Metaphisical Poetry-sources Of Conceits

METAPHYSICAL POETRY "“ SOURCES OF CONCEITS Historical background is often essential in reading and understanding literature. In different periods, different aspects of the life of society constitute the background. It is important to draw a picture of the then background while writing about a literary event, which involves taking into consideration many spheres of human life. It does not explore the sphere of the emotional state of an individual, however many of those states are evoked by confronting and experiencing the realities of life.

During the period of seventeenth- century a number of significant events both socio-political, "entwined with a systematic religious metamorphism" (Ford 32) led to changes in perception of the world. It was an interesting but also a difficult age. Abraham Cowley described his own times in these words: "A warlike, various and tragical age" (Alvarez,139). Especially England was an area of great tensions, where new ideas developed and unpredictable events happened.

John Donne, one of the most famous Metaphysical Po...

John Donne in his shroud. He posed for this painti...

Engraving of Andrew Marvell

It was a time of great political changes: Stuarts' reign, Parliament's issues, civil war, Cromwell's protectorate and the 1688-89 revolution. These events were strongly connected with religious struggles and controversies. Religious life has always been of great importance to an individual and England was an arena of very complex and complicated affairs. One should also not forget that it was a time when spirit of discoveries was affecting societies.

In all above mentioned matters metaphysical poetry finds its source. Its lyrics reflect perfectly the state of disintegration that pervaded each sphere of life in those times. "Metaphysical poetry, in the full sense of the term, is a poetry which ... has been inspired by the philosophical conception of the universe and the role assigned to the human spirit in the great drama of existence" (Grierson, 3).

The term "˜metaphysical poetry' is used to describe a type...