Metaphysical Poetry

by Burrow, Colin

• ISBN13: 9780140424447
• ISBN10: 014042444X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-07-25
• Publisher: PENGUIN

Summary

Spanning the Elizabethan age to the Restoration and beyond, Metaphysical poetry reacted to a time of startling progress, scientific discovery, unrivalled exploration and deep religious uncertainty. This compelling collection of the best and most enjoyable poems from the era includes tightly argued lyrics, erotic and libertine considerations of love, divine poems and elegies of lament by such great figures as Donne, Herbert, Marvell and Vaughan, alongside pieces from many other less well-known but equally fascinating poets of the age, such as Anne Bradstreet, Katherine Philips and Thomas Traherne. Widely varied in theme, all are characterized by their use of startling metaphors, imagery and language to express the uncertainty of an age, and a profound desire for originality that was to prove deeply influential on later poets and in particular poets of the Modernist movement such as T. S. Eliot.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	xiv
Chronology	xv
Introduction	xix
Further Reading	xlvii
A Note on the Texts	liv
SIR HENRY WOTTON
A Hymn to My God in a Night of my Late Sickness	3	(1)
On his Mistress, the Queen of Bohemia	3	(1)
JOHN DONNE
The Flea	4	(1)
The Good Morrow	5	(1)
Song	6	(1)
Woman's Constancy	7	(1)
The Undertaking	7	(1)
The Sun Rising	8	(1)
The Canonization	9	(2)
The Triple Fool	11	(1)
Song	12	(1)
Air and Angels	13	(1)
The Anniversary	14	(1)
Twickenham Garden	15	(1)
Valediction to his Book	16	(2)
The Dream	18	(1)
A Valediction of Weeping	19	(1)
The Curse	20	(1)
A Nocturnal Upon St Lucy's Day, Being the Shortest Day	21	(1)
The Apparition	22	(1)
A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning	23	(1)
The Ecstasy	24	(3)
The Funeral	27	(1)
The Relic	28	(1)
Elegy: To his Mistress Going to Bed	29	(1)
Elegy: His Picture	30	(1)
'As Due by Many Titles'	31	(1)
'At the Round Earth's Imagined Corners'	31	(1)
'Death be not Proud'	32	(1)
'What if this Present'	32	(1)
'Batter my Heart'	33	(1)
'Since She whom I Loved'	33	(1)
Good Friday, 1613. Riding Westward	34	(1)
A Hymn to Christ, at the Author's Last Going into Germany	35	(1)
A Hymn to God the Father	36	(1)
Hymn to God My God, in My Sickness	37	(1)
EDWARD, LORD HERBERT OF CHERBURY
[Parted Souls]	38	(1)
Elegy over a Tomb	39	(1)
The Thought	40	(2)
Sonnet: On the Groves Near Merlou Castle	42	(1)
An Ode upon a Question Moved, Whether Love should Continue for Ever?	42	(5)
A Meditation upon his Wax Candle Burning Out	47	(2)
AURELIAN TOWNSHEND
A Dialogue Betwixt Time and a Pilgrim	49	(2)
'Though Regions Far Divided'	51	(2)
Pure Simple Love	53	(3)
SIR FRANCIS KYNASTON
To Cynthia: On Her Embraces	56	(1)
To Cynthia: On Her Mother's Decease	57	(1)
SIR ROBERT AYTON
Upon Platonic Love: To Mistress Cicely Crofts, Maid of Honour	58	(2)
HENRY KING
The Legacy	60	(2)
The Exequy	62	(3)
Sic Vita	65	(1)
A Contemplation upon Flowers	65	(1)
FRANCIS QUARLES
On a Monument	66	(1)
GEORGE HERBERT
The Altar	67	(1)
Redemption	67	(1)
Easter Wings	68	(1)
Prayer (I)	69	(1)
Jordan (I)	69	(1)
Church-Monuments	70	(1)
Virtue	71	(1)
The Pearl. Matthew 13	71	(2)
Mortification	73	(1)
Affliction (IV)	74	(1)
Life	75	(1)
Jordan (II)	76	(1)
The Pilgrimage	76	(2)
The Collar	78	(1)
The Pulley	79	(1)
The Flower	80	(1)
Aaron	81	(1)
The Forerunners	82	(1)
Discipline	83	(2)
Death	85	(1)
Doomsday	86	(1)
Love (III)	87	(1)
Perseverance	87	(1)
CHRISTOPHER HARVEY
Church Festivals	88	(1)
THOMAS CAREW
To My Mistress Sitting by a River's Side: An Eddy	89	(1)
To My Mistress in Absence	90	(1)
A Rapture	91	(4)
To a Lady that Desired I Would Love Her	95	(2)
To My Worthy Friend Master George Sandys, on his Translation of the Psalms	97	(1)
A Song	98	(1)
The Second Rapture	99	(1)
An Elegy upon the Death of the Dean of St Paul's, Dr John Donne	100	(3)
THOMAS BEEDOME
The Present	103	(1)
OWEN FELLTHAM
The Vow-bread,	104	(1)
The Reconcilement	105	(1)
THOMAS RANDOLPH
Upon His Picture	106	(1)
To Time	106	(1)
