METAPHYSICAL

The term metaphysical was first used by John Dryden (a poet of XVII) in his "essay on Satire". Dryden meant it as a negative definition of a poetry that seemed too difficult, and with little formal charme: in a word too philosophical.

The man who gave the term popularity was Samuel Johnson (a writer of 1700) better known as Doctor Johnson in his "Life of Cowley" one of the metaphysical poet.

Doctor Johnson remarks where critical yet appreciative of metaphysical poets, but they were ignored by the remainder of the XVIII and IXX century.

At the beginning of the XVII century, a new principal had come to be the most important element in their art for a certain group of poets: WIT. Wit, which originally meant INTELLIGENCE, was now interpreted as a particular kind of SKILL WITH WORDS, the ability to create unusual, unexpressed images. This tendency could be seen all over Europe, for example in Spain in the poetry of Louis De Gongora (1561-1671) and in Italy in that of Giambattista Marino (1569-1625)  and the literary movement known as Marinismo or Concettismo.