The passionate, involved, intellectually wide-ranging poems of this period have delighted, puzzled and alienated readers, both in their own times and later. One contemporary commentator observed wryly that those who could work out the meaning were considered intellectuals themselves: ‘We are thought wits, when ’tis understood. TM In the next century Samuel Johnson coined the term ‘metaphysical poets TM to represent the combination of physicality, philosophy and ingenuity which characterise the poems of Donne, Herbert, Marvell, Vaughan, among others. ‘The violent yoking together of opposites TM was his phrase for such combinations, and clearly not flatteringly intended, but ‘metaphysical TM has become the accepted neutral term.
‘Concentration and a sinewy strength of styleT M, qualities ascribed to Donne by the late Helen Gardner, could be extended to all the poets just named; and she goes on to describe the quintessence of a metaphysical poem as ‘the vivid imagining of a moment of experience or of a situation out of which the need to argue, or persuade, or define, arises. TM 1 Students are often surprised – and sometimes worried – by the combination of powerful feeling, extensive reference and demanding argument in these poems, but can find great satisfaction first in experiencing the impact, then tracing the meaning and finally possessing the poem fully with both mind and imagination. The rhetorical force of rhythm is also a key element, which can only be appreciated when the poems are read aloud. Notes: the tide / of Humber: the river that flows through Hull, represented by Marvell in Parliament try: test, check; also (by implication) attack, penetrate glow: one emendation of the early reading ‘glewTM meaning moisture; ‘dew TM is another possibility.
The Essay on Comparing Two Poems
The comparison between two poems are best analyzed through the form and meaning of the pieces. "Mother to Son" and "Harlem (A Dream Deferred)" both written by the profound poet Langston Hughes, depicts many similarities and differences between the poems. Between these two poems the reader can identify his flow of writing through analyzing the form and meaning of each line. Form and meaning are ...
