91
See also: Metamorphoses 55–56 ■ Les Amours de Cassandre 74 ■
Paradise Lost 103 ■ The Waste Land 213T
he term “metaphysical
poets” was coined by
the essayist and literary
critic Samuel Johnson to describe
a group of 17th-century English
writers that included John Donne,
George Herbert, and Andrew
Marvell (1621–1678). Their style
was marked by wit, sophisticated
logic, and occult metaphor, and
often focused on themes of love,
sexuality, and faith.Sensual pleasures
Better known as a politician than
a poet during his lifetime, Marvell
produced a body of work, published
posthumously as Miscellaneous
Poems, that contains the famous
love poem “To His Coy Mistress.”
In the poem, the speaker tries to
persuade the object of his desire
to seize the day and sleep with
him. His argument to break down
her resistance contains typically
metaphysical conceits—fanciful
ideas pursued to an imaginative
conclusion: “The grave’s a fine
and private place, / But none I
think do there embrace.”History, theology, and astronomy
are all brought into play by Marvell,
who challenges the puritanical
Christianity of the 17th century
as a barrier to sensual pleasures.
He also brings vivid imagery
and intellectual vitality to the
pastoral, in poems such as “The
Mower to the Glow Worms” and
“The Garden,” where he achieves
a beautiful balance between
abstraction and the senses, as
he eulogizes the pleasure of
withdrawing “To a green thought
in a green shade.” ■RENAISSANCE TO ENLIGHTENMENT
BUT AT MY BACK
I ALWAYS HEAR
TIME’S WINGED CHARIOT
HURRYING NEAR
MISCELLANEOUS POEMS (1681),
ANDREW MARVELL
IN CONTEXT
FOCUS
The metaphysical poetsBEFORE
1627 John Donne deploys
metaphysical exaggeration
in his melancholic love elegy
“A Nocturnal Upon St Lucy’s
Day”—“Oft a flood / Have we
two wept, and so / Drowned
the whole world, us two...”1633 “The Agony,” by George
Herbert, applies metaphysical
wit to matters of belief—“Love
is that liquore sweet and most
divine, / Which my God feels
as blood; but I, as wine.”1648 Robert Herrick’s book
Hesperides includes the
famous carpe diem (“seize the
day”) poem, “To the Virgins,
to Make Much of Time,” with
its famous line, “Gather ye
rosebuds while ye may.”1650 Henry Vaughan, inspired
by George Herbert, publishes
“The World,” a poem of
mystical devotion.Stumbling on melons,
as I pass, / Ensnared with
flowers, I fall on grass.
“The Garden”US_090-091_Misanthrope_Marvell.indd 91 08/10/2015 13:04