Poetry is ne’er divorced from the contexts within which the poet himself is needfully portion of. This is to state that poesy is a merchandise of the poets’ political. economic. historical. cultural and rational contexts. Such being the instance. one may state that it is through the aforesaid contexts that poesy captures the spirit of the times. The first half of the seventeenth Century witnessed both the flourishing of the English poetic tradition and scientific discipline. Such booming nevertheless. did non come easy for the tenseness bing between different models ; metaphysical and scientific.
This essay seeks to explain Ben Jonson and John Donne’s similarities and differences and how they shaped the English poetic tradition as manifested in the plants of their replacements. Ben Jonson is considered as the earliest theoretician and practician of neoclassicism. Such an project is made possible by Jonson’s effort to blend together classical subjects like civility and public morality within the kingdom of critical pragmatism which to a great extent characterized post-Medieval idea.
This is to state that the value of Jonson’s work lies in its capacity to integrate the traditions of the yesteryear with the quickly changing universe and the differing worldviews that emerged in the success of the scientific endeavor. Jonson’s neoclassicism makes itself manifest in his pursuit of the classical rule of the ethical and didactic map of poesy. In Jonson’s quip called To My Mere English Censurer. he writes: “To thee my manner in epigrams seems new/ When both it is the old manner and the new…/Prithee believe still. and non judge so fast ; /Thy religion is all the cognition that 1000 hast” .
The foregoing transition strengthens the claim that Jonson pursues the classical rule of the ethical and didactic map of poesy. Jonson’s accent on civility and public morality may be seen as an effort on his portion to salvage that which is good and valuable in itself in the yesteryear which. as he reckons. should be assimilated into the present. On the other manus. John Donne seems to be more interested in the person instead than the populace. Metaphysical poesy. as it figures in Donne’s plants are more ‘personal. more private.
As one may hold observed in the development of Donne’s poesy. he is more concerned with the person and the philosophical inquiries which preoccupy the person as he finds himself shattered. torn between the apparently fall ining appreciation of Medieval idea and the apparently promising hereafter of scientific believing. Such philosophical inquiries may change among persons but in the instance of Donne. his concern seems to be the internal struggles within an person in his effort to understand his relation to other human existences and more significantly. his relation to the Divine.
That Donne is torn between Medieval thought and scientific thought makes itself manifest when he writes in the Holy Sonnets ( 1-4 ) : “Batter my bosom. three person’d God ; for. you/As yet but knocke. breathe. radiance and seek to repair ; /That I may lift. and stand. o’erthrow mee. ’ and bend/Your force. to breake. blowe. burn and do me new. ” Although Jonson and Donne differs significantly on the focal point of their poesy. which are. the populace or the single. horse or metaphysical. both poets’ manner and implicit in theoretical committednesss influenced the Cavalier of poets ; their replacements.
Naturally plenty. much of the influences of the Cavalier poets are derived from the maestro himself. that is. Jonson instead than Donne. In a existent sense. the cavalier poets’ lyrist orientation in footings of their reconditeness is simpler than that of the Metaphysicals like Donne. Consider Robert Herrick’s To the Virgins. to Make Much of Time ( 1648 ) . He writes: “Gather ye rosebuds while ye may. /Old clip is still a-flying ; /And this same flower that smiles today. /Tomorrow will be deceasing. There is. nevertheless. a certain merger of both traditions ( that is. the Cavalier and the Metaphysical ) in the verse forms of other Cavalier poets ; exhibiting the features of both.
In To Althea. From Prison. Richard Lovelace. a outstanding chevalier poet writes: “Stone walls do non a prison brand. /Nor Fe bars a coop ; …/If I have freedom in my love. and in my psyche am free. /Angels entirely that surge above/Enjoy such autonomy. Although Lovelace’s opening lines talk about the usual object of fondness of the cavalier poets. the quoted transition near the terminal of the verse form ( that is. ‘stone walls do non a prison make’ ) presents a sort of reconditeness which. for the most portion. characterizes metaphysical poesy. In the concluding analysis. although there are certain differences in the poesy of Ben Jonson and John Donne as they represent two different poetic traditions. it is plausible to keep that both poets. in their ain right. opened new tracts for the flourishing of the English poetic tradition.
