Into the Metaphysical Realm

A common notion about poetry is that it is an escape from reality but more often than not poetry has always been a medium to portray reality and self-introspect. Throughout history, poems have always predated written text as epics, religious preaching, accounts of historical events and even fictional writings.

The nursery rhymes that we cherished so much as kids had so many hidden meanings and stories that we failed to notice back then. For example, “Jack and Jill” was apparently about France’s Louis XIV and his wife, Marie Antoinette, who were convicted of treason during the French Revolution and beheaded. The famous poem “O Captain, My Captain” by Walt Whitman which still is one of my favorite poem was about a captain who dies just as the ship has reached the end of a stormy voyage. The captain represented Abraham Lincoln, who was assassinated just as the Civil War was ending.

We often credit authors and their written texts but leave behind all the poets that have throughout history portrayed complex and enigmatic experiences through their poetry.

But today we aren’t going to talk about all of the famous poets we have known all these years but about that group of poets who were shunned and ridiculed even amongst poets in that period of time. Today, we are going to talk about the metaphysical poets that were prominent in the 17^th century England. Now why discuss metaphysical poets and what has it to do with the theme of my blog will come in the later part of this piece.

To begin with, metaphysical means something which is not palpable with our reality or something that is beyond physical reality. Metaphysical poetry was considered unfamiliar and unusual. In a sense it was considered to be in a make believe world which was non material and that is why people were so unaccepting of it in it’s early stages. Up until the second half of the 16^th century poems always depicted reality in some form that was accessible to the average intellect; it referred directly to war, faith, emotions but metaphysical poetry woke them up from this intellectual slumber. Though it spoke about feelings; it was those feelings that were unsettling; challenged the established norms and forced people to ask questions.

The father of metaphysical poetry John Donne, in his poem “The Dream” starts off with describing his love to be divine and yet at the end does not hold on to that thought. He states at the end that love isn’t as strong as he supposed it to be. It is mixed with fear, shame and other worldly considerations.

This very aspect of metaphysical poetry was unsettling to many people and so it was considered to be hostile and was critically received. It is contradictory and self-contradictory at times. Poetry at that period in time was supposed to be harmonious but metaphysical poets portrayed paradoxical situations with wit. But to think of it, aren’t we all self-contradictory, hypocritical and paradoxical many times? Have we not been critical of a crime yet sympathized with the culprit after listening to their part of the story? Haven’t we knowingly controlled our laughter at a funeral even if we were mourning for a closed one? Don’t we often encounter paradoxes in our everyday life? This very thought is unnatural to people even today, even though that is how humans have always been; full of moral discrepancy. Samuel Johnson who coined the word “metaphysical” described these poetries where “Contraries are brought together violently.”

Even though John Donne was brought up in a religious household, he was an individualist. He believed that one should do what one wishes and not be limited by the government or religion. For him, religion was at an individual level and not hierarchical and was free from preexisting dogmas. He believed that humans are rational beings and could distinguish vices from virtues without an external oppression and must seek their own spiritual truth. His poetry is marked by satire. He treats things with disdain; he emphasizes the moral by exposing the immoral and does so very effectively. Out of the five satires that he has written, Satire III deals with questioning the authoritative religion or power where doubting wisely and inquiring the dogmas does not make one lost or separated.

He’s not of none, nor worst, that seeks the best.

To adore, or scorn an image, or protest,

May all be bad; doubt wisely; in strange way

To stand inquiring right, is not to stray;

He also talks about how fatal giving in to oppression can be and how people who seem to dictate religion and god can mislead us into lost causes without having the chance to discover one’s own truth and relation with religion.

As streams are, power is; those blest flowers that dwell

At the rough stream’s calm head, thrive and do well,

But having left their roots, and themselves given

To the stream’s tyrannous rage, alas, are driven

Through mills, and rocks, and woods, and at last, almost

Consum’d in going, in the sea are lost

So perish souls, which more choose men’s unjust

Power from God claim’d, than God himself to trust

Another prominent metaphysical poet was Andrew Marvell. He was junior to Donne and though he is also categorized under metaphysical poets; his poetry was much distinct that that of John Donne. Distinct in the sense that his poetry was heavily influenced by the Civil war in England. His poems are witty, complex and dialectic with a subtle hint of humor. He presented truth by the exchange of logical arguments that tickled the imagination and left the poem open to the reader’s interpretation. You keep scratching your head to find out whose side is he on where in reality Marvell smirks and exists the scene with a bizarre ending to his poems. Some attribute this style of his poetry to the circumstances that he grew up in particularly the political, social, cultural landscape of the people then, which was a direct implication of the inception of the civil war.

To keep it brief; in the first half of the 17^th century, England saw the rise of “Puritans”, who were a set of people that rejected the Roman monarchy and the Catholic preaching. They started interpreting the Bible in their own terms. Religion entered culture and literature and people starting questioning the efficacy, the legitimacy and the acceptability of the Roman Catholic religion. The people now had to choose between the two, leading to debates and discussion. This resulted in the whole atmosphere of England to be politicized leading to the Civil war. They called themselves the Republicans and this movement was also supported by John Milton and Andrew Marvell; two of the most prominent poets of the later half of the 17^th century.

The Civil War ended with the Republicans winning the battle and beheading the king. Though Andrew supported the Republicans and the idea that partial power be given to the people but at the same time he wasn’t sure that what people are doing is right.

