Metaphysical Conceit Definition in Good Morrow

Also Read

      John Donne deserves to be called the master of metaphysical conceit. It is an enhanced allegory that compares various different concepts with the help of imagery. Completely unrelated objects are assimilated in Metaphysical conceit. The essence of Donne’s poem is in its mystical paradoxes and Canonisation.

Good Morrow

      The term metaphysical was first applied by Dryden to the poetry of Donne, which is so rich in far-fetched conceits. 'He affects metaphysics' is what Dryden speaks about the poetry of Donne. Dr. Johnson, following Dryden, applied the term 'metaphysical' to describe a whole school of seventeenth-century poetry who wrote in imitation of Donne, and showed some features of poetry which are akin to those of John Donne, "the father of the metaphysical school of poets".

      In the ordinary sense of the term, 'metaphysical' means based on abstract general reasoning, in the Johnsonian sense of the term, which denoted not the philosophical thoughts of Donne but some tricks of his phrasing. Johnson had in mind particularly the extravagant 'conceits' in which Donne clothed his thoughts. The main characteristics of Donne's poetry are "a depth of philosophy, subtlety of reasoning, a blend of thought and devotion, a mingling of the homely and the sublime, the light and serious, which make it full of variety and surprise." It is this last element of 'surprise' that is most important in Donne. Surprising connections of ideas, called 'conceits' are common enough in Elizabethan and Jacobean poetry, no doubt but no poet ever before sprang so many and such strange surprises on his readers as Donne did by his conceits.

      Thus he has compared the parted lovers to the legs of a pair of compasses, a lover to a spider which 'transubstantiates all', his sick body to a map, his physician to a Cosmographer, the flea which bites the lovers to a bridal bed, because their blood has been mingled in it. This mingling of the lofty and the mean, the sublime and trivial is the essence of his 'conceits'. John Donne's works can be roughly classified into Love Poetry, Religious Poetry and Elegies and Satires. His love poems, the songs and sonnets are intensely personal and are characterized by subtle analysis of all the moods of a lover expressed in a vivid language. John Donne (1573-1631) wrote his Satires, The Songs and Sonnets, and The Elegies between 1590-1601. He was the most independent of Elizabethan poets. Among his best-known and most typical, love poems are A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning, The Ecstasie, The Good Morrow, A Nocturnal upon St. Lucies Day. His religious poetry includes The Progress of the Soule (1601) and The Anatomy of World (1611). His Holy Sonnets were written after 1610. The elegies are the fullest record of Donne's cynical frame of mind and the conflicting moods. His Satires are deliberate imitations of Persius.

      The poem The Good Morrow is a characteristic affectionate Love poem by John Donne and the poem uncover his genius as the metaphysical poet. The central theme of the poem is loving concern toward beloved - its depth and devotion. It celebrates the happy satisfied love that has its own in diversity. The oath of love between the poet and his beloved is so unique and simple that the poet thinks that he and his lady love have possessed their own realm. Although lovers are hunted by neither awe nor distrust, devoted and mutually trustful love infect dominates the happy pleasures of life and love. The poet John Donne and his beloved are so delighted in there mutual love for each other, that they are likened in the poem as two hemispheres. Their love conquest overall worldly mutability and mortality. They are so closely attached to each other that none can be separated and no one has the power to kill their love.

      John Donne's conceits are particularly striking and in the poem Good Morrow there are many unique conceits are found in the poem. The first significant Metaphysical Conceit is found in the first stanza of the poem. Here the poet compare him and his beloveds unconsciousness with the mythological "Seven Sleepers Den". John Donne wanted to convey the fact that the way as seven Christian youth, once upon a time had hidden them, slaves, inside a cave and slept there for almost three centuries, in the same way, he and his beloved remains unconscious about their love.

      Again another wonderful metaphysical conceit we found where the poet compares his own private world with the verst world around. Donne never cares about the external consequences of the world whether he always happy, processing his own private world along his beloved. And finally, in the poem John Donne has used the most original and brilliant Metaphysical Conceit where the poet compares him and his beloved to two hemispheres. Their love is so intense and so strong that they two forms one perfect whole. These are the luminous metaphysical conceits found in the poem Good Morrow.