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The Metaphysical Poets
In this important and influential anthology Dame Helen Gardner has collected together those seventeenth-century poets who, although never self-consciously a school, did possess in common certain features of argument and powerful persuasion which have come to be described as 'metaphysical'. Contains amongst others: John Milton, Thomas Carew, Sir William Davenant, Henry Vaughan, Andrew Marvell, George Herbert, Sir Walter Ralegh, Robert Southwell, John Donne and Richard Crashaw.
336 pages, Paperback
First published February 28, 1960
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About the author
Helen Gardner
22 books14 followersHelen Louise Gardner, Professor of English Literature with distinguished critical work on John Donne and T.S. Eliot. First woman to hold the Merton Professor of English Literature chair at Oxford (1966-1975).
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 38 reviews
March 8, 2011
As expected, nobody can outshine Donne at this game. But some fascinating other bits, from Henry Vaughan to Abraham Cowley to John Hall to of course Marvell, who was really far better the less pious he was, to the little tastes of amateur authors who only did a few poems for their own entertainment, as so many of these Metaphysicals were. Also a lovely way to encounter bits of Milton in another context and to have a truly wonderful setting for Shakespeare's "Phoenix and the Turtle."
But as for the things less often encountered, I'm going to quote a couple of significant chunks of the safely public-domain Thomas Traherne's Shadows in the Water. As I understand, he wasn't considered a writer in his lifetime, and what was known at the time was stodgy as hell, but later on some lovely manuscripts were found to be his work. The project is a little different from that of Donne or Marvell or any or the others mentioned above, but its sense of another world is perhaps even more precisely aimed at the reasons why I read literature. I won't claim he's the greatest poet who ever lived or anything, or that this is by any means as mind-blowing (even just counting the contemporaries) as something like Donne, but something here was aimed laserlike at my personal canon. If he's talking about the Christian afterlife, fine, but that's not the reading you're going to get today.
So far, a total delight of a midsummer night's dream. And a really, really good example of why I put poetry in the same box with science fiction, fantasy, and experimental fiction: you do the right thing with words, you make another world out of them. This is the only magic I know.
But then! A couple stanzas later:
This is beyond metaphor. Read a brilliant enough book, and each re-read will bring you something you never before imagined. The characters don't sit still as though pinned there by a huge lepidopterist, they breathe and change--and not always in lockstep with the growth of the reader, either. The same thing, I think, happens with great paintings (think the endless squabbles over Mona Lisa's taunting smile). Put too much into a symbol, and it pops right out of the page and becomes a THING.
Here, Traherne isn't just wondering about the unknown, he's charting it, building it: dreaming of a world that twins ours but goes on of its own accord, full of all the adventures and undiscovered countries and perhaps even little quotidian victories and defeats that mark our own. And what he wants isn't too different from what happens in a Philip Pullman novel: to break that "thin skin" between here and Who Knows What Unknown Wonder, and step right through into the unimaginable.
For me, I sometimes feel, the impregnable barrier is the one made out of paper, the one that prevents me from leaping straight into everything I review here never to be seen again except as some half-immortal creature cobbled together from lead type, Latin poetry, and Mieville novels. If I ever vanish completely, check my last whereabouts for a distinct smell of musty wood-pulp and await further, inky instructions.
But as for the things less often encountered, I'm going to quote a couple of significant chunks of the safely public-domain Thomas Traherne's Shadows in the Water. As I understand, he wasn't considered a writer in his lifetime, and what was known at the time was stodgy as hell, but later on some lovely manuscripts were found to be his work. The project is a little different from that of Donne or Marvell or any or the others mentioned above, but its sense of another world is perhaps even more precisely aimed at the reasons why I read literature. I won't claim he's the greatest poet who ever lived or anything, or that this is by any means as mind-blowing (even just counting the contemporaries) as something like Donne, but something here was aimed laserlike at my personal canon. If he's talking about the Christian afterlife, fine, but that's not the reading you're going to get today.
Thus did I by the water's brink
Another world beneath me think;
And while the lofty spacious skies
Reversèd there, abused mine eyes,
I fancied other feet
Came mine to touch or meet;
As by some puddle I did play
Another world within it lay.
