Metaphysical Poetry: Reflective Blog

Hello Readers!

On 16, 17, and 18th of August the guest lecture was organised on the topic Metaphysical Poetry and Dr. R K Mandalia was invited as the guest lecturer. Dr. R. K. Mandalia is the Head of the English department of Sardar Patel University in Anand. Dr. Dilip Barad, the head of English department of M.K. Bhavnagar University, invites him every year for better understanding of the topic. As part of the syllabus, there are six metaphysical poems, all written by John Donne. Mandalia sir has immense deep knowledge of this topic and students also enjoy every moment of this three-day's session. This blog is assigned by Dr. Dilip Barad via Google Classroom.

ગુજરાતી કાવ્યોનો આસ્વાદ કરાવવો હજુ સહેલો પડે પણ અંગ્રેજી કાવ્યને પણ ગાન કરીને ઊંડાણપૂર્વક ની સમજણ આપવી એ ઘણો અનુભવ અને મહેનત માંગી લેતું કામ છે. ભલભલા યુવાનને શરમાવે તેવી  ગજબની સ્ફુર્તિ અને જુસ્સા સાથે જયારે માંડલિયા સર ભણાવતા હોય ત્યારે લાગે કે ખુદ જહૉન ડન પોતે જ કવિતા સમજાવવા છેક સત્તરમી સદી માંથી આવ્યા.

John Donne (1572-1631) image credit: biography.com

Students can do either any two or all three activities.

• (1) Characteristics of Metaphysical Poetry with explanation of a few metaphysical poetry written by John Donne as well as any other Metaphysical Poet.

Ans: Metaphysical means something which is superior or beyond to physical objects. The term Metaphysical Poetry was firstly coined by the critic Dr Samuel Johnson in his biographical work "The Lives". In the first half of the 17th century, a group of poets emerged whose poetry is called metaphysical poetry. John Donne was the pioneer of this group and it was called The School of Donne. George Herbert, Abraham Cowley, Andrew Marvell, Richard Crashaw, and Robert Southwell were the followers of John Donne. This school of Donne, wanted to make a new style of poetry which was very new to the people of 17th century.

Far-fetched images 

Many elements we can consider as the characteristics of metaphysical poetry but far-fetched images are somewhat major ones. Though the main theme of the metaphysical poem remains on love, separation, death, religion and sometimes sexuality also. But when we find the images of mechanical and architectural engineering images, agricultural images, geometrical images, biological elements etc. Here poets were attracting people to read their poems by using such images. And they wanted to show their wit and knowledge that we can also do and create something different. These images have nothing to do with love and philosophy and religion, but still, the metaphysical poets have used them successfully in various metaphysical poems. For example we can say John Donne's poems like "The Flea", "Death be not proud", "The Sun Rising" etc. If we take any one of his poem under consideration, we can understand these elements and far-fetched images deeply. Let's take "The Flea" for explanation. Click on the title below to read full poem.

 The Flea by John Donne

The Title: The name of this poem relates with a very tiny creature called flea. The title explains that poet has used the biological far-fetched image in this love poem, which attracts the reader to go through the full poem.

Theme: The theme is love, and pain. mercy of the creature.

Explanation: In this poem, the lover observe that one flea has sucked the blood of both his and his beloved. And the lover wants his beloved to accept the love, and to do so, he explains his beloved that this flea has sucked both of our blood. So, even without any physical touch, our blood has become one, as the flea contains both of their blood. After knowing this, beloved tries to kill the flea and again the lover explains her not to kill this insect, because the flea contains not only the blood of we two but its own also. If the beloved kills the flea, it would be the killing of the lover, the beloved and the flea also. Instead of committing this sin, the beloved should accept the genuine proposal of love. No woman ever loses her honor if she accepts the genuine love proposal. It is the basic argument of the lover.

• (2) Write critical analysis of metaphysical poems of poets other than John Donne.

• (3) If you can write creative poems, try to rewrite or create new metaphysical poem in either English or Gujarati or Hindi or Sanskrit language.

"फानी से फ़ना हुए"

लो फ़िर हमसफ़र बना लिए कुछ हमने, राह के चलते वक्त के गुजरते, सड़क ने बताया कुछ और ही रास्ता, कुछेक ने साथ दिया, और कईयों ने छोड़ा।

चल रहे थे हम वफा - ए - आदत अकेले, यूहीं मचल रहे थे, किसी के साथ के लिए, मगर फिर तन्हाई ने याद दिलाया, यहां कौन है तेरा, जिसने तुझे तोड़ा।

चल दिए थे जहां के लिए, मंज़िल ना मिलनी थी वहां, चले जा रहे थे बस यूंही चले जा रहे थे।

फिर मिले कुछ ऐसे हमनवां, जी जान लगा के जी रहे थे सदा, सिखाए प्यार के कुछ ऐसे उसूल, की लगा अब तो इश्क का ही कर लें सजदा।

क्या मिटेगी प्यासे की प्यास और क्या बुझेगी भूखे की भूक जब तक ना मिले तेरा दीदार,
इस एहसास के वजूद को मै मिटा दूं गर, कैसे होगा इस बात का इजहार।

लकड़ी की फांस जो लगी इस तरह, तेरे पल्लू का सिरका जब लगा बंधियारा, हुआ डूबते को तिनके का जैसे सहारा।

भेजा था ख़त मैंने भी दूर किसी ज़माने में, लगी पूरे शहर को आग़, जहां हमने था सपनों का घर सजाया।

चल दिए बस यूंही वहां से, राख कहीं, तो कहीं दिखे जले मकाँ, बस एक सड़क थी जो कहती थी चल अकेला जब तक है जान।

- रोहित व्यास