John Donne question

Write about some of the characteristics of Metaphysical poetryfound in twickenham gardens and one or two other poems.

these 'other poems' can be
song sweetest love
elegy 19
the good morrow
the flea
the sun rising
the canonization or the loves alchemy

any help would be appreciated. thanks! :biggrin:

Reply 1

Cellardore

that was the question i had for my AS lol.

i think what i wrote about metaphysical poetry was about 'out of body experiences' ? The feeling of love being passed physical needs if that makes sense.

Reply 2

footballhead

Aspects of metaphyiscal poetry, not really a set definition just a term suscribed to poets like Donne, by Johnson i think, but they are usually the use of conceit, compression, wit, a dramatic quality, etc

Im not sure if 'out of body experiences' has anything to do with metaphysical poetry? and furthermore much to do with twicknam garden.

Compare the use of compression and wit, for example in 'nor yet leave loving', or the poems ending the abusrd situation he finds himself loving the only faithful woman, to say the flea (conceit=flea) and the witty twists in the arguement and its logical progression. Also the cynical outlook is easily comparable to anhything like <ove's alchemy putting down woman etc

Just a question are you guys memorising your poems for the exma?

Reply 3

Madelyn

Can't really think of anything to add re: metaphysical stuff, especially as I'm not studying Donne, but about memorising poems, I'm not convinced it's entirely necessary as long as you know what the poem's about and can quote important bits. However, I'm doing some of Shakespeare's sonnets and I can quote a number of them in their entirety just through having worked with them for a while, so hopefully that'll help me come the exam.

Reply 4

jacko!

the poems are given to you in the exam, i dont see why you would need to memorise them therefore?

Reply 5

makeshiftwings

I loved that question and the paper, got an A on it, and I did that by re-reading the poems (and falling in love with The Canonization and The Ecstacy). I also wrote them all out again, and did revision cards. Wow I worked really hard on that.
Yeah so you mean the fountain as representing his phallus and stuff? I can't remember what metaphysical means, is it like imagery?

Reply 6

Cellardore

LondonBoy

Im not sure if 'out of body experiences' has anything to do with metaphysical poetry? and furthermore much to do with twicknam garden.

well that's what i was going on about in my exam and i got a pretty good grade for it so it couldn't have been that bad what i wrote.

Reply 7

Sami C

I'm doing Donne. You get one poem in the exam and have to compare it to one or two others from memory. I'm not bad at Donne, but I need to improve. *sighs* Metaphysical poetry...I still don't really know what it is.

Reply 8

footballhead

How the hell could you be doing John donne, and not know/remember what metaphysical poetry is, why dont you google it

but like i said, its a term attributed by johnson to a group of poets, he actually slags them off , but generally in terms of donne, all the logical twists of his arguements, the conceits (unusual things compared a flea bite to sex for example), the dramatic quality of poems : consider how they are addressed directly to his lover,