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Metaphysical Poetry
A key anthology for students of English literature, Metaphysical Poetry is a collection whose unique philosophical insights are some of the crowning achievements of Renaissance verse, edited with an introduction and notes by Colin Burrow in Penguin Classics.
Spanning the Elizabethan age to the Restoration and beyond, Metaphysical poetry sought to describe a time of startling progress, scientific discovery, unrivalled exploration and deep religious uncertainty. This compelling collection of the best and most enjoyable poems from the era includes tightly argued lyrics, erotic and libertine considerations of love, divine poems and elegies of lament by such great figures as John Donne, George Herbert, Andrew Marvell and John Milton, alongside pieces from many other less well known but equally fascinating poets of the age, such as Anne Bradstreet, Katherine Philips and Thomas Traherne. Widely varied in theme, all are characterized by their use of startling metaphors, imagery and language to express the uncertainty of an age, and a profound desire for originality that was to prove deeply influential on later poets and in particular poets of the Modernist movement such as T. S. Eliot.
In his introduction, Colin Burrow explores the nature of Metaphysical poetry, its development across the seventeenth century and its influence on later poets and includes A Very Short History of Metaphysical Poetry from Donne to Rochester. This edition also includes detailed notes, a chronology and further reading.
Colin Burrow is Reader in Renaissance and Comparative Literature at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. He has edited Shakespeare's Sonnets for OUP and The Complete Works of Ben Jonson, and is working on the Elizabethan volume of the Oxford English Literary History.
If you enjoyed Metaphysical Poetry, you might like John Donne's Selected Poems, also available in Penguin Classics.
395 pages, Kindle Edition
First published July 25, 2006
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Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
October 25, 2021
Metaphysical poetry was as part of my 'studying literature' module at University this week & I thoroughly enjoyed it. My favourites in the collection include: Donne's 'The Flea', 'The Sun Rising', Carew's 'A Song' & Crashaw's 'An epiah upon a young married couple dead and buried together'.
May 26, 2024
horny or existential or god take mercy on me
December 25, 2021
A lot of this seems to me to be "Donne and his heirs": the first forty pages are all Donne and what follows is mostly variations thereof. Many of the minor poets are nowhere near as good, blending the Donnesque conceits and sexual honesty with dull rhetoric or classical forms, but it's a strange phenomenon to see this 17th century boil over with complex sexual metaphors and existential theology; they represent a far more 'modern' mode of thinking, what with the sensitivity to emotional nuance and anxiety at the sublime, than the more political/ironical 18th century's poets. Cowley is a good example, usually dismissed as offering 'complexity over substance', from what I've seen, and yet his manipulation of arguments and intricate imagery within a poetic context has a fluency impressive regardless of its relative lack of objectivity. Certainly he's the best of this 'school of Donne'.
Of course, George Herbert's verse resembles Blakean parables (minus perhaps the overt esoterics) far more than Donne, although in my opinion his 'ambiguous prayers' represent a more common type of english verse, that 'pondering' of complex problems in reductive, ironically-simple terms for the purpose of eluding any semblance of insight or expression; we see it again and again, with Tennyson and Auden and even Pope's Essay On Man (there must be more but I will never read them if I can avoid it). His approach is anyhow interesting; Henry Vaughan, one of his successors, offers similar sorts of parables but with more cerebral imagery.
Another current seems to be the wake of Milton, whose variant of nefarious imagery and forceful sound gives more ammunition for theologico-erotical reflections: Crashaw offers very attractively rhythmic verse laden with exciting paradoxical images; and Marvell takes this even further into some very magical realms, but destroys every pretense to credibility as a poet or a thinker with the baffling hibernophobia in his ode to Cromwell. Thomas Traherne, a poet apparently only recently discovered among old documents, writes some surprisingly interesting verse in this vein, but it doesn't seem he wrote very much.
This is an exciting collection; certainly for most of these poets (everyone but Donne) I'm not sure more is needed, and when put together a sense of the epoch is very clear. It's as though we're getting access to their thoughts on love and life far more clearly than any 18th or even 19th century poet would ever express; and watching these poets excitedly construct complex metaphors for the direct sake of =honest reflection makes for very visceral verse, not least because of the more frequent uses of balladic, irregular, and often even anapestical rhythms in lieu of the century of Drydenian heroic couplets to come (fun fact: Dryden hated all these poets immensely). I also recommend TS Eliot's lectures on this poetry, Varieties of Metaphysical Poetry, as certainly we can see a great deal of influence on Eliot's verse in here.
