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 is Cowley" one of the metaphysical poet.

Doctor Johnson's remarks were 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, unexpected 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.

The poet uses a curious bland of irony, serious reflection, philosophising, unusual imagery and a combination of colloquialism with highly intellectual vocabulary.

They added an element of surprise by the use of UNEXPECTED METAPHORS from different sources: GEOGRAPHY ,GEOLOGY, ASTRONOMY, OBSCURE PHILOSOPHISING ,RELIGIOUS IDEAS ,MAGIC AND ALCHEMY (The novelty of metaphysical poetry).

The elaborate style was not totally new. We can find it in Shakespeare's sonnets and early plays especially in the comedies.

Unusual images were already characteristic of Euphuism or of Sydney's literary language; in "Arcadia" a wounded knight's armour blushed with blood because it had not been able to better defend his owner.

The metaphysical school differs in two ways from the previous movement:

·        The insistence on ELABORATE STYLE. The search for the UNUSUAL. In other poets such devices are used occasionally; in the metaphysicals they are the basis of poetry.

·        The INTELLECTUALISM of the poet's work. The conceit (an elaborate metaphor in which two dissimilar objects are compared, very often with the intent of surprising or shocking the reader). Introduced into English poetry with the Petrarchian sonnet it was brought to perfection by the metaphysical poets.

T.S. ELLIOT'S PRAISE

The modern revaluation of metaphysical poetry was largely due to T.S. ELLIOT's influential essay (1921).

Elliot found in those poets precisely what he believed modern poetry was lacking. AN INTELLECTUAL STRENGHT COMBINED WITH A DEEP PASSION (in Elliot's words "Sensual thought").