Dr. Johnson’s Account of Metaphysical Poetry in Life of Cowley

Metaphysical poetry is unified by a philosophical conception of the universe and of the role assigned to the human spirit in the great drama of existence. This type of poetry was known for bold and ingenious conceits, subtle thought and frequent use of paradox as well as the directness of language.

Dr. Johnson has followed Spat for guidance but he does not fail to give his own ideas and opinions. He has compared two great poets of dissimilar genius, Milton and Cowley. He has shown that Cowley and Milton may be compared but he advantage seems to lie on the side of Cowley. Milton expresses the thoughts of ancients in their language, but Cowley, without much loss of purity and elegance, accommodates the diction of Rome to his own conception.

The metaphysical poets usually wrote love poems and religious poems. Donne, Marvell, Cowley and Vaughn wrote both these types of poems. According to Dr. Johnson, the love poems of the metaphysical have a different character and philosophy. Cowley added more perplexities to love. With the passage of time love also changes its character. Earlier ‘Flesh’ was an important theme in love, but with the age it changes in and that can be perceived in him now. Everything is inconstant. Incest is now a taboo and now attraction of flesh withers away. Dr. Johnson emphasizes that the tears of lovers are of great poetical accounts and it is difficult to be properly comprehended. The readers may read it again and again to find its proper meaning.

Dr. Johnson finds in Donne’s love poems two souls are combined and mixed and the two become one. Cowley describes his mistress- bathing wonderful. According to Dr. Johnson, Cowley may be considered to be the best of metaphysical poets and he had a great variety of style and sentiment. It ranges from levity to grandeur.

The metaphysical poets used the conceits to serve their purpose. Wit is an important feature of metaphysical poetry. Metaphysical poetry has more music and much sentiment. Ordinary readers were not acquainted with this kind of style and use of conceits.

We may conclude with the features of Johnson’s writing that Cowley was a greater poet than Donne and his style of writing was really remarkable. Cowley is a wonderful poet to no doubt but it is not fair to comment that in adopting the metaphysical style Cowley surpassed his predecessors.