Beneath the water people drowned,
Yet with another heaven crowned,
In spacious regions seemed to go
As freely moving to and fro:
In bright and open space
I saw their very face;
Eyes, hands, and feet they had like mine;
Another sun did with them shine.
'Twas strange that people there should walk,
And yet I could not hear them talk:
That through a little watery chink,
Which one dry ox or horse might drink,
We other worlds should see,
Yet not admitted be;
And other confines there behold
Of light and darkness, heat and cold.
So far, a total delight of a midsummer night's dream. And a really, really good example of why I put poetry in the same box with science fiction, fantasy, and experimental fiction: you do the right thing with words, you make another world out of them. This is the only magic I know.
But then! A couple stanzas later:
Look how far off those lower skies
Extend themselves! scarce with mine eyes
I can them reach. O ye my friends,
What secret borders on those ends?
Are lofty heavens hurled
'Bout your inferior world?
Are yet the representatives
Of other peoples' distant lives?
Of all the playmates which I knew
That here I do the image view
In other selves, what can it mean?
But that below the purling stream
Some unknown joys there be
Laid up in store for me;
To which I shall, when that thin skin
Is broken, be admitted in.
This is beyond metaphor. Read a brilliant enough book, and each re-read will bring you something you never before imagined. The characters don't sit still as though pinned there by a huge lepidopterist, they breathe and change--and not always in lockstep with the growth of the reader, either. The same thing, I think, happens with great paintings (think the endless squabbles over Mona Lisa's taunting smile). Put too much into a symbol, and it pops right out of the page and becomes a THING.
Here, Traherne isn't just wondering about the unknown, he's charting it, building it: dreaming of a world that twins ours but goes on of its own accord, full of all the adventures and undiscovered countries and perhaps even little quotidian victories and defeats that mark our own. And what he wants isn't too different from what happens in a Philip Pullman novel: to break that "thin skin" between here and Who Knows What Unknown Wonder, and step right through into the unimaginable.
For me, I sometimes feel, the impregnable barrier is the one made out of paper, the one that prevents me from leaping straight into everything I review here never to be seen again except as some half-immortal creature cobbled together from lead type, Latin poetry, and Mieville novels. If I ever vanish completely, check my last whereabouts for a distinct smell of musty wood-pulp and await further, inky instructions.
November 16, 2010
This is a book I will always be currently reading. Metaphysical poetry is my JAM!!!
If you aren't familiar with the genre, they use very obscure and surprising metaphors to explore/portray/express/invoke feelings of love and ecstasy (both secular and religious), metaphors that are at first confusing and random, but metaphors that the minute you 'get' them will appear to you as so goddamn perfect that you can't believe it. There are more academic words for this type of metonymy, they are referred to as conceits, but this review will do for now.
Recommended Metaphysical Poets (that you can find in this book):
John Donne: "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning" & "The Ecstasy" (2 of my top 10 favorite poems), "The Good-Morrow," "The Bait," and "The Flea" (which is hilarious and weird)
(John Donne reads alternately like the most romantic, insightful and passionate man that ever lived, and a horndog--but either way he's one fucking smart dude.)
Sir Thomas Wyatt: "Whoso List to Hunt" (another top 10 poem, a play off of one of Petrarch's poems), "My Lute Awake," "Madame, Withouten Many Words," "The Flee From Me (That Sometime Did Me Seek)"
If you aren't familiar with the genre, they use very obscure and surprising metaphors to explore/portray/express/invoke feelings of love and ecstasy (both secular and religious), metaphors that are at first confusing and random, but metaphors that the minute you 'get' them will appear to you as so goddamn perfect that you can't believe it. There are more academic words for this type of metonymy, they are referred to as conceits, but this review will do for now.
Recommended Metaphysical Poets (that you can find in this book):
John Donne: "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning" & "The Ecstasy" (2 of my top 10 favorite poems), "The Good-Morrow," "The Bait," and "The Flea" (which is hilarious and weird)
(John Donne reads alternately like the most romantic, insightful and passionate man that ever lived, and a horndog--but either way he's one fucking smart dude.)
