Characteristics of Metaphysical Poetry

Without a doubt, metaphysical poetry is one of the most interesting branches that involve fierce stuffing of thoughts not giving the reader a moment to pause and think about. Considering the thickness of content, the verses present enough space for satires, romance and pastorals. The essence of the metaphysical wit tends to be philosophical, theological and treats life as a stage for drama. 

Characteristics of Metaphysical Poetry

Concentration

A metaphysical poem is essentially a verse of shorter length and adopts a form consisting of a line of eight syllables. The stanzas never bring a feather touch to the reader, thereby making the whole reading process intense and demanding. Unlike Spenser and poets of simple authoring, Metaphysical writing connects every aspect of life philosophically and reflects a sense of logic in tight compression. Until now, such poems cannot be understood with ease. 

Metaphysical conceit

Conceit in Metaphysical poetry is largely used to make a comparison of cleverness and justice. This element of conceit floods Elizabethan poetry. Unlike the latter, Metaphysical verses use clever comparisons to justify a fact and never is Conceit made predominant. Conceit is used to convince, argue and reflect a statement which finally reveals a fondness in hatred, i.e. Positivity in negativity. We can also consider this a paradox or an extended epigram that finally brings a definite statement of conclusion such that no one denies. 

Learnedness

Most of the metaphysical poems are loaded with scholastic entities making it a little difficult to journey a smoother reading. As always, the verses are stuffed with witty, novel and aspiring and in a notion of presenting advanced educative and technical aspects prudently. This learnedness never was a drawback as these poets ransacked everything they wanted to write about. Anything they wrote was an absolute, brand new form of what had been seen in various works of previous eras. 

Cynicism

The aspect of cynicism always surged through Elizabethan poetry. The angle of viewing cynicism in such poems usually made the heroine the pinnacle of perfection and uniqueness; making herself the master of the hero. All the metaphysical poets were against this fact and transformed love to an equally sweet two way romance yet less physical by theme.

Mechanism of Sensibility

The charge of sensibility is indeed a positive feature. Frequently, we see petrarchan poets incorporating a fair amount of irregular, disconnected events in the poems. Cutting entirely down on this feature, metaphysical poets harmonized thoughts, reasoning, feeling and images. Being successful at merging diverse fields, unlike elements and finally juxtaposing them is an excellent advantage. 

To estimate the level of obscurity in the metaphysical poetry is not so easy. But with a statement that explains it all, the level could just fall flat. Everyone agrees that the verses are closely packed with meaning making it a challenging job to fathom. However, most readers value this as a masterpiece and wonder at it while they understand. The clever placement of unlike imagery, thought and emotions, contrasting pair of statements and thereby unifying altogether makes it a WOW factor. 

The abrupt openings of the metaphysical poems are certainly an attraction which contrasts it from the usual start of the petrarchan and Elizabethan plays. Such starts create an interest and await the reader for a beautiful touch of the theme.

Metrical Harshness is one of the most celebrated features of these poems with always a conversational verse forming a part of the piece. This part is however stuffed and does not tend to any smooth, musical or rhythmic flow. The diction and metrical effect reveals forever a subtle yet surprising feeling of thoughts and emotions.

With no specific negative points except for the concentration of thought, metaphysical poetry has proved to be an all rounder still challenging every reader at first sight.