Coined by Samuel Johnson, the term “metaphysical poetry” refers to the work of a wide-ranging group of poets and their distinct and varying poetic styles and temperaments in 17th century Britain; what links them is a general interest in matters beyond... [more]

Coined by Samuel Johnson, the term “metaphysical poetry” refers to the work of a wide-ranging group of poets and their distinct and varying poetic styles and temperaments in 17th century Britain; what links them is a general interest in matters beyond the merely earthly, with formal poetic methods their means of investigating the “metaphysical” questions thus raised. As with many post-facto codifications of literary eras, this term is problematic in that it suggests that its ostensible “members” were working in some kind of artistic and aesthetic cahoots. Many metaphysical poets, however, were entirely unaware of each other, and least of all were they literary cohorts. What led Johnson to this systematization was his observation that many writers of this epoch were prone to philosophical and, should the anachronism be allowed, even existential ruminations; their work was often grounded in a Platonic conception of the Idea, and promulgated through newer interest in metaphor, simile, and other literary figures of speech. Rather than a cohesive school of thought, the metaphysical poets operated – often in intentional tandem, more often through a similar trace of “something in the air” – through conceptual considerations of more earthly, local conditions, particularly the politically tumultuous period in which they lived. A revival of interest in these poets occurred in the early-20th century, primarily through the expressed interest of T.S. Eliot. Many elements of their poetry – the eponymous metaphysical conceit, extended metaphor, conceptual considerations – would find root in much Modernist poetry. [show less]