Metaphysical Conceit?

The metaphysical conceit is characteristic of seventeenth-century writers influenced by John Donne, and became popular again in this century after the revival of the metaphysical poets. This type of conceit draws upon a wide range of knowledge, from the commonplace to the esoteric, and its comparisons are elaborately rationalized.

For instance, Donne’s “The Flea” (1633), partially quoted above, compares a flea bite to the act of love; and in “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning” (1633) separated lovers are likened to the legs of a compass, the leg drawing the circle eventually returning home to “the fixed foot.”

In five words or less:

“Comparing concepts obscurely.”

SONG. by John Donne Go and catch a falling star, Get with child a mandrake root, Tell me where all past years are, Or who cleft the devil’s foot, Teach me to hear mermaids singing, Or to keep off envy’s stinging, And find What wind Serves to advance an honest mind. If you be born to strange sights, Things invisible to see, Ride ten thousand days and nights, Till age snow white hairs on thee, Thou, when thou return, wilt tell me, All strange wonders that befell thee, And swear, No where Lives a woman true and fair. If thou find one, let me know, Such a pilgrimage were sweet; Yet do not, I would not go, Though at next door we might meet, Though she were true, when you met her, And last, till you write your letter, Yet she Will be False, ere I come, to two, or three. Donne is saying that no matter how far you travel and whatever you see or hear women will be false – this is a harsh statement at the end of an extended metaphor (conceit) but Donne could have written this tongue in cheek. But then perhaps he was a misogynist. Whatever, it’s a great poem.