Sir Thomas Wyatt: "Whoso List to Hunt" (another top 10 poem, a play off of one of Petrarch's poems), "My Lute Awake," "Madame, Withouten Many Words," "The Flee From Me (That Sometime Did Me Seek)"
April 2, 2023
If you’re ever in a reading slump or simply feel as if love doesn’t exist and life is devoid of all meaning, read this (and annotate it) !!
such a fun read that inadvertently made me a little better, happier version of myself; Donne was my absolute favorite poet of them all, as I think he was many others too without much surprise
such a fun read that inadvertently made me a little better, happier version of myself; Donne was my absolute favorite poet of them all, as I think he was many others too without much surprise
October 10, 2008
Actually, I've already read this. But a good poetry anthology is gold, and worth returning to again and again (as I'm doing now). Gardner did a great job with the selections. Donne, Herbert, Vaughn, but also poets that have been long forgotten.
February 8, 2022
3.5 , there were some rly good poems like hymn by sidney godolphin but overall the collection as a whole wasn’t anything special i can see how they changed the way poetry was viewed in england though
June 3, 2017
I realise this will make me sound like a Philistine (and me with an English major in Arts) but I don't understand why time has dignified these poets who are usually blessedly unclear but when you decode them they are downright offensive!
The most massivley over-rated John Dunne is there for far too many pages, not only with his rape fantasies (of God raping him, because God is above man as man is above woman of course) but just as much misogyny in his love life as his religious like.
I didn't feel either the language us NOR what too many of them were saying was worth preserving in history except as a curiosity. The most common theme apart from cowering before God is lording it over women (often plural) in various ways. And all this written in a tedious, self-important way that probably was normal, even clever for the time but this is not their time.
One or two of the poems didn't completely suck (one or two out of over a hundred). You can read this if you like but I can't honestly think why you would unless like me you feel you ought to read everything on your shelf before you give it away. Lol poor Gardner if this was what she worked with all the time (there were probably few choices for women who wanted to do academic work in her time). I would have liked more historical and critical notes in case that helped.
Two stars because the poems helped contextualise A Sundial in a Grave: 1610 which I am not enjoying I have to say but makes more sense in the light of these (largely written later) poems.
The most massivley over-rated John Dunne is there for far too many pages, not only with his rape fantasies (of God raping him, because God is above man as man is above woman of course) but just as much misogyny in his love life as his religious like.
I didn't feel either the language us NOR what too many of them were saying was worth preserving in history except as a curiosity. The most common theme apart from cowering before God is lording it over women (often plural) in various ways. And all this written in a tedious, self-important way that probably was normal, even clever for the time but this is not their time.
One or two of the poems didn't completely suck (one or two out of over a hundred). You can read this if you like but I can't honestly think why you would unless like me you feel you ought to read everything on your shelf before you give it away. Lol poor Gardner if this was what she worked with all the time (there were probably few choices for women who wanted to do academic work in her time). I would have liked more historical and critical notes in case that helped.
Two stars because the poems helped contextualise A Sundial in a Grave: 1610 which I am not enjoying I have to say but makes more sense in the light of these (largely written later) poems.
March 30, 2016
They are the ones who have shown us the right path to practical and truly beneficial spirituality!
January 12, 2022
My aim was to familiarise myself with the 'Metaphysical Poets' having been pointed into that direction by reading TS Eliot, and that is precisely what this book enabled me to do. It was a good read, both in terms of literary enjoyment and as a collection of historical documents.
The 17th Century was an interesting time to be alive in England, and poetry is one way of accessing the innermost thoughts of that era's collective mind. In this anthology you get to see how poets reconciled the old answers to the deepest questions with the political, religious and scientific turmoil of the time.
The language of the poets of that era was certainly impressive. After all this was around the time of Shakespeare and Milton (both included in the anthology). Admittedly, I found many of the poems pretty difficult to crack or of little value to me on any personal level, but I suppose we should expect 'hit or miss' when reading any anthology.
Out of the poems I did like, here is one, written by Henry King around 1640:
Sic Vita
LIKE to the falling of a star,
Or as the flights of eagles are,
Or like the fresh spring's gaudy hue,
Or silver drops of morning dew,
Or like a wind that chafes the flood,
Or bubbles which on water stood:
Even such is man, whose borrowed light
Is straight called in, and paid to night.