Of course, George Herbert's verse resembles Blakean parables (minus perhaps the overt esoterics) far more than Donne, although in my opinion his 'ambiguous prayers' represent a more common type of english verse, that 'pondering' of complex problems in reductive, ironically-simple terms for the purpose of eluding any semblance of insight or expression; we see it again and again, with Tennyson and Auden and even Pope's Essay On Man (there must be more but I will never read them if I can avoid it). His approach is anyhow interesting; Henry Vaughan, one of his successors, offers similar sorts of parables but with more cerebral imagery.
Another current seems to be the wake of Milton, whose variant of nefarious imagery and forceful sound gives more ammunition for theologico-erotical reflections: Crashaw offers very attractively rhythmic verse laden with exciting paradoxical images; and Marvell takes this even further into some very magical realms, but destroys every pretense to credibility as a poet or a thinker with the baffling hibernophobia in his ode to Cromwell. Thomas Traherne, a poet apparently only recently discovered among old documents, writes some surprisingly interesting verse in this vein, but it doesn't seem he wrote very much.
This is an exciting collection; certainly for most of these poets (everyone but Donne) I'm not sure more is needed, and when put together a sense of the epoch is very clear. It's as though we're getting access to their thoughts on love and life far more clearly than any 18th or even 19th century poet would ever express; and watching these poets excitedly construct complex metaphors for the direct sake of =honest reflection makes for very visceral verse, not least because of the more frequent uses of balladic, irregular, and often even anapestical rhythms in lieu of the century of Drydenian heroic couplets to come (fun fact: Dryden hated all these poets immensely). I also recommend TS Eliot's lectures on this poetry, Varieties of Metaphysical Poetry, as certainly we can see a great deal of influence on Eliot's verse in here.
February 11, 2017
Phenomenal collection. Beautiful.
March 4, 2010
Metaphysical poetry of the 17th century is intriguing to me because it is characterized by wit and the use of complex stylistic maneuvers, as well as concerned with approaching philosophy and spirituality with reason and analyzing, not just feeling, emotion. Since I tend to gravitate towards John Donne I was glad that this book broadened my horizons and introduced me to other poets I had not heretofore known.
January 6, 2017
Although I really liked the poetry in this anthology, covering a wide variety of different authors, I would have a liked a short introduction for each of the authors and their work to be incorporated into the main body of the text. But apart from that it is a great anthology and many of the poems featured in here are a lot of fun to read (for uni and for pleasure as well). A definite recommendation.
March 15, 2023
Poetry collections like this are hard to review. So many different poets, so many different poems. Some are great, some less so. But overall I found this a fine read.
Metaphysical poetry has a reputation for being difficult, which I can understand having read this. Not all are, but enough are as to make this a read that requires a degree of focus.
There are 41 different poets in this collection, 2 of whom are definitely women. One of who is called 'Eliza' but their real identity is unknown. The best known are John Donne, John Milton, and Andrew Marvell. Donne has 34 poems in the collection, which is the most. He also has two of the best known poems in the collection: The Flea and Death Be Not Proud. Both of which are excellent poems.
The poet with the next largest number of entries is George Herbert, about whom I know almost nothing but who was one of my favourite poets in the collection. He's also doing some interesting things with the topography of poetry - The Alter and Easter Wings being two fine examples. Some of these poets I wouldn't have known at all if it hadn't been for my recent read of 'The Psalms in English'. Which gives us Richard Crashaw and Abraham Cowley. Henry Vaughan also has a lot of poems and again I found his work attractive. I do have a full collection of Vaughan's poetry, which I shall get to reading at some point soon.
It is interesting that although the Metaphysical Poets are a thing the number of poems that I would say have become well-known in and off themselves is relatively small. The two aforementioned Donne poems and Andrew Marvell's 'To His Coy Mistress' being just about it. This is obvious for the amateur. I'm sure others are familiar to the academic.
So, a collection worth reading but one that perhaps requires proper attention and re-reading. The notes are valuable, but limited. The introduction by Colin Burrow though is excellent and makes the point that there really is no such thing as 'Metaphysical Poets'. They weren't a school. They had no manifesto. It was, indeed, a term coined by Samuel Johnson that was meant to be vaguely insulting. But like many of these things it stuck - see both 'The Big Bang' and 'Schrodinger's Cat'.
