More Class News

There will be no class this coming Monday - we will continue with our discussion of Marvell for the next class - focusing on his pastoral poems, the 'Mower' poems, as well as his political poem - 'The Horatian Ode.' But please read all of the poems in the document on our site. In reading the latter, we will be asking about the function of pastoral in Marvell's works. In the latter poem, written during the interregnum in England, where does Marvell situate himself politically? Is he more sympathetic to Charles or to Cromwell?

More questions and guidance likely to follow. So please check here early again next week.

If any one has any questions about papers, please let me know.

Road Map for the Rest of the Semester

For our remaining classes, we will aim to cover the following material.

1. Poetry of Perspective: Andrew Marvell

2. The Last Metaphysicals: Vaughan and Traherne

3. The End of Metaphysics: Milton, Hobbes, and the Cambridge Platonist

4. Feminine Friendship: The Return of the Metaphysical in Mary Astell

For now, we will be focusing on Marvell. The poems which we will discuss are available on our site.

Ben Jonson

I know everyone is really excited and distracted by Hanuka (and Herbert), but just wanted to let you know, that our readings of Ben Jonson are now on our site.

Crashaw

We will continue our discussion of Donne and Herbert as a preparation to reading the poetry of Richard Crashaw. We may have the occasion to look again at Donne's 'Riding Westward' - is there more to be said about the poem? We will also look at Donne's Holy Sonnet 19, as well as some other selected poems by Herbert which are available on our site - Herbert and Donne texts for Crashaw. Poems by Crashaw are also available on our site - Crashaw Texts.

Is Crashaw's poetry metaphysical? How is his poetry different from the poetry of Donne and Herbert? Why is Crashaw so obsessed by blood and wounds?

Please check here again for further updates and questions.

Herbert

So let's start with Donne, 'Good Friday: Riding Westward,' and then continue to think about some of the questions we raised in relationship to Herbert's poetry on agency and aesthetics. That is, what for the Christian is the right conception of the individual? (was Herbert what we would call an individualist?) And, is there an aesthetic appropriate to Christian service?

Let's look at the Jordan poems, the Love poems, A Bunch of Grapes, the Collar, the Pulley - are there any other suggestions for poems that we might focus upon?

As a digressive continuation to our discussion about the hermeneutics of love, I have posted my review of a book of Biblical criticism on our site. It's not yet been published, so please don't circulate.

As always, it's a good idea to continue checking here for further updates.

The Anatomy of the World (cont'd) and George Herbert

Following our discussion of last time, we will continue reading Donne's 'The Anatomy of the World.' Is there a relationship between argument and form? How does the structure of the First Anniversary which we outlined last time contribute to the meaning of the poem? Is there a relationship between Donne's conception of the soul - composed of understanding, memory, and will - and the internal structure of the poem? Why does Donne say of Elizabeth that she is both 'Quire' and 'Song'? What - from the 'Anatomy' enacted in the poem - is the role of the poet?

A famous literary critic once said: 'For early modern scientists and philosophers, knowledge was a matter of being apart; for Donne and his contemporaries, knowledge is a question of taking part.' Could such a statement be justified in a reading of Donne's poem? An even more famous psychoanalyst, Jonathan Lear, writes, that the 'conception of objectivity, worked out in seventeenth-century science, assumes that knowledge is available 'from no perspective at all.' This perspective, which Lear calls, 'outside of love' must be 'one of developmental failure.' Can Lear's statement be translated in such a way to be useful to a reading of Donne's poem.

Please make sure that you have a copy of the poem - with line numbers, and sections and sub-sections marked off - for next class. We may look at some selections from the Second Anniversary (which I will provide in class) before moving on to the poetry of George Herbert.

Most of Herbert's poems are available on the luminarium website, here, or on this kind of funky (note Temple model in the background ) site. You can also find them in the Oxford edition of Herbert on the reserve shelf in the library; there are other copies on the library shelves. There is also a pdf file of selected poems on our site (though there are certain advantages to reading from a serious scholarly edition). Ideally, we should read all of Herbert's poems from The Temple; Herbert conceived of his work as a whole - with the parts relating one to the other. But for next class focus on 'The Dedication,' 'The Altar,' 'The Reprisall,' 'Redemption,' 'Easter-wings,' 'Prayer I,' 'The Temper II,' 'Jordan I and II,' 'Church-monuments,' 'The Windows,' 'Deniall,' 'Love I, II, III,' 'Bunch of Grapes,' 'The Elixir,' 'The Collar,' 'The Pulley,' 'A True Hymne.'

Be sure to check here again for further updates or guidance.

Nothing and the Anatomy of the World

For next class, we will be considering Donne's 'Nocturnal on Saint Lucy's Day' (on the selected poems handout from last class) in conjunction with Donne's Sermon 23. Please download from our site, and read the sermon carefully, especially pages 79-81. What does Donne mean in the sermon when he suggests that God is present even in hell? What does mean by 'nothing' in the 'Nocturnal'?

