Heterogeneous ideas are yoked by violence together, John Donne Discussion

John Donne was best known as the pre-eminent representative of metaphysical poetry. He was an English scholar, poet, secretary, and soldier. He was appointed as Dean of St Paul's Cathedral in London. John Donne was also considered as the revival of the Catholic Church, born in 1572 in England. His famous works are his love and divine poems. Some of them are 'Go and Catch a Falling Star', The Sun Rising, Thou hast made me, shall thy work decay? and The Good Morrow.

The term metaphysical is associated with freshness, elaborate similes, and metaphors extended poetic conceits and paradoxes, colloquial speech, and an interest in exploring the interplay between the physical and spiritual world. Metaphysical poetry is often characterized by the energy of its narrative voices. Questions – or interrogatives – are devices that Donne effectively uses to deliver these attributes.

The 18th-century essayist, critic, and lexicographer Samuel Johnson criticized metaphysical poetry by his cleverness and skillful arts.  Others such as the poet T S Eliot have dedicated their inventiveness.

By the dint of the influence of Neo-Platonism, they appealed more to the intellect than to the senses; therefore, critics like Samuel Johnson rejected them as successful poets. Samuel Johnson rejected metaphysical poetry in these words. “Sometimes admires, is seldom pleased”. He tagged this poetry as “the most heterogeneous ideas are yoked by violence together; nature and art are ransacked for illustrations, comparisons, and allusions."

The term metaphysical poets, used by Samuel Johnson; an essayist of the eighteenth century for the first time. The loosely associated group also includes George Herbert, Richard Crashaw, Andrew Marvell, and John Cleveland. The Metaphysical Poets are known for their ability to startle the reader and coax a new perspective through paradoxical images, subtle argument, inventive syntax, and imagery from art, philosophy, and religion using an extended metaphor known as a conceit. Donne reached beyond the rational and hierarchical structures of the seventeenth century with his exacting and ingenious conceits, advancing the exploratory spirit of his time.

As Samuel Johnson said that "in John Donne's poetry heterogeneous ideas are yoked by violence together." He meant that Donne does not talk about one thing in sequence. He talks about different things or ideas at a time. His poems include ideas from love, science, literature, and philosophy. In his poetry, extreme ideas are brought together. For instance, comparing a lover to a pair of the compass. 

Love and lover are usually compared to roses, moon, etc. The whole idea of bringing together an object of geometry in the domain of love is dominant in Donne's poetry. In very simple words, he meant that two or more entirely different hyperboles are combined in a way to convey the idea effectively.

A group of scholars believes that he took ideas from different poets, mixed them to form a new one.

John Donne's poetry as we mentioned is the combination of different ideas taken from religion, love, and philosophy. In love poems, his ideas are again scattered. His songs and sonnets don't describe a single idea; instead, he presented a different variety of emotions.

To him love can be an experience of the body, the soul, or both; it can be a religious experience or merely a sensual one and it can give rise to emotions ranging from ecstasy to despair. John Donne's single poem gives us a different interpretation of love and gives us an insight into the complex range of experiences that can be grouped under the single heading 'Love'.

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An example is cited here to make this argument strong.

In 'To his Mistris Going to Bed' we see how highly Donne can praise sensual pleasure. He addresses the woman as:

"Oh my America, my new found lande,

My kingdome, safeliest when with one man man'd,

My myne of precious stones, my Empiree."

Although John Donne made his name as a love poet, he wrote many treatises and religious sermons as well. In his religious verse, he used the same techniques he had developed in his love poetry. Usually, John Donne's religious poems start with a dramatic opening.

 

"Batter my heart, three person'd God.

Batter my heart, three person'd God; for you

As yet but knocke, breathe, shine, and seeke to mend;

That I may rise, and stand, o'erthrow me, and bend

Your force, to breake, blowe, burne, and make me new."

Most of his poems directly talking with God, with the use of conceit and metaphorical language, which is also considered as one of the styles of Donne's poetry.

 In his poetry thoughts and arguments are arising suddenly out of passionate feelings which made Donne master of philosophy and nature. Many of the romantic and Victorian poets like Yeats, Eliot’s, and Dickens followed him in his way of expression and depiction of nature. Indeed, the play of intellect in Donne’s poetry, his scorn of conventionally poetic images, and the dramatic realism of his style made him the idol of English-speaking poets and critics in the first half of the 20th century.

John Donne's most of poetry is unconventional in form and style because he uses many farfetched images in his poems. His language is very impressive, imaginative, full of wit, and passionate; especially 'The Flea' contains highly erotic allusions. One startling idea that it had lost some of its edge is the comparison of a human to an island. Here again, John Donne puts heterogeneous ideas together, but he interconnects human experience with that. He uses geographical metaphors when he writes:

No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.

Donne remains what Ben Jonson judged him: “the first poet in the world in some things.”

Donne uses conceits and extended metaphors, to yoke together, heterogeneous ideas in the world of Johnson. He generated strong and powerful ambiguity for which Donne is famous. Donne's work is highly appreciated in literature, full of witty, putting paradoxes, uses puns, and remarkable analogies. His pieces are sometimes humorous and cynical regarding human motives. The common subject of his poetry is religion, love, philosophy, and death.

 After a resurgence in his popularity in the early 20th century, Donne’s standing as a great English poet, and one of the greatest writers of English prose is now assured.