John Donnes Use of Wit Language and Metaphor in Poetry

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John Donnes Use of Wit Language and Metaphor in Poetry

As discussed on a previous short essay question, John Donne is considered to be one of the greatest metaphysical poets of our time, even though he published only a small number of poems in his lifetime. The poems he did write were metaphorical and often humorus poems telling the tale of religious love and sex. Being a metaphysical poet he exhibited many characteristics of the metaphysical poets. He wrote with metaphysical wit, metaphysical conceit, metaphors, symbols and paradoxes. If these were some of the things that defined a metaphysical poet, then John Donne is a good example of one. I will use three of his poems, "Holy Sonnet 14", "The Flea", and "Song" to show how Donne uses these aspects in his writing.

Metaphysical conceit is a comparison between two things that is so far out in left field and so abstract that no one would ever think of using it. But John Donne isn't no one, and he used metaphysical conceit in many of his poems. In "Holy Sonnet 14" Donne is talking to god and asking for forgiveness for...

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