The Study Of The Imaging Memory Of British Metaphysical Poetry

Up to now,the previous studies about Metaphysical poetry mainly focus on its subjects and techniques.About its subjects,the academy has found that it includes both secular and religious topics.And researches usually focus on the following aspects.It either studies the features of their topics.For example,John Donne’s work is both secular and sacred;Andrew Marvell’s work shows the topic of “Carpe Diem”;and there are very obvious religious meditative emotions in George Herbert and Richard Crashaw’s work.Some scholars also put their poetry in the 16 th and 17 th century historical and social context,holding that the society at that time alone makes the Metaphysical poetry both secular and religious.Still some scholars research the topic of “Memory” in Herbert’s poetry,but it only points out that Herbert’s poetry can arouse people’s memory and emotions about the religion in their lifetime.As to its techniques,the academy usually adheres to Samuel Johnson’s somewhat negative comment on “conceit” which the Metaphysical poets like to use.For example,Johnson says that the purpose of their writing is to show their learning and they are usually ungraceful in rhythm,et al.Some recent studies also discover that conceit actually contains pictorial image,so their techniques have visual characteristics.Although the academy researches the pictorial features of their techniques,their studies usually focus on the following aspects.They have discussed the features of conceit,emblem and shaped poetry.But they haven’t discovered that besides the three techniques,the Metaphysical poets also use metamorphosis.Besides,some scholars like to use “emblem” to address all the techniques which the Metaphysical poets use.This research tendency neglects the typical features of emblem so it seems too general.Actually,although the social history and human civilization progress forward,what develops is material wealth.On the vertical line,the form of human society,structure and even the essence of culture are usually very similar to each other at different times.From this perspective,is there any relationship between the Metaphysical poetry and the past cultures? If there is,what is their relationship? And why the Metaphysical poetry shows such features? Besides,the different techniques which the Metaphysical poets use all relate to pictures.So,what is the relationship between these pictorial techniques and memory? In addition,why do the Metaphysical poets who have different religious background use the same pictorial techniques?Based on the previous studies and these questions,this paper puts the subjects of the Metaphysical poetry against the background of the past cultures.And with some illustritions from the Memory Theory and Iconology,this paper holds that the ancient Greek hedonistic memory and the Middle Ages’ mystical religious memory make the Metaphysical poetry both secular and sacred.The reason is because cultural continuity,the poets’ contact with the past cultures and their personal experiences and character.Therefore,the Metaphysical poets construct the past memory in their poetry.In ancient Greek,there are religious theology and philosophy which encourage people to enjoy worldly pleasure and spiritual happiness.In the Metaphysical poetry,there are still descriptions about sexual and spiritual hedonism,such as Donne and Marvell’s work.In the Middle Ages,under the influence of the Christian mystical theology,there are mediation on Christ,holy marriage with Him and martyrdom.In Metaphysical poetry,there are still such descriptions,such as Herbert and Crashaw’s poetry.And the Metaphysical poets’ use of different pictorial techniques has direct and obvious relations with its memorial topic.The pictorial techniques serve it,because pictures are deeply related to memorial tradition and pictures are the best way to awaken and strengthen one’s memory.Therefore,the Metaphysical poetry,picture and memory are closely interrelated with each other.The Metaphysical poets’ use of these new pictorial techniques to write about memory has the poetic effect of awakening and strengthening people’s memory about the past cultures.Its purpose is to express the Metaphysical poets’ attention and lingering on the past when they are faced with social changes.It also shows that the Metaphysical poets are keeping a distance to the new society which they are living in.Thus,this paper illustrates the topic of the Metaphysical poetry’s relationship with the past memory,which hasn’t been discussed up to now.Besides Forward and Conclusion,this paper includes four chapters.Chapter One discusses the techniques that these Metaphysical poets employ to write about the pictorial memory,i.e.,conceit,emblem,metamorphosis and shaped poetry.Conceit is the demonstration of “Wit” in language,so it usually has paradoxical tension by finding similarities among dissimilar objects and combining them in unconventional ways.In poetry,the paradoxical tension of conceit is usually demonstrated in the following aspects.Some images are hyperbole and paradoxical;the form forms a contract with its content;or the poets use “anticlimax” techniques.The second technique emblem which has a picture shows very obvious pictorial elements.Therefore,its pictorial features can be found in the following two ways.First is the picture itself with the images,optical lines,colors and space,which will help readers to understand the poem to some extent.Second are the implicit pictorial elements inside the poem.The images,optical lines,colors and space provided by the poems can show the poets’ inside world in an analogical way.The third technique metamorphosis has baroque style.It either modifies the basic image from different ways or presents a poetic picture with impressionistic style.Thus it derives the Classical realistic principle and has modern impressionistic element.The last technique “shaped poetry” has the most obvious visual elements.By arranging the words into some shapes,the poem presents very obvious pictorial effect.Besides presenting a picture through its shape,the shaped poetry can also demonstrate pictorial style through its basic element,i.e.,its