Why has Donnes poetry been described as Metaphysical?
… poets but the problem is that there is not such a line of descent as this statement would suggest. There are connections between poets, who are classed as ‘Metaphysical’, like Dunne, Cowley, Hubert and Marvell, but only here and there; for example in The Definition of Love Marvell writes in a Donneish vein but that does not mean they have similar styles. The problem is that most of the poets who are classed as Metaphysicals are all highly individual and that is what they all have in common – but this is hardly a basis for defining what a Metaphysical is. “It would be going too far to say that the Metaphysicals are like a constellation, the appearance of their being a group depending upon point of view rather than real connections between them, but the connections between them are certainly tenuous”.1 Another problem about defining this literary category is …
