The Unification Of Sense And Sensibility

The Metaphysical Poets refer to the group of the 17th century poets who reacted against the decorative and flowery quality in Elizabethan times. As the forerunner of this school, John Donne greatly changed the traditional and decorative poetic style and opened up a new way for poetry writing. His originality lies in both mysticism of content and fantasticality of form. T.S. Eliot called this unification of sense and sensibility the"unified sensibility".Inspired by Eliot's appraisal of Donne, my present paper tries to explore how Donne's poetry achieves the"unified sensibility"in terms of both content and form.This paper firstly presents the term"Metaphysical poets", pointing out it is a disputed school in English literary history. A brief review of metaphysical school criticism at home and abroad reveals that the study in China still remains a neglected area. I attempt to explore it from a new perspective, that is, by centering around its main feature—"unified sensibility", I intend to demonstrate how John Donne combines both content and form of his poetry perfectly.Through comparing the attitudes of critics towards Donne, the first chapter traces the reason for the rise and fall of Donne's reputation. The word"metaphysical"was initiated by John Dryden and Samuel Johnson to describe Donne and his followers in a derogatory sense. But in the 20th century, T.S. Eliot reinterprets this term in an appreciating way, and it has become a synonym of"unified sensibility"ever since.By analyzing his notions of love, religion and cosmology respectively, the second chapter is devoted to the study of how"unified sensibility"is embodied in Donne's thematic pursuit. In his poetry, he depicts love in an objective and analytical way, and points out that true love is the fusion of both spiritual and physical affiliation. His unconventional understanding of the relationship between original sin and salvation, death and resurrection reflects his maturation in religious relief. Living in the New Science age, Donne fuses the new and old sciences together, which injects rationality and convincement into his emotion, and helps to convey his complicated thought.The third chapter uncovers how Donne adopts obscure yet original and witty form to serve his peculiar ideas. By using seemingly incompatible conceit, contradictory but persuasive paradox, and loose yet energetic colloquialism, Donne manages to express his feeling in an indirect, analytical way. For Donne, they are, rather than mere devices, appropriate and organic parts of his poetry, without which his poetry would be incomplete and handicapped.In sum, the unification of sense and sensibility is an insightful assessment of Donne's poetry. His poetic innovation has triggered off changes of modern English poetry thematically and formally. Close reading of Donne's poetry can render us a profound and comprehensive understanding of the 17th century English poetry and its links to modern English poetry.