ENG 221 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Metaphysical Poets, Ben Jonson, John Donne
Introduction to the “Metaphysical Poets”:
Jonson, Donne, Herbert
These notes cover the information found on the following pages:
Introduction to Ben Jonson (pg. 1540), “Song to Celia” (pg. 1572), and “To the Memory
of My Beloved, the Author, Mr. William Shakespeare, and What He Hath Left Us” (pg.
1647);
Introduction to John Donne (pg. 1669); “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning” (pg.
1680); Holy Sonnets 6 (pg. 1688), 7 (pg. 1688), and 10 (pg. 1689);
Introduction to George Herbert (pg. 1716), “Redemption” (pg. 1717), “Church
Monuments” (pg. 1722), and “The Windows” (pg. 1722).
All of this is found in Volume 1B of the Longman Anthology of British Literature, 3rd ed.
The “metaphysical poets” are called that because they wrote as much about their
relationships with God as they did about their human-to-human relationships. Some were
more religious than the others, but all of them felt a genuine faith and belief in the Christian
God, and that faith was often the focus of their poetry. There are others we do not have time
to read, and of these three, Jonson is the least concerned with matters of faith.
I. Jonson
Jonson was one of Shakespeare’s rivals in the world of Elizabethan
theatre; however, they were friendly rivals who enjoyed the spirit of
competition, and he had great respect for Shakespeare’s genius. So, upon
Shakespeare’s death, he wrote a poem celebrating Shakespeare's life and
accomplishments, which has come to represent the respect that the entire
theater community and the world’s drama lovers feel towards the greatest
writer in the English language.
This poem is chock-full of metaphors, which have since become “standard” metaphors
for describing someone’s greatness: stars. We even use this word now to describe celebrities
and others who are in the public eye and who “shine brightly.”
“Shine forth, thou star of poets, and with rage
Or influence chide or cheer the drooping stage,
Which, since thy flight from hence, hath mourned like night,
And despairs day, but for thy volume’s light.”
This particular passage contains the last four lines of the poem where Jonson is comparing
Shakespeare to a constellation in the sky to make him eternal and forever. Like an ancient hero,
Shakespeare is given a place among the stars, as the “rage” and “influence” of the planets
affect life on earth, Shakespeare affects the world of the stage; in other words, this is a
reference to astrology because Shakespeare, by being a constellation, is providing the stage
with light and he is also a guiding light for an entire profession. This comparison draws on
humanism (secular learning) and exploits renewed interest in the classical world because Julius
Caesar was also made into a constellation.
Additionally, Jonson is personifying the stage itself, saying that it is not just the actors and
audience who mourn Shakespeare’s passing, but the stage itself that is mourning. The stage is
“drooping,” “mourns like night” and “despairs day.”
Donne
John Donne is remembered today mainly for his amazingly romantic,
passionate love poetry he wrote for his wife, and his equally amazing,
passionate “love” poetry he wrote for God. Life was hard for him, too,
because he and his wife Ann made a “love match,” as our textbook editors
describe it. What that means is that they married for love, not because
one of them had a fortune to be able to support them, as was the custom
in those days. (An ideal marriage would have been if one of the two people had money, and
they genuinely loved each other. Most marriages, though, were more practical than romantic.
They married first for financial security, hoping for at least a mutual respect once they had been
married for a while. That rarely, if ever, happened.)
The first poem is one of those love poems he wrote for Ann. He had to go to France for
an extended stay, and he wrote this poem to remind her of their spiritual connection that no
mere distance could break. He describes their love as an “expansion” of gold, beaten to an
“airy thinness” that expands across the miles and keeps them connected. One of the most
Document Summary
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