This is a good seed collection and one that has given me some other poets who I want to read more of - Vaughan, Herbert, Marvell, and Donne in particular. I've also got a collection of the Earl of Rochester's poetry, which before reading this I had understood were mostly rather rude, which brings me to a final note.
The interesting thing about the Metaphysical poets is they seemed to write about God, nature, love and sex with the same ease. Even if, a lot of the time, the sexual stuff was hidden in double-entendres or euphemism - but not always.
Metaphysical poetry has a reputation for being difficult, which I can understand having read this. Not all are, but enough are as to make this a read that requires a degree of focus.
There are 41 different poets in this collection, 2 of whom are definitely women. One of who is called 'Eliza' but their real identity is unknown. The best known are John Donne, John Milton, and Andrew Marvell. Donne has 34 poems in the collection, which is the most. He also has two of the best known poems in the collection: The Flea and Death Be Not Proud. Both of which are excellent poems.
The poet with the next largest number of entries is George Herbert, about whom I know almost nothing but who was one of my favourite poets in the collection. He's also doing some interesting things with the topography of poetry - The Alter and Easter Wings being two fine examples. Some of these poets I wouldn't have known at all if it hadn't been for my recent read of 'The Psalms in English'. Which gives us Richard Crashaw and Abraham Cowley. Henry Vaughan also has a lot of poems and again I found his work attractive. I do have a full collection of Vaughan's poetry, which I shall get to reading at some point soon.
It is interesting that although the Metaphysical Poets are a thing the number of poems that I would say have become well-known in and off themselves is relatively small. The two aforementioned Donne poems and Andrew Marvell's 'To His Coy Mistress' being just about it. This is obvious for the amateur. I'm sure others are familiar to the academic.
So, a collection worth reading but one that perhaps requires proper attention and re-reading. The notes are valuable, but limited. The introduction by Colin Burrow though is excellent and makes the point that there really is no such thing as 'Metaphysical Poets'. They weren't a school. They had no manifesto. It was, indeed, a term coined by Samuel Johnson that was meant to be vaguely insulting. But like many of these things it stuck - see both 'The Big Bang' and 'Schrodinger's Cat'.
This is a good seed collection and one that has given me some other poets who I want to read more of - Vaughan, Herbert, Marvell, and Donne in particular. I've also got a collection of the Earl of Rochester's poetry, which before reading this I had understood were mostly rather rude, which brings me to a final note.
The interesting thing about the Metaphysical poets is they seemed to write about God, nature, love and sex with the same ease. Even if, a lot of the time, the sexual stuff was hidden in double-entendres or euphemism - but not always.
June 4, 2022
This is an excellent anthology of metaphysical poetry, one that I certainly would recommend to anyone interested in the genre. I very much enjoyed re-encountering some favourites by Donne, Herbert, and Marvell (I'd forgotten, for instance, the beauty of "Valediction: Forbidding Mourning", and was glad to be reminded of it), and have added a considerable list of new favourites to my list (I'm particularly happy finally to have discovered Donne's exquisite poem, "The Relic"). Further, this edition has an informative and useful introduction that I enjoyed nearly as much as the poems themselves.
Nonetheless, while Burrow makes a valiant attempt to broaden the scope of this anthology beyond the ouevre of the genre's giants (Marvell, Donne, Vaughan, and Herbert), the inclusion of lesser-known metaphysical poets serves only to highlight the former's talents. Consequently, I'm giving this anthology three stars, not because I think it deficient, but because I can't truthfully say that it held my enthusiastic attention all the way through. I suspect, however, that I'll return to it in the future, if only to re-read a few favourite selections. It's certainly earned its place on my bookshelves.
Nonetheless, while Burrow makes a valiant attempt to broaden the scope of this anthology beyond the ouevre of the genre's giants (Marvell, Donne, Vaughan, and Herbert), the inclusion of lesser-known metaphysical poets serves only to highlight the former's talents. Consequently, I'm giving this anthology three stars, not because I think it deficient, but because I can't truthfully say that it held my enthusiastic attention all the way through. I suspect, however, that I'll return to it in the future, if only to re-read a few favourite selections. It's certainly earned its place on my bookshelves.
June 11, 2020
4.5stars
A collection of Edwardian poetry that took my breath away, ensued in laughter, sadness and genuine awe.
Tackling love, mourning, death, sickness, sadness, nature, time, memories and life in general, this collection of highly esteemed poets put together in one book brings all of life’s virtues, experiences and gifts into light and I adored every second of it.
