The Metaphysical Poets

In Our Time

BBC

History

4.6 • 9.2K Ratings

🗓️ 19 June 2008

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Metaphysical poets, a diffuse group of 17th century writers including John Donne, Andrew Marvell and George Herbert. Mourning the death of a good friend in 1631, the poet Thomas Carew declared: “The Muses' garden, with pedantic weeds O'erspread, was purg'd by thee; the lazy seeds Of servile imitation thrown away, And fresh invention planted.”The gardener in question was a poet, John Donne, and from his fresh invention blossomed a group of 17th century writers called the metaphysical poets. Concerned with sex and death, with science and empire, the metaphysical poets challenged the conventions of Elizabethan poetry with drama and with wit. And they showed that English, like Italian and French, was capable of true poetry.Unashamedly modern, they were saluted by another great modernist, T.S. Eliot, who admired their genius for imagery, the freshness of their language and the drama of their poetic character. But what do we mean by metaphysical poetry, how did it reflect an age of drama and discovery and do poets as different as John Donne, Andrew Marvell and George Herbert really belong together in the canon of English literature? With Tom Healy, Professor of Renaissance Studies at Birkbeck College, University of London; Julie Sanders, Professor of English Literature and Drama at the University of Nottingham; and Tom Cain, Professor of Early Modern Literature at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne

Transcript

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0:00.0	Thanks for downloading the Inartime podcast. For more details about Inartime and for our terms of use
0:05.4	Please go to bbc.co.uk forward slash radio for I hope you enjoy the program
0:12.3	Hello, morning the death of a good friend in 1630 on the poet Thomas Carey declared
0:17.8	The muse's garden with pedantic weeds or spread was purged by the
0:23.3	The lazy seeds of servile imitations thrown away and fresh invention planted
0:29.6	The gardener in question was a poet John Dunn and from his fresh invention blossomed a group of 17 century writers
0:36.0	They'd called the metaphysical poets concerned with sex and death with signs and empire the metaphysical poets
0:43.2	Challenge the conventions of Elizabethan poetry and drama with wit and with startling metaphors
0:49.0	But what do we mean by metaphysical poetry?
0:51.4	How did it reflect an age of drama and discovery and do poets as different as John Dunn and
0:56.3	Dramar Val and George Herbert really belong together in the canon of English literature with me to discuss the metaphysical poets
1:02.9	I duly Sanders professor of English literature and drama at the University of Nottingham Tom Kane professor of early modern literature at the University of Newcastle
1:11.1	Pontine and Tom Haley professor of Renaissance studies at Birkbeck College University of London Tom Haley
1:16.9	Can we start with this term metaphysical? What do we mean about it with relation to metaphysical poetry?
1:22.2	Well, if we break it down into its two component parts the world of physics for the Renaissance was the world of natural sciences
1:30.2	Those things that happened in the material world, but also phenomena such as the physical attractions
1:36.7	We might feel for one another and the Greek word meta means after in this sense
1:42.2	So meta was in a sense after those things in the physical world the world of ideals the abstract qualities
1:49.9	the very essence and nature of being itself and for the Renaissance too it was also the world of the divine
1:56.8	So all those things which take place beyond the natural world
2:02.6	But also the Greek world word meta
2:05.8	Also means with or alongside and so there was an important way this poetry
	...

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