Metaphysical Conceit Essay -- English Literature

Metaphysical Conceit Metaphysical Conceita highly ingenious kind of conceit widely used by the metaphysical poets, who explored all areas of knowledge to find, in the startlingly esoteric or the shockingly commonplace, telling and unusual analogies for their ideas. Metaphysical conceits often exploit verbal logic to the point of the grotesque and sometimes achieve such extravagant turns on meaning that they become absurd (e.g. Richard Crashaw's description of Mary Magdalene's eyes as "Two walking baths; two weeping motions,/Portable and compendious oceans"). These conceits work best when the reader is given a perception of a real but previously unsuspected similarity that is enlightening; then they may speak to our minds and emotions with force. Examples of potential metaphysical conceits->love is like an oil change; love is like a postage stamp; love is like a pair of compasses; the soul of a sinner is like a damaged pot. As you can see, the temptation to be merely clever must be hard to resist, while the difficulty in making such a conceit truly effective is quite considerable. The Flea 1. Background: Étienne Pasquier and Catherine Desroches, 1579. Pseudo-Ovidian flea poems in which the lover wishes to become a flea in order to gain enhanced access to the beloved's charms; theme is often bestialization of the lover by his own passion. 2. Plot is simple: a) speaker points to a flea that has jumped from him to the woman and bites both; b) she has hunted down and caught the flea; speaker tries to dissuade her from killing it; c) she disregards his pleas and kills it. N.B. all the action occurs between the stanzas. Elaboration: he has argued that their being bitten by the flea is tantamount to ha... ...en the most moronic of women-unless she were as desirous of being convinced as the speaker is of convincing her-and this one is far from moronic. She is clearly not bewildered or dazzled by these arguments. The whole poem has the air of a little intellectual game indulged in by these two, both of them knowing what the outcome will be even if they don't quite know how the conclusion will be reached, and both enjoying the game for its own sake, rather than that of a serious attempt to lead someone astray. If the poem is read this way, the fact that the argument is false, is pure sophistry, is at least beside the point and can even become a strength-it is the interaction between the participants that is central. Donne (also Spenser, see 28, 29, 75, 54) frequently uses argument as a form of love-play and posits a woman who is an intellectual match for the man.