lines,because shaped poetry shows its shape through lines.Its length determines the size of the shape;its place determines the form,volume and sense of space.In some Metaphysical poems,we may find this pictorial element.These four above mentioned techniques are not confined to one poet to use and one poet does not only use one technique but to use them depending on each poem.Chapter Two discusses Metaphysical poetry’s writing of ancient Greek’s hedonistic memory.Metaphysical poetry’s writing of the worldly pleasure and its encouragement of “Carpe Diem” all shows that it constructs the ancient Greek’s hedonistic memory.Hedonism is popular in the ancient Greek,which is demonstrated in many aspects of their life,such as their religion,philosophy and life style.The ancient Greeks make gods and goddesses according to themselves.Therefore,these gods and goddesses are half-human and have manlike needs.Besides,the Cyrenaic School and the Epicurus School advocate “Hedonistic Philosophy”,which encourages man to cherish life and try to enjoy life.With such religious theology and philosophy,the ancient Greeks’ hedonistic life style is affirmed,praised and even glorified.So the ancient Greeks pursue hedonistic life.Such cultural memory is recovered in the 16 th and 17 th century through books,statues,et al.In other words,Renaissance awakens this memory and some Metaphysical poems,especially Donne and Marvell’s secular poems show retrospection towards it.This is because of their contact with the past culture and their personal experiences and characters.Therefore,it has found that before converting to the Anglican Church,Donne has written a few love poems,in which there are bold and affectionate descriptions about love and sex to encourage man to seize the day.And fond of the Middle Ages scholastic dialect,he likes to use conceit to demonstrate this memory.Another poet Marvell also tries to get images from astronomy,geography and science and to combine them in a transformative way to show the topic of his poems,which can be found in some of his famous poems.Chapter Three discusses Metaphysical poetry’s writing of the Middle Ages mystical religious memory.The Metaphycial poets are all religious poets.Although their religious beliefs are different,they are all pious to God.Therefore,strong religious feelings are an important sign of their poems and they show these poets are retrospective towards the Christian mystical culture which goes after the ancient Greek.Besides Scholasticism,another feature of the Middle Ages’ Christianity is religious Mysticism.Mysticism is both a physical and mental experience that some Christians seek to find the way to God and paradise.Mediation on God/Christ,holding holy marriage with Him and even to die for Him are some of the transcendental experiences that most Middle Ages’ Christians long for and search for.To achieve it,most of them make use of their bodies and even experience martyrdom.Such culture does not totally fade off in Renaissance and some Metaphysical poems,especially Herbert and Crashaw’s religious poems show retrospection towards it.This is also because of their contact with the past culture and their personal experiences and characters.Therefore,they construct this memory in their poetry.To be specific,they write poems with topics about mediation on God/Christ,holding holy marriage with Him and martyrdom.And as a poet who is very sensitive to word picture,Herbert mainly uses shaped poetry to show his religious memory.Another poet Crashaw,as a widely-recognized England Baroque poet,imbues the complex and luxurious Baroque images and style into his poems to make his work vividly picturesque.Crashaw mainly uses emblem technique to write about the Middle Ages mystical religious memory and at the same time to demonstrate his sensory Baroque meditative emotion,ecstatic emotion and devotional emotion.Chapter Four discusses the social background against which the Metaphysical pictorial techniques are born.First,the Stuart monarchy’s preference to visual arts greatly pushes forward the development of visual arts in England.And under their influence,some noble,rich men and some upstarts either competitively acquire visual arts works or generously sponsor some artists.Besides,the Metaphysical poetry’s picturesque techniques are influenced by the 17 th century Baroque movement.The special feature of the conceit mostly comes from the Baroque anagogical and paradoxical technique;the metamorphosis technique forms because of Baroque’s preference to massiveness and its scribbling of regiments and lumps;and the Baroque’s preference to color gives such influences to the Metaphysical poets that they like to use contrast colors to show their subjects.In addition,the Anglican Church holds acquiescent attitude towards visual arts.In the 16 th century,for stability,Elizabeth I employs modest measures to reform the English church.So she does not totally abolish the Roman Catholic elements.Therefore,although she adheres to the Iconoclastic Calvinism,the reformed English church does not interfere into people’s life outside the church,which means people are free to some extend to appreciate visual arts.Finally,these Metaphysical poets have contact with visual arts.In all,these factors combined together give reasons why these Metaphysical poets write the past memory in a pictorial way.The Conclusion points out that in the 17th century in which the Metaphysical poets are living,“the New Philosophy” has already changed the way people look at the world and has influenced people’s life a lot.Besides,the religious reform,the changes of the royal family and some disasters all together push forward the England’s society to develop as an early modern society.Faced with the complicated world,the Metaphysical poets construct memory in their poetry with these new and pictorially-characteristic techniques.These techniques which can “Foreground” their topics have the poetic effect of awakening and strengthening people’s memory about the past.And through awakening the past memory,the Metaphysical poets do not only express attention,remembrance and even search of the past,but also show a distance they have kept to so many social changes.