Metaphysical Poetry

characteristics: brief and concentrated in its meaning, centered around dramatic situations, usually has conceits

major themes: love, man's relationship with God, & human frailty

styles: more realistic than renaissance poetry, focuses on deep philosophical issues

lit. devices: wit, irony, paradox, conceits

authors: John Donne, George Herbert, Andrew Marvell, Henry Vaughan, George Chapman, Thomas Traherne, & Robert Southwell



WOMAN'S CONSTANCY.
by John Donne


NOW thou hast loved me one whole day,
To-morrow when thou leavest, what wilt thou say ?
Wilt thou then antedate some new-made vow ?
Or say that now
We are not just those persons which we were ?
Or that oaths made in reverential fear
Of Love, and his wrath, any may forswear ?
Or, as true deaths true marriages untie,
So lovers' contracts, images of those,
Bind but till sleep, death's image, them unloose ?
Or, your own end to justify,
For having purposed change and falsehood, you
Can have no way but falsehood to be true ?
Vain lunatic, against these 'scapes I could
Dispute, and conquer, if I would ;
Which I abstain to do,
For by to-morrow I may think so too.