English Notes

He was an English poet, teacher, High Church Anglican cleric and Roman Catholic convert, who was one of the major metaphysical poets in 17 th -century English literature. He was the son of a famous Anglican divine with Puritan beliefs, William Crashaw , who earned a reputation as a hard-hitting pamphleteer and polemicist against Catholicism. After his father’s death, Crashaw was educated at Charterhouse School and Pembroke College, Cambridge. After taking a degree, Crashaw taught as a fellow at Peterhouse, Cambridge and began to publish religious poetry that expressed a distinct mystical nature and an ardent Christian faith. He was ordained as a clergyman in the Church of England and in his theology and practice embraced the High Church reforms of Archbishop Laud. Crashaw became infamous among English Puritans for his use of Christian art to decorate his church, for his devotion to the Virgin Mary, for his use of Catholic vestments, and for many other reasons. During these years,...

The metaphysical poetry is an essential genre of poetry that is significant for its open challenging style, the deep philosophical and spiritual exploration, vivid imagery and influence on English poetry by metaphysical posts. It is really very important continuation to be recognized and valued by literary scholars and poetry enthusiasts today. At beginning , I have introduced the metaphysical Poetry and then, I have mentioned the unique style of writing about love understanding by John Donne. He wants to convey his readers that if you want love in true sense or heartfelt gratitude in your journey then you must go inside the bottom of the Utopian world or in the world of images. He has used his best technique to explore new comparative love understanding by seeking of images in his best poem like “The Sun Rising ”, Love and “ The Dream” . As far as I concern, I would like to mention the unique style of exploration of deep spritual bounding by George Herbert. Actually, Herbert is ver...

To His Coy Mistress is a metaphysical poem written by the English author and politician Andrew Marvell (1621–1678) either during or just before the English Interregnum. It was published posthumously in 1681. His many beautiful poems published posthumously but this one has his best known poem because he has used in this the great figurative language to the love. The highest height of figurative love used by him to make sure the sense of metaphysical love. He made his readers very ease of love understanding by his different definition of love song. In this poem, as a regular reader also found the centre of gravity, the centre of excellence, the centre of strength, the centre of joy, the centre of bitterness and the centre of sweetness. Actually, very ease to say that this poem is not only a symbolic image of love but also a deepest shadow of his young emotions. This poem is considered one of the finest and is possibly the best recognised carpe diem poem in English. Although, the da...

Andrew Marvell's birth on 31st of March 1621 and his death on 16th of August 1678. He was an English metaphysical poet, satirist and politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1659 and 1678. During the Commonwealth period he was a colleague and friend of John Milton . His poems range from the love-song “To His Coy Mistress” , to evocations of an aristocratic country house and garden in “Upon Appleton House” and “The Garden”, the political address “An Horatian Ode upon Cromwell’s Return from Ireland” , and the later personal and political satires “Flecknoe” and “The Character of Holland” . Andrew Marvell was born in  Winestead, East Riding of Yorkshire  on 31 March 1621. He was the son of a  Church of England  clergyman also named Andrew Marvell. The family moved to Hull when his father was appointed Lecturer at Holy Trinity Church, and Marvell was educated at  Hull Grammar School. Aged 13, Marvell attended T...

The Retreat is one of Henry Vaughan’s best-known metaphysical poems. This poem explores how the poet is derailed from purity as a grown-up man and his longing for returning to the blissful state of everlastingness. The Retreat glorifies the stage of infancy as the purest state of a man’s life. Before beginning a reader should take note of the use of the word “retreat” in the title. Through Vaughan’s selection of this metaphysical conceit, it takes on two different meanings. The first, that of hiding or getting away from one’s life, and the other as a reference to a place of happiness. He is seeking out both a return to the past and a retreat to a happier time. The two coincide with the speaker in this poem.   Happy those early days! When I Shined in my angel infancy.   Before I understood this place Appointed for my second race,   Or taught my soul to fancy aught But a white, celestial thought;   When yet I had not walked above A mile or two...

“The Altar” is an example of a shape poem, a poem whose lines are arranged in the shape of their subject matter. The lines of “The Altar” are shaped like an altar. Pretty cool, huh? This kind of verse is also sometimes called visual poetry. Let me stop now and clarify that visual poetry (the good kind, anyway) is not made simply by randomly chopping up lines anywhere so that they can be put into a certain shape. Not at all. The skill required to make a shape poem will be heard by the ear when reading it, not merely seen on the page. To see (or rather hear) what I mean, for those listening to the audio, listen as I read it now. You can hear the lengthening, shortening, lengthening lines pile up on one another and into a tall structure with a broad face and equally broad base--held together by a slender, sturdy post. Both effect is achieved by the varying number of poetic feet in each couplet. The rhythm for each line is iambic, but the meter changes throughout. The couplets follow this ...

