The term metaphysical as applied to poetry was first used by Dr Johnson (who is regarded as founder of the ‘school’), who borrowed it from Dryden’s phrase about Donne - “he affects the metaphysics”
• It was a term of contempt signifying habitual deviation from naturalness of thought and style to novelty and quaintness
• The metaphysical style was established by John Donne, early in the 17th century
• Its main characteristics are philosophical argument, extravagant and farfetched imagery and terseness of expressions and harsh metres
• All these together made their poetry obscure
• Most of the Jacobean and Caroline poets were hailed as metaphysical like:
o Herbert
o Crashaw
o Vaughan
o Herrick
o Carew
o Marvell
o Cowley
• Metaphysical poets greatly influenced the poetry of 20th century
• The label was first used by Dr Johnson (disparagingly) in his “Life of Cowley”
• Key documents in the revival were H.J.C Grierson’s Metaphysical Lyrics and Poems of the Seventeenth Century (1921) and T.S.Eliot’s essay “Metaphysical Poets”- dissociation of sensibility