George Herbert and Andrew Marvell bewitched me and stole thoughts embedded in my mind. By far my two favourites out of so many more.
A delightful and magical read that took me places and made me feel so many emotions.
A collection of Edwardian poetry that took my breath away, ensued in laughter, sadness and genuine awe.
Tackling love, mourning, death, sickness, sadness, nature, time, memories and life in general, this collection of highly esteemed poets put together in one book brings all of life’s virtues, experiences and gifts into light and I adored every second of it.
George Herbert and Andrew Marvell bewitched me and stole thoughts embedded in my mind. By far my two favourites out of so many more.
A delightful and magical read that took me places and made me feel so many emotions.
August 6, 2019
Beyond the physical
August 29, 2022
Loved some but impartial to most
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April 13, 2023John Donne (04/12/23)
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February 26, 2024 LIT POEMS FOR ALS
February 18, 2025
J’en fais encore des cauchemars la nuit
August 21, 2025
Excellent poetry with brilliant imagery in common everyday themes. Not too eloborate, just enough to create a picture in reader's mind.
August 5, 2020
4.5stars
A collection of Edwardian poetry that took my breath away, ensued in laughter, sadness and genuine awe.
Tackling love, mourning, death, sickness, sadness, nature, time, memories and life in general, this collection of highly esteemed poets put together in one book brings all of life’s virtues, experiences and gifts into light and I adored every second of it.
George Herbert and Andrew Marvell bewitched me and stole thoughts embedded in my mind. By far my two favourites out of so many more.
A delightful and magical read that took me places and made me feel so many emotions.
A collection of Edwardian poetry that took my breath away, ensued in laughter, sadness and genuine awe.
Tackling love, mourning, death, sickness, sadness, nature, time, memories and life in general, this collection of highly esteemed poets put together in one book brings all of life’s virtues, experiences and gifts into light and I adored every second of it.
George Herbert and Andrew Marvell bewitched me and stole thoughts embedded in my mind. By far my two favourites out of so many more.
A delightful and magical read that took me places and made me feel so many emotions.
March 3, 2024
because i’m such a fan of early Donne and i very much enjoy Herbert
February 18, 2013
The seveneenth century is not my favourite period of writing by any means so I did not pick up this book expecting to be blown away.
That does not mean there was no fantastic poems in here though.
Where better can one start than with Donne's poetry - Song, The Relic, Death be not Proud, Batter My Heart...
I loved Henry King's Sic Vita.
George Herbert is usually awesome - Perseverance and Love (III) were perhaps the best of his in this volume.
Thomas Beedome's The Present, Richard Crashaw's An Epitaph Upon a Young Married Couple Dead and Buried Together, and The Life by 'Eliza' also stood out for me.
The catch? There is a lot of Andrew Marvell in here and also some Richard "I could not love thee, dear so much,// Loved I not honour more" Lovelace.
It was good to read some previously-unheard of (by me, at least) poets. The notes were good (although annoyingly, at the end of the volume rather than as footnotes). A good book to have at one's side and dip into.
That does not mean there was no fantastic poems in here though.
Where better can one start than with Donne's poetry - Song, The Relic, Death be not Proud, Batter My Heart...
I loved Henry King's Sic Vita.
George Herbert is usually awesome - Perseverance and Love (III) were perhaps the best of his in this volume.
Thomas Beedome's The Present, Richard Crashaw's An Epitaph Upon a Young Married Couple Dead and Buried Together, and The Life by 'Eliza' also stood out for me.
The catch? There is a lot of Andrew Marvell in here and also some Richard "I could not love thee, dear so much,// Loved I not honour more" Lovelace.
It was good to read some previously-unheard of (by me, at least) poets. The notes were good (although annoyingly, at the end of the volume rather than as footnotes). A good book to have at one's side and dip into.
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December 14, 2012Good range of lesser known poets for such a short book, as well as the most well known poems of canonical writers, useful introduction and further reading suggestions.
Favourites: The Triple Fool, John Donne; To my Excellent Lucasia, on our Friendship, Katherine Philips.
Favourites: The Triple Fool, John Donne; To my Excellent Lucasia, on our Friendship, Katherine Philips.
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September 15, 2012Christmas gift from Barb & Steve Kishimoto
Received 25 December 2007
Received 25 December 2007
January 6, 2021
A decent selection of metaphysical poetry, though not all would fit into the tightest definition of this, but it does contain quite a few of my favourites.
April 16, 2023
Pretty good. At least the ones I understood, that is; pure bliss.
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews