendencies in poetry of English Renaissance. Existing side by side, the two schools were supported by certain philosophical and religious ideas and, despite having a number of similarities, were rather different in many aspects of stylistics. Moreover, cavalier poetry might be called more secular and closer to hedonistic values. Of course, the two schools are similar in terms of general time frame and historical background as well as of the general thematic framework (for instance, representatives of both schools addressed such eternal topics as love, beauty, life and death etc.). In addition, the motif of ‘carpe diem’ was cultivated in both schools: good examples are Marvell’s ‘To His Coy Mistress’ and Herrick’s ‘To the Virgins’. However, it is a wide range of differences that distinguishes cavaliers from metaphysical school. The difference arresting the reader’s attention at once is the use of form and structure in the two schools. Metaphysical poetry is rather analytical with its structure being mainly complex: use of long sentences incorporating several ideas is common. In Andrew Marvell’s poem ‘A Dialogue between the Soul and Body’, a large part of the stanza might be constituted by a single sentence presenting several thoughts at once: “Which, stretch’d upright, impales me so // That mine own precipice I go; // And warms and moves this needless frame, // (A fever could but do the same) // And, wanting where its spite to try, // Has made me live to let me die”2. On the other hand, in Herrick’s “To the Virgins’, the structure is smoother and, say, more elegant, with the form being less complicated and easier perceived, as it isn’t overloaded with complex logical relations: “The glorious lamp of heaven, the sun, // The higher hes a-getting, // The sooner will his race be run, // And nearer hes to setting”3. Jon Suckling’s poem ‘Why So Pale and Wan?’ also demonstrates rather clear and simple syntactic structure enhanced by regular rhythm. However, despite using complex analytical structures, the language used by ‘metaphysicals’ is more conversational, while cavaliers deploy more florid and exquisite language, which is rather far from conversational style. Furthermore, rhetorical devices’ use differs much in these two schools. Using elegant florid language, cavaliers satiate their poems with lavish figurative language – metaphors, hyperboles, personifications etc. – and enhance melodic properties of verses with help of sound devices such as alliteration, repetition, assonance and consonance. An example of abundance in metaphorical embellishment is ‘To Julia’ written by Robert Herrick, where he uses multiple metaphors of gemstones and jewelry to praise the woman’s beauty and “relates jewels to body parts”4. On the other hand, the illustration of sound devices can be easily traced in the abovementioned poem by Sir Jon Suckling: “Why so pale and wan, fond lover?  // Prithee, why so pale?  // Will, when looking well can’t move her, // Looking ill prevail? // Prithee, why so pale?»5. Contrasted to cavalier poems involving graceful yet rather straightforward figurativeness, metaphysical poetry involves greater level of complexity, using diverse rhetorical devices such as paradoxes, irony, puns with witty word play and a peculiar type of metaphors – conceits (extended metaphors implying rather eccentric comparisons). For instance, John Donne in his ‘No man is an island’ creates a rather extensive metaphysical conceit, drawing parallels between human beings and geographical entities and implying the idea of the unity of mankind and sympathy with each other. Another significant dissimilarity lies in the way poets use outer structure in terms of rhythmic patterns, rhymes and meter. These features of poetic form find a rather regular and ‘traditional’ expression in cavalier poems, rhythmic patterns being commonly regular, rhyme schemes being rather predictable and common and traditional meter being used. Works of Robert Herrick are a remarkable example of regular and smooth meter in cavalier poetry – for instance, his short poem ‘Upon a Child that Died’ demonstrates regular trochaic meter: “Here she lies, a pretty bud, // Lately made of flesh and blood, // Who as soon fell fast asleep // As her little eyes did peep”6. In Herrick’s poetry, metric structure reflects irregularities like shortened last line of the stanza (for instance, in ‘Delight in Disorder’) rather rarely. In contrast, there is an excerpt from Marvell’s poem: “See how the orient dew, // Shed from the bosom of the morn // Into the blowing roses, // Yet careless of its mansion new”7. Thus, comparing cavalier metric structure to that of metaphysical poetry, one can see that the latter redunds in bizarre irregular metric, rhyme and rhythmic patterns (use of slant rhymes is rather frequent), which make them more rough and complicated for reading and perception. Imagery is also a point of difference, for poets of the two schools use different types of it in their works. Particularly, imagery in metaphysical poems tend to be more bizarre and unconventional. Jon Donne’s poem called ‘The Flea’ revolves around an image, which is extremely eccentric and unusual for a love poem, the flea. Although this image could be perceived as something very far from romantic, the poet infuses this original image into a context of love and romantic relationships – the female and the male “become one after being sucked by the flea”8. Donne draws parallels between consummation of the characters’ love and mixing of their blood in the body of an insect: “It sucked me