John Donne was a great poet of his
time. He has composed metaphysical poetry which contains conceits and images. Every reader of
metaphysical poetry finds the use of conceit as more effective and
charming than image. Generally speaking, to compare the beloved’s cheeks
and lips with flowers, especially roses, means image; and to compare the
lover’s cheeks with roses because they have lost their colour and are bleeding
due to thorns, is a conceit. It means that to compare two similar objects means
image and to yoke together two dissimilar rather two opposite things means
conceit. He has composed his love poems and divine poems almost with equal
competence i.e., used conceits and images in both categories of poems. Hence,
he is famous as a great love poet and divine poet.
John Donne is well reputed and mostly
known as an original thinker. He used such conceits and images as made his
poetic work complex, complicated, difficult, obscure, philosophic and extremely
difficult and the readers have to exert their full mind to understand and
comprehend the actual meanings. Dr. Johnson used the term ‘Metaphysical’ for
his poetic works in a contemptuous sense because he did not like his
complicated and far-fetched conceits.
He never tried to imitate the
old Petrarchan traditions and Elizabeth conceits because they did not suit
his temperament. He did not like these old and obsolete traditions in which conceits and images were used to adorn the poetic works and
they had no particular relationship with their context. However, Donne’s
conceits have certain relation with their contexts and they have not been used
just for embellishment or pedantic show of his strange philosophic
knowledge. For example, in “Good Morrow”, he asks his beloved;
“I wonder, by my troth, what thou and I
Did, till we loved? Were we not weaned till then?
But sucked on country pleasures, childishly?
Or snorted we in the Seven Sleepers’ den?”
He further adds that the whole world
has contracted to his single bedroom and the sun needs not bother about warming
the whole world and thus tiring itself. It (sun) can do this by revolving around his single bedroom because he presumes that;
“She is all states and all princes I,
Nothing else is!”
He describes in a forceful,
convincing and elaborate manner that the lovers are not bound to the movement
of heavenly bodies and similarly, they are not affected by any change in climate or
weather. According to him, love remains the same in all seasons. It has been
frequently remarked that Donne’s conceits are far-fetched and he has yoked
together the opposite elements. Let us discuss his conceits in detail in order
to reach a final conclusion. In ‘A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning’, he uses a
very rare conceit and says that his beloved should not have any fear on his departure
because they are just like two legs of a compass connected with a nut which
symbolizes love.
“If they are two they are two so,
As stiff twin compasses are two,
Thy soul the fix’t foot, makes no show,
To move but doth I the other do.”
There are a number of conceits which
are as startling, surprising, amazing and enchanting as the above-mentioned one
is. He draws his conceits and images from different sources. He uses his
social, geographical, historical, political, biological and mathematical
knowledge and draws an unbelievable conceit or image to impress his readers
with the deep philosophical idea behind it. It is said that he himself was victim of a disease and during its treatment, he learnt a lot about medicine. To our surprise,
his knowledge of medicine proved to be helpful in creating awful conceits and
images.
He drew his conceits and images from trade, commerce and daily life also. He used the scientific theories and superstitions for the same purpose. All this collectively speaks of his original thinking. We can conclude the whole discussion with the words of Grierson;
“He brings together the opposites of life e.g., body and soul, earth and heaven, death and life in one breadth.”
No comments