WILLIAM HABINGTON
Against Them Who Lay Unchastity to the Sex of Woman	107	(1)
Nox Nocti Indicat Scientiam (David)	108	(2)
SIR WILLIAM DAVENANT
For the Lady Olivia Porter. A Present, Upon a New Year's Day	110	(1)
Song: To Two Lovers Condemned to Die	110	(1)
The Dream. To Mr George Porter	111	(4)
Song	115	(1)
Song: Endymion Porter, and Olivia	116	(1)
EDMUND WALLER
Song	117	(1)
The Bud	118	(1)
An Apology for Having Loved Before	118	(1)
Of the Last Verses in the Book	119	(1)
JOHN MILTON
On Time	120	(1)
At a Solemn Music	121	(1)
On Shakespeare. 1630	122	(1)
SIR JOHN SUCKLING
Sonnet II	122	(1)
[Love's Clock]	123	(1)
Against Fruition	124	(1)
[The Constant Lover]	125	(1)
Farewell to Love	126	(2)
SIDNEY GODOLPHIN
Constancy	128	(1)
'Lord, When the Wise Men'	129	(1)
'Madam, 'Tis True'	130	(1)
Elegy on Dr Donne	131	(2)
WILLIAM CARTWRIGHT
A Sigh Sent to his Absent Love	133	(1)
No Platonic Love	134	(1)
ANNE BRADSTREET
A Letter to her Husband, Absent upon Public Employment	135	(1)
RICHARD CRASHAW
On Mr George Herbert's Book Entitled The Temple of Sacred Poems', Sent to a Gentlewoman	136	(1)
To the Noblest and Best of Ladies, the Countess of Denbigh. Persuading her to Resolution in Religion, and to Render herself without further Delay into the Communion of the Catholic Church	136	(2)
A Hymn of the Nativity, Sung as by the Shepherds	138	(5)
New Year's Day	143	(1)
Upon the Body of our Blessed Lord, Naked and Bloody	144	(1)
Saint Mary Magdalene, or The Weeper	144	(7)
A Hymn to the Name and Honour of the Admirable Saint Teresa	151	(5)
An Epitaph Upon a Young Married Couple Dead and Buried Together	156	(1)
Mr Crashaw's Answer for Hope	156	(2)
JOHN CLEVELAND
The Hecatomb to his Mistress	158	(3)
The Anti-Platonic	161	(1)
WILLIAM HAMMOND
To the Same: The Tears	162	(1)
THOMAS PHILIPOT
On Myself Being Sick of a Fever	163	(1)
ROBERT HEATH
To Her at Her Departure	164	(1)
SAMUEL PICK
Sonnet: To his Mistress Confined	165	(1)
ABRAHAM COWLEY
Written in Juice of Lemon	166	(2)
All-over, Love	168	(1)
Against Hope	169	(1)
The Enjoyment	170	(1)
My Picture	171	(1)
Ode: Of Wit	172	(2)
On the Death of Mr Crashaw	174	(3)
Hymn to Light	177	(4)
RICHARD LOVELACE
Song: To Lucasta, Going Beyond the Seas	181	(1)
Song: To Lucasta, Going to the Wars	182	(1)
The Grasshopper: To My Noble Friend Mr Charles Cotton: Ode	183	(2)
To Althea, From Prison: Song	185	(1)
La Bella Bona Roba	186	(1)
ANDREW MARVELL
A Dialogue Between the Resolved Soul and Created Pleasure	187	(3)
On a Drop of Dew	190	(1)
The Coronet	191	(1)
Bermudas	192	(1)
A Dialogue Between the Soul and Body	193	(2)
The Nymph Complaining for the Death of her Fawn	195	(3)
To His Coy Mistress	198	(1)
Mourning	199	(2)
The Definition of Love	201	(1)
The Picture of Little T.C. in a Prospect of Flowers	202	(2)
Damon the Mower	204	(3)
The Garden	207	(2)
An Horatian Ode upon Cromwell's Return from Ireland	209	(4)
HENRY VAUGHAN
Regeneration	213	(3)
The Retreat	216	(1)
The Morning-Watch	217	(1)
'Silence, and Stealth of Days'	218	(1)
Unprofitableness	219	(1)
Idle Verse	219	(1)
The World	220	(2)
Man	222	(1)
'I Walked the Other Day'	223	(3)
'They Are All Gone into the World of Light'	226	(1)
The Star	227	(1)
'As Time One Day By Me Did Pass'	228	(2)
The Waterfall	230	(1)
Quickness	231	(1)
The Quaere	232	(1)
JAMES PAULIN
Love's Contentment	232	(2)
THOMAS STANLEY
The Glow-worm	234	(1)
The Bracelet	234	(1)
The Exequies	235	(1)
'ELIZA'
The Life	236	(1)
The Dart	236	(1)
To My Husband	237	(1)
JOHN HALL
An Epicurean Ode	238	(1)
The Epitome	239	(1)
An Epitaph	239	(1)
KATHERINE PHILIPS
To My Excellent Lucasia, on Our Friendship	240	(1)
A Dialogue of Friendship Multiplied	241	(1)
Orinda to Lucasia	242	(1)
THOMAS TRAHERNE
The Preparative	243	(2)
Felicity	245	(1)
Shadows in the Water	246	(3)
Consummation	249	(2)
JOHN WILMOT, EARL OF ROCHESTER
Love and Life	251	(1)
Song: A Young Lady to her Ancient Lover	251	(1)
Upon Nothing	252	(3)
RICHARD LEIGH
Greatness in Little	255	(2)
The Echo	257	(1)
THOMAS HEYRICK
On a Sunbeam	258	(3)
Textual Notes	261	(10)
Notes	271	(54)
Index of Titles	325	(6)
Index of First Lines	331