The wind blows out, the bubble dies;
The spring entombed in autumn lies;
The dew dries up, the star is shot;
The flight is past, and man forgot.
Why I find consolation in pessimistic poems that make you feel small and insignificant, I do not quite know. Here's a more lighthearted one, written by Abraham Cowley, in which he tries to persuade his puritan companion not to judge him for having another drink:
Drinking
THE thirsty Earth soaks up the Rain,
And drinks, and gapes for drink again.
The Plants suck in the Earth, and are
With constant drinking fresh and faire.
The Sea it self, which one would think
Should have but little need of Drink,
Drinks ten thousand Rivers up,
So fill'd that they or'eflow the Cup.
The busie Sun (and one would guess
By's drunken fiery face no less)
Drinks up the Sea, and when h'as done,
The Moon and Stars drink up the Sun.
They drink and dance by their own light,
They drink and revel all the night.
Nothing in Nature's Sober found,
But an eternal Health goes round.
Fill up the Bowl then, fill it high,
Fill all the Glasses there, for why
Should every creature drink but I,
Why, Man of Morals, tell me why?
I'm sure I'd be forgiven for having another drink if I were to memorise and recite it at the the appropriate occasion. Or, how to lose friends and not influence people.
The 17th Century was an interesting time to be alive in England, and poetry is one way of accessing the innermost thoughts of that era's collective mind. In this anthology you get to see how poets reconciled the old answers to the deepest questions with the political, religious and scientific turmoil of the time.
The language of the poets of that era was certainly impressive. After all this was around the time of Shakespeare and Milton (both included in the anthology). Admittedly, I found many of the poems pretty difficult to crack or of little value to me on any personal level, but I suppose we should expect 'hit or miss' when reading any anthology.
Out of the poems I did like, here is one, written by Henry King around 1640:
Sic Vita
LIKE to the falling of a star,
Or as the flights of eagles are,
Or like the fresh spring's gaudy hue,
Or silver drops of morning dew,
Or like a wind that chafes the flood,
Or bubbles which on water stood:
Even such is man, whose borrowed light
Is straight called in, and paid to night.
The wind blows out, the bubble dies;
The spring entombed in autumn lies;
The dew dries up, the star is shot;
The flight is past, and man forgot.
Why I find consolation in pessimistic poems that make you feel small and insignificant, I do not quite know. Here's a more lighthearted one, written by Abraham Cowley, in which he tries to persuade his puritan companion not to judge him for having another drink:
Drinking
THE thirsty Earth soaks up the Rain,
And drinks, and gapes for drink again.
The Plants suck in the Earth, and are
With constant drinking fresh and faire.
The Sea it self, which one would think
Should have but little need of Drink,
Drinks ten thousand Rivers up,
So fill'd that they or'eflow the Cup.
The busie Sun (and one would guess
By's drunken fiery face no less)
Drinks up the Sea, and when h'as done,
The Moon and Stars drink up the Sun.
They drink and dance by their own light,
They drink and revel all the night.
Nothing in Nature's Sober found,
But an eternal Health goes round.
Fill up the Bowl then, fill it high,
Fill all the Glasses there, for why
Should every creature drink but I,
Why, Man of Morals, tell me why?
I'm sure I'd be forgiven for having another drink if I were to memorise and recite it at the the appropriate occasion. Or, how to lose friends and not influence people.
October 23, 2023
Thoughts:
- Not going to log this toward my books for this year, because I haven't read the whole thing (and likely won't, unless I'm stuck in the outback for several days without internet).
- I stumbled across this in an op shop, and got it mainly because of poems by John Donne, George Herbert, and Henry Vaughan.
- These poems have not been updated into more modern English, which makes for an interesting reading experience.
- The introduction by Helen Gardner was interesting and helpful.
- I wish this had included more than three short poems by John Milton, but I can't really complain seeing as I managed to get this for $1.
- Not going to log this toward my books for this year, because I haven't read the whole thing (and likely won't, unless I'm stuck in the outback for several days without internet).
- I stumbled across this in an op shop, and got it mainly because of poems by John Donne, George Herbert, and Henry Vaughan.
- These poems have not been updated into more modern English, which makes for an interesting reading experience.