All of Marvell’s poems always had two sides to a story much like the two sides of the political scenario then. His poem “A dialogue between the soul and body” is a conflict between the body and the soul where the soul feels that it is a prisoner in the body and will be free after it’s death whereas the body considers the soul to be an abusive ruler who makes it commit all kinds of sins and imposes restrictions on it.

I have read so many poems of metaphysical poets and for me, the way Marvell plays with irony and paradox is by far my favorite. It has humor, wit and yet it subtly highlights how critically Marvell analyzed every situation. Why poetry like this is relevant today is because we have been brainwashed into always choosing sides, so much so that we constantly feel like an imposter in a group of misfits. How often do we embrace the paradox in our own lives? This still makes us uncomfortable and we feel the need to choose a team and belong somewhere. We must note that even though Marvell supported the Republicans or puritans; he never completely agreed with all that they did and was brave enough to keep his stand in front of everyone.                                                                             

How wisely nature did decree,

With the same eyes to weep and see;

That, having viewed the object vain,

They might be ready to complain!

These are the lines from his poem Eyes and Tears and if you really enjoy reading poetry you can also read ‘His Coy Mistress’, ‘A Dialogue between resolved soul and created pleasure’ and ‘On a Drop of dew’ amongst many other of this brilliant poems.

Poetry like these invoked a sense of “thought” channeled through “feelings” and this is where the crux of this article lies. Metaphysical poets where the last ones to keep reason and emotion an integral part of one another. They analyzed the complex psychological experience, pondered about the nature of reality and perception, the existence of God, free will and consciousness. And what better a medium to channelize this thought that through poetry? It was a deceptively brilliant affair. This was attained because of the enlightenment that they achieved which was the aftermath of the Renaissance period.

After them, the separation between intellectual thought and experience of feeling only widened. T.S Eliot, the famous modernist poet coined this as “Dissociation of sensibility” and this dissociation is evident in all forms today where people either express feelings without thought or thought without feeling. We all feel so disconnected and unnatural because this rift has become our reality and we are either clogged with emotions or drowned in reason, never being able to join those dots. The medium I chose to realize this was through poetry, maybe it will be something else for you but the underlying notion is the same; embracing the irony and amalgamating intellectual thought and complex emotions.

Another side to metaphysical poems was their interpretation of death and mourning. Where people were short of words for a person mourning or a person on his death bed about to die and fearing death; Donne could capture this seemingly taboo subject with grace and wit. In his poem “Death, be not proud” he depicts death as a powerless figure and denies the authority of death implying that death does not kill people, instead, it liberates them. He states that death is merely a slave of fate, chance, kings and desperate men and can be attained with poison, war, sickness as well. If after all these incidents, death does knock ones door, then why does it swell with pride?

His poem “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning” depicts beautifully how trivial death is as compared to the spiritual and transcendental bond that two people share. Instead of throwing an emotional fit, he wishes to melt away from his partner where their separation isn’t a breach but rather an expansion like a “gold leaf pounded thin”. He compares their love to celestial spheres. Even though the movements of these celestial objects are invisible to those on earth, they are much more powerful than the highly visible “Moving of the earth”. It is imperative to note that John Donne was born in the same time period when Galileo was born and this essentially shows his worldly knowledge at a time when the church was at constant clashes with basic scientific philosophies.

“Thy firmness draws my circle just,

And makes me end, where I begun.”

This is how Donne ends his poem by comparing their love to a drafting compass. He states that his wife’s leg holds them steady and firm and he will always find his way back to her. This is why I find metaphysical poetry to be tragically beautiful. They could talk about the thought of the demise of a beloved with poise, however unsettling it might be and then reason it out. Metaphysical poets gave a different interpretation to eulogy and discussed death in philosophical terms with lines like,

So gainfull is such loss of breath,

I die even in desire of death,

Still live in me this loving strife

Of living Death and dying Life.

These are the lines from yet another metaphysical poet named Richard Crashaw.

Death is always a sensitive and forbidden topic. We know it is inevitable yet we do not discuss it as much as we should. We fear losing someone we love and are so overwhelmed by emotion that we refuse to reason it out so that we can deal with it in a respectable and healing manner. We like discussing about “what if’s”; what if I was rich? What if I had superpowers? But we never discuss the most uncomfortable question; what if I were dead? Speaking about it with our loved ones may be uncomfortable but at least it won’t feel like an unfinished business when the what if turns into reality. It won’t lessen the pain, but maybe it won’t feel like an incomplete story, like a lost piece of a puzzle.

How lost are we in this eternal quest of living a life without the true realization of death? It is a painful and an agonizing imprisonment into abyss and yet what brings us back is the echo and memory of the departed. It is a difficult time right now with so many deaths around us and even within our families. It is so overwhelming that we mourn but in a numb state; hope but in an oblivion state.

So let me just end with the poem of John Donne who I think was a great secular humanist and who believed that “if someone dies, a part of me dies.”

No man is an island,

Entire of itself,

Every man is a piece of the continent,

A part of the main.

If a clod be washed away by the sea,

Europe is the less.

As well as if a promontory were.

As well as if a manor of thy friend’s

Or of thine own were:

Any man’s death diminishes me,

Because I am involved in mankind,

And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls;

It tolls for thee.