इस भव्य आभार के लिए आपका बहुत-बहुत धन्यवाद। अकादमिक रिकॉर्ड के इस सम्मेलन में मेरी निरंतरता और ईमानदारी के लिए आपने मुझे यह बहुमूल्य उपहार दिया है। इस सम्मान के लिए मैं एक बार फिर अपने पूरे दिल से आपको और आपके इस संस्था के सभी सदस्यों को धन्यवाद देता हूँ। यह मेरे लिए वास्तव में अमूल्य है... उपहार के रूप में दिए गए किसी भी सम्मान की कोई कीमत नहीं होती। आपका यह साकारात्मक पहल शिक्षक और शिक्षा के क्षेत्र में एक प्रसंशनीय प्रयास है।

‘The Flower’ by George Herbert describes how the changing of the seasons impacts a speaker’s outlook on life and relationship with God. The poem begins with the speaker celebrating the arrival of spring. This is something, he relishes every year as it brings about a great mental and emotional transformation during present starta. During the winter months, like a flower, he is shriveled up in the ground finding comfort where he can. When spring comes, life improving and God’s opinion of the world improves, he grows up towards heaven. This is his most important goal in life, to prove himself to God. The speaker imagines what it will be like in heaven and knows that he would do anything to get there. He doesn’t imagine there could be anyone of the planet feeling any differently than he. He did so what he wanted in his life to prove himself as a super thought. 

It’ is a poem written by English metaphysical poet John Donne . It is published in 1633, the poem is viewed as exemplifying Donne’s wit and ironical approach. It is addressed to one friend from another, but concerns itself with the complexities of romantic love: the speaker presents love as so all-consuming that lovers forgo other pursuits to spend time together. In this sense, love is asceticism, a major conceit in the poem. The poem’s title serves a dual purpose: while the speaker argues that his love will canonise him into a kind of sainthood, the poem itself functions as a canonisation of the pair of lovers. New Critic Cleanth Brooks used the poem, along with Alexander Pope’s “An Essay on Man ” and William Wordsworth’s “ Composed upon Westminster Bridge , September 3, 1802”, to illustrate his argument for paradox as central theme to poetry. The Holy Sonnets also known as the Divine Meditations or Divine Sonnets are a series of nineteen poems by the English poet John Donne (...

It’ is an erotic metaphysical poem ( posthumously in 1633) by John Donne (1572–1631). The exact date of its composition is unknown ; but it is probable that Donne wrote this poem in the 1590s when he was a young law student at Lincoln’s Inn, before he became a respected religious figure as Dean of St Paul’s Cathedral . The poem uses the conceit of a flea, which has sucked blood from the male speaker and his female lover, to serve as an extended metaphor for the relationship between them. The speaker tries to convince a lady to sleep with him, arguing that if their blood mingling in the flea is innocent, then sexual mingling would also be innocent. His argument hinges on the belief that bodily fluids mix during sexual intercourse. According to Laurence Perrine, this poem, along with many other of Donne’s poems, solidifies his place in the literary movement, creating what is now known as metaphysical poetry. Although the term was not found until after his death, it is still wide...

Metaphysical Poetry is a style of poetry that has used complex figurative languages, paradoxes and philosophical approach. It has been originated in the 17th century in England having such features as intellectuality, sharp images, complications of spirit or religion. The poetry is rich in complexity or a combination of two dissimilar images. Imaginative figures had been taken from different fields of knowledge as History, Geography, Astronomy, Alchemy, Mathematics, etc. John Dryden was the first to use the term “Metaphysic” in his criticism. Samuel Johnson widely extended it to a group of poets. In “The Lives of The Poet”, Johnson stated that “about the beginning of the 17th century appeared a race of writers that may be termed the metaphysical poets”. Both John Dryden and Samuel Johnson had been used the term “Metaphysical” in a negative sense to criticize the poets. After that the term widely used by John Donne, Andrew Marvel, Henry Vaughan, George Herbert and Richard Crashaw. ...

Sweetest Love I Do Not Goe" is a metaphysical poem written by John Donne and published posthumously in 1633 in Songs and Sonnets. After boaring in life, It was written to comfort his wife Anne More, before leaving her on a journey. There are some important points to understand well in this love poem:-  Reason for Leaving his wife:- The speaker clarifies that he is not leaving because he is tired of her, nor is he looking for a better love anywhere. Instead, he views his temporary departure as a "feigned death" (a practice run) to prepare them for the ultimate or an unavoidable separation of actual death. Separation is also a type of spiritual death between wife and husband.  The Sun used as Metaphor in the stanzas:- He compares his journey to the daily cycle of the sun. Just as the sun sets every evening and rises again the next day, he promises to return. He adds that he would return even faster than the sun because he possesses human reason, desire, and the emotional ...