In addition, we will begin a discussion of Donne's First Anniversary poem, 'An anatomy of the world.' The text is also available on the website. Please print out and read carefully. As you read through the poem, try to determine if there is a structure to the poem. Are there different parts to the poem? How would you break the poem - according to line numbers - into parts? If there is an introduction and then five parts following, how do you see them breaking down? Are there parts within parts? Please come to class next time prepared to answer this question.

Watch this space for further questions and guidance.

Time, Cosmos, Microcosm: Browne and Donne

A brief preliminary: after class yesterday, I realized that we need to have a better sense of the historical period. How would we put the following events on a time-line?: birth and death of Donne; birth and death of Shakespeare; birth and death of Milton; accession of Elizabeth to the throne; death of Elizabeth; death of James I; death of Charles I; beginning and end of English Civil Wars; Restoration; Luther's 95 Theses; publication of King James Bible? Are there any other important dates would help give us a better sense of the period?

For the next class, we will be pairing readings of Donne with Thomas Browne in relation to the following headings: 1. Time, 2. Cosmos, and 3. Microcosm. I have collected readings in files on our documents site, 'Donne Poetry Selections' and 'Selected Readings from Browne's Religio Medici'. Please make sure that you read these texts with care (Browne's prose, remember, is like poetry), and have these texts for class.

In conjunction with the selections from Browne on time, please read Holy Sonnet X, Woman's Constancy and Love's Alchemy.

In conjunction with the selection from Browne on the cosmos, please read The Canonization, The Flea, and Holy Sonnet XIV. For this section, we will keep in mind Dr. Johnson's judgement of the poet - as one who 'yoked the most heterogeneous ideas by violence together.' Is Donne inventing connections between the different subjects of his poetry - which Johnson finds only remotely related, or is he discovering 'occult resemblances?' In what ways do Browne and Bacon conceive of nature differently? To what extend does a Brownian conception of nature inform the poetry of Donne?

What does Donne mean in Expostulation 19, when he says that God is a metaphorical God?

In conjunction with the selections from Browne on the microcosm, please go over your readings of Donne's Meditation 4 and 17 (assigned last time), and read The Good Morrowe, The Sun Rising, A Valediction of Weeping, and Good Friday, Riding Westwards.

Please check the site again towards the end of the week for possible further updates.

Backgrounds to Metaphysical Poetry: Wit, Resemblance and Difference

We will continue our introduction to the contexts of metaphysical poetry through reading passages from Francis Bacon's Novum Organum. Lots of questions to pursue: what is wrong with the logic 'now in use' (12)? Why does Bacon emphasize 'Nature' (1)? What is lacking in the methods of those of Bacon's contemporaries who study nature (5)? How does Bacon conceive of the mind (41,42)? How does Bacon conceive of the relationship between words and things? How does he conceive of the imagination? Pay careful attention to aphorisms 55, 58, 60, 63, 68, 101. Are there any dichotomies - explicit or otherwise - that govern Bacon's arguments?

In conjunction with Bacon - particularly his aphorism 55 - we will be looking at chapter 8 of Book I of Hobbes's Leviathan, focusing on his definition of wit (page 14 of the handout on our site). How does Hobbes define wit?

We will also be looking at Dr. Johnson's 'Life of Cowley' for his definition of wit. Why does Johnson so dislike the 'school of Donne'? What lies behind his question - 'Who but Donne would have thought that a good man is a good telescope?' Is it a compliment?

For a complementary set of frames for Donne's poetry, please read Donne's 'Expostulation 19,' and selections from Thomas Browne's Religio Medici, Book I, sections 16 and 46 (if you read the selection from the book on reserve, sections 16 and 48). These passages are brief, but also representative of the 'metaphysical' sensibility and style. So read carefully!

Given enough time, we will start with readings from Donne's Songs and Sonnets, 'A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning' and 'The Canonization.'

For additional background, you may also want to consult Eliot's 'Metaphysical Poets.' E.M.W. Tillyard's The Elizabethan World Picture provides good background for understanding early modern habits of mind - specifically the tendency to see hierarchies and correspondences in the world. For a similar set of arguments from a different perspective, see the second chapter of Foucault's Order of Things.

We suggested that our period may traverse a path from synecdoche to metonymy - what are those tropes anyway?

Lots of different readings - though not too many pages. So get organized early, and again read carefully. Please remember, unless otherwise noted, all texts are available on our site. Have the primary materials - the Bacon handout, Hobbes, Donne and Brown prose selections, and Donne poems - available for class on Monday. If there are any questions about the readings or anything else, please feel free to post a question on the blog, or to contact me directly at kolbrener@gmail.com.

For those who prefer books to internet downloads, most of the material for the course is now - thanks to Smadar! - on a reserve shelf in the library.

Looking forward to next class!

Metaphysical Poetry: Welcome

Welcome to the site for Metaphysical Poetry.

Updates for our class can be found here.