Metaphysical Poets

The End of the Metaphysicals: Vaughan, Hobbes, Milton, Cudworth

2010-01-12T02:16:00.000-08:00

In our recent class discussion, we followed the story of Adorno and Horkheimer who argued that it was Bacon who undermined the older idea of 'substance,' and left a world once animated by spirit, bereft and disenchanted. As was suggested in our discussion, the poetry of the period - from Donne to Vaughan - may be understood as an attempt to confront this Baconian legacy.

As a starting point for poems by Vaughan next time - Corruption, Man, Retreat and Cock Crowing - we will look at Milton's representation of this crisis, as Adam and Eve are forced out of the Garden of Eden. Please look at the passages from Book XI of Paradise Lost: what does Adam bemoan as he realizes that he must leave Eden? How does the archangel Michael - with whom he is in conversation - attempt to console him? Does Vaughan represent a similar sense of loss in his poems? What forms of consolation are available in his poetry? Are there consolations similar to those in Milton? in Donne? Is Vaughan a metaphysical poet?

For the second part of class, we will be considering similar questions - but in relationship primarily to Thomas Hobbes and the Cambridge Platonist, Ralph Cudworth. What happens to the kinds of questions with which the poets of our period have engaged when they are rendered philosophically? How does Hobbes - in the passages on the document available on our site - understand the relationship between soul and body? Why is he in such a huff about what he calls 'separated essences'? Why does he get upset by those people who use terms like 'incorporeal substance'?

We will also look briefly at how Milton deals with the relationship between spirit and matter. Though it's a huge subject, we will examine a short passage from Book 7 in which the Creation is described - also in the document on our site.

Finally, we will discuss Ralph Cudworth, author of the vast True Intellectual System of the Universe. Excerpts from his text will be made available in class. A preview here:

Unless there be such a thing admitted as a Plastick Nature, that breeds for the sake of something, and in order to Ends, Regularly, Artificially and Methodically, it seems that one or other of these Two Things must be concluded, That Either in the Efformation and Organization of the Bodies of Animals, as well as the other Phenomena, every things comes to pass Fortuitously, and happens to be as it is, without the Guidance and Direction of any Mind or Understanding; Or else, that God himself doth all Immediately, and as it were with his own Hands, Form the Body of every Gnat and Fly, Insect and Mite…

What mileage does Cudworth get out of the 'plastic power'? Is it a philosophical principle? a poetic one? What work is it performing for him?

Instructions for Take Home

2010-01-11T10:48:00.000-08:00

Here are the instructions for the take-home final exam. We will discuss in class when and how you can request the questions.

There are two options for the exam:

1. You may choose three of the following questions from the list below (do not answer more than one question on a single work).

2. You may choose one of the questions below, and use that to address (more comprehensively) the issues which we have discussed in class together. If you choose this option, it would make sense to choose a question which a. will lend itself to a discussion of more than one author, or b. will lend itself to a comprehensive discussion of the works of John Donne. This is to say, you might produce an exam which focuses exclusively on Donne, though you should not produce an exam which focuses exclusively on Marvell or Crashaw.

In any event, you should use the exam to synthesize the materials (texts and discussions) from the term. To that end, be sure to use all of the resources at your disposal—class notes, as well, as, of course, the texts themselves. The more details you bring in your answers (including citations from the text), the more effective your exam will be. Finals should be approximately between nine and twelve pages in length.

Don’t be afraid to address the questions on your own terms. That is to say, answer the questions in such a way so that you can give detailed and comprehensive answers. If you find that your understanding of a question has led you to a very brief or superficial answer, then you can be sure that you have understood the question in a less than satisfactory way. This means that in some sense the quality of your exam will be reflected on how you understand the questions (you may actually have to foreground that understanding in the opening paragraph of each essay). Choose questions in such a way that you can show off the depth and detail of your knowledge.

Green

2010-01-05T03:57:00.000-08:00

Puttenham, in his Art of Poesie (1589) writes: 'But for all this, I do deny that the Eglogue should be the first and most auncient forme of artificiall Poesie, being perswaded that the Poet deuised the Eglogue long after the other drammatick poems, not of purpose to counterfait or represent the rusticall manner of loues and communication: but vnder the vaile of homely persons, and in rude speeches to insinuate and glaunce at greater matters, and such as perchance had not bene safe to haue beene disclosed in any other sort, which may be perceiued by the Eglogues of Virgill, in which are treated by figure matters of greater importance then the loues of Titirus and Corydon.'

What does Marvell achieve in turning to pastoral? Are there 'great matters' - as Puttenham puts it - which Marvell's poems address? How does Marvell conceive of the relationship between man and nature in the 'Mower' poems'? Does Marvell participate in the same sensibility of resemblance - in the 'Mower' poems and 'The Garden' in particular - as does Donne? How might Marvell be situated in a schematic history of the individual. Please think about this question in relationship to the handout that I gave you last time - with passages from Greville and Burton.

We will aim - in the second half of class - to explore some of the poetry of Henry Vaughan: we will be looking at his poems, 'Corruption,' 'Man,' 'The Retreat,' 'The Timber,' 'Cock Crowing,' 'Regeneration,' and 'The Search.' Text available on our site.

More Class News

2009-12-24T09:50:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-22T02:33:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-11T05:05:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-01T01:40:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-23T21:23:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-18T02:34:00.001-08:00

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

2009-11-10T04:26:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-03T02:23:00.000-08:00

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

2009-10-26T11:48:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-25T04:15:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the site for Metaphysical Poetry.

Updates for our class can be found here.