first, and now sucks thee, // And in this flea, our two bloods mingled be”9. Another striking example of metaphysical imagery is the image of points on the compass in ‘Valediction: Forbidden Mourning’ as the symbol of lovers who have to endure parting nourished by their spiritual love. On the other hand, images in cavalier poetry are much easier to anticipate, for they are much more traditional and mundane – there are roses or other flowers to represent beauty and love, fire to symbolize passion, a set of typical color metaphors used for description of beautiful females and many others. Thomas Carew’s ‘Disdain Returned’ is abundant with such somewhat ‘hackneyed’ images: “He that loves a rosy cheek, // Or a coral lip admires, // Or from star-like eyes doth seek // Fuel to maintain his fires; // As old Time makes these decay, // So his flames must waste away»10. The author resorts to already traditional metaphorical patterns, comparing a woman’s eyes to stars and endows metonymical ‘cheek’ and ‘lips’ symbolizing a woman with color metaphors ‘coral’ and ‘rosy’ in order to create an image of canonical beauty. Robert Herrick, in his turn, resorts to a rather expected image of a rosebud, obviously, to signify women’s youth in his ‘To the Virgins’: “Gather ye rosebuds while ye may”11. These examples illustrate clearly the principal difference in use of images. Finally, one of the most outstanding distinctive points between the two poetic schools lies in the overall thematic of poetry. Although both metaphysical poetry and cavaliers wrote under the carpe diem creed, perception and treatment of this subject matter differs in these schools. Cavalier poetry obviously cultivates this principle in a nearly hedonistic direction. In ‘To the Virgins’, Robert Herrick feels light-hearted and free in expressing the idea of brevity of earthly life and urging young women to seize the moment. He writes: “Gather ye rose-buds while ye may, Old Time is still a-flying: And this same flower that smiles today, Tomorrow will be dying”12. The overall tone of this work is very light and careless in a way. However, the theme is cultivated in a completely different way by Andrew Marvell, a metaphysical poet, who lavishly fills his poem ‘To His Coy Mistress’ with rather ‘heavy’ and unattractive imagery of tombs, worms and marble vaults seeking to express the idea that people are mortal and life is finite and thus persuading the mistress to reject her coy and plunge into a whirl of love, for death waits for them. Therefore, the imagery makes the tone of the poem serious and rather grave, evoking philosophical and metaphysical considerations. Moreover, considering such attitude towards the theme, one can trace differences in portrayal of love, too. Cavalier poets usually depict romantic love, while metaphysical poetry often cultivates spiritual and philosophical concerns. George Herbert’s poem titled “The Agony” is an illustrious specimen of metaphysical theme in poetry, the tone being rather grave and the whole poem revolving around the topic of love and sin depicted through the prism of philosophy: “Love is that liquor sweet and most divine, // Which my God feels as blood; but I, as wine”13. This means that metaphysicals tend to focus on spiritual matters and philosophical aspects of life, while cavaliers are more likely to speak about pleasures, beauty and a range of quite earthly, secular, things. In other words, it could be stated that the two schools often depict different sides of the same things. Having compared and contrasted a range of poems belonging to cavalier and metaphysical schools, one could distinguish certain similarities between Metaphysical school and cavaliers, the key of them being existence in the same epoch and presence of ‘carpe diem’ creed in many of the works. At the same time, it is easy to trace a set of differences including use of metrics, rhyming, figurative means of expression, language, differing interpretations of common images themes and – what’s more – prevailing differences in images appearing. conclude that – despite certain similarities in themes and proximity in time period, these two poetic schools are rather different, both reflecting its own world perception of the contemporary society. Works Cited Carew, Thomas. “Disdain Returned”. From: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/173131 Donne, John. “The Flea”. From: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/175764 Gilfillan, George (ed.). The Poetical Works Of George Herbert, Edinburgh: James Nichol, 1853. Web. From: http://www.ritchies.net/Herbert/poems/031_The_Agony.htm Gleeson, Patrick. “Similarities & Differences Between Cavalier Poetry & Metaphysical Poetry.” 2014. Web. From: http://www.ehow.com/info_10020455_similarities-differences-between-cavalier-poetry-metaphysical-poetry.html Herrick, Robert. The complete poems of Robert Herrick. Balloch, Alexander (ed.). London, Chatto and Windus, 1876. Web. From: https://archive.org/details/completepoemsro01grosgoog Mansour, Wisam. "Donnes THE FLEA." Explicator 65.1 (2006): 7-9. Academic Search Complete. Web. 26 May 2015. Marvell, Andrew. Poems, 2012. The World’s Poetry Archive. From: http://www.poemhunter.com/i/ebooks/pdf/andrew_marvell_2012_3.pdf Schaefer, Tatjana. "Robert Herricks Organic Jewelry." ANQ: A Quarterly Journal Of Short Articles, Notes, And Reviews 25.3 (2012): 141-146. MLA International Bibliography. Web. 26 May 2015. Sir John Suckling. “Why so pale and wan fond lover?” Aglaura, 1638. From: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/174514 Read More