- The introduction by Helen Gardner was interesting and helpful.
- I wish this had included more than three short poems by John Milton, but I can't really complain seeing as I managed to get this for $1.
July 30, 2021
pretty good collection of poetry —- not enough diversity (all white men) but some of my favorite poems are in this book.
March 15, 2021
Helen Gardnerʼs essay as introduction bared a sweeping prelude before The Metaphysical Poets. This anthology is one of her gifts to the English poetry tradition. And amazingly, she played it safe on being an authority—even if she introduced well.
The book contains very unique poems, even if subject and themes are repeated all through out. These poets unofficially influenced Pound, Eliot, Cummings, and Jose Garcia Villa—a great posthumous landmark in history. In spite the larger than life legacy, most poems here are redundantly god-centric and white in context, full of aesthetic excursions on politics, violence, and monarchies. Indefinite to this time now, the metaphysical poets did define a new wave of poetry which paved way for a different cabal in the Western canon.
The book contains very unique poems, even if subject and themes are repeated all through out. These poets unofficially influenced Pound, Eliot, Cummings, and Jose Garcia Villa—a great posthumous landmark in history. In spite the larger than life legacy, most poems here are redundantly god-centric and white in context, full of aesthetic excursions on politics, violence, and monarchies. Indefinite to this time now, the metaphysical poets did define a new wave of poetry which paved way for a different cabal in the Western canon.
June 17, 2013
Gardner's selection is terrific and her introduction is too. I'd read a lot of this stuff years ago in college, of course, but it was nice to revisit it. Donne is fine and all, but let's hear it for George Herbert and Thomas Traherne. The latter's prose isn't included here but it's worth the time and at least as poetic as anything contained in this volume.
March 16, 2024
Donne, Milton, Herbert, Townsend, and Davenant make this a beautiful collection! The second half didn’t connect with me as much, though was filled with names I didn’t recognize. Excellent addition to anyone’s library if they want an introduction to the metaphysical poets!
March 3, 2008
I gotta admit - i love Donne, but reading this was a lot like work. Like eating your oatmeal - good for you, but you'd rather have a beer.
June 22, 2010
Surely the most innovative group of poets, in the English language, until the Modernists and Post-Modernists of 20th Century.
February 20, 2018
Notable for including a lot of obscure--but definitely Metaphysical!--selections. Otherwise, the readings, though competent, alternate between whispers and shouts, are often very hard not only to hear but to understand because of thick Brit accents, and as titles and authors are never announced, require constant reference to the table of contents.
Read
June 7, 2020Good cross section of metaphysical poets. I am a big fan of George Herbert. I like Milton a lot too. I like anthologies, gives you an opportunity to roam around picking and choosing what catches your eye.
September 12, 2023
Good to know topics such as love and death and the sea have always been on man’s mind, as well as smut
September 14, 2023
Probably still going to be the definitive collection of metaphysical poetry, but as such, not an easy read even with footnotes.
Read
January 20, 2025the anniversary by john donne, bliss
June 5, 2025
Unfortunately couldn’t finish it because of the language being quite difficult. I would like to try to read it again after some time maybe.
June 3, 2016
The first book of poetry I have ever read. Actually, I cheated a bit and skipped over a lot of the poems.
The three stars is for overall impression but some of the religious poems are really breath-taking. Worth the price of the book just for those poems.
The three stars is for overall impression but some of the religious poems are really breath-taking. Worth the price of the book just for those poems.
January 20, 2008
now thats what i call an anthology vol. 1
June 2, 2009
In addition to the terrific selection, there is a very perceptive introduction by Helen Gardner with one of the most enlightening and well-written discussions of the metaphysical conceit.
Read
June 14, 2009a collection of 16th to 18th century English Metaphysical Poets. I return to it often.
July 14, 2010
Did every high school student have to study this? Surely they could have some new ideas by now for poetry to study...
January 21, 2011
"Go catch a falling star or get with child a mandrake root..." What more can one say. John Donne particularly!
July 11, 2019
A goodly selection of the best of the metaphysical Poets. An excellent introduction to these poetical mind benders...
October 1, 2011
This was a school book. I still love it and read it often. What is there not to love? Especially Donne.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 38 reviews