Metaphysical conceits are metaphors that have a purely conceptual relationship between the things being compared. They are typically associated with the Metaphysical poets of the 17th century. A famous conceit in metaphysical poetry is of the compass which is used by Donne in "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning." This is a successful metaphysical conceit because it gives the reader a perception of a real but unsuspected similarity. He wrote "If they be tow, they are two so / As stiff twin compasses are; / They soul the fixed foot, makes no show / To move, but doth, if the' other do" (lines 25-28). The compass symbolizes the relationship between lovers. It is used to portray that lovers remained linked while apart and across long-distances.
In lines 25-28 of "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning" the speaker compares his soul and his lover's soul to a "twin compass"--for those who aren't sure what a twin compass is, it is a compass which has two legs, one that remains stationary and on that moves. The speaker is the moving foot and his lover is the stationary one. This shows that he is leaving so she will be staying put while he travels. The speaker explains that although he is leaving they will move together as the hinged levels of a compass move and remain connected. As a compass is connected at a hinge, the speaker's lover will complement his every move. Since even the slightest movement of one compass foot causes the other left to follow, their relationship, as "gold to airy thinness beat" (line 24), will undergo not "a breach, but an expansion" (line 23) because of the ability to remain connected though apart.
Through Donne's use of metaphysical conceit and other metaphors throughout his poem the reader is able to understand the message Donne is trying to convey. Throughout the poem Donne uses metaphors to elaborate and compare. For example, in the first stanza, he compares his separation from his wife to the separation of a man's soul from his body when he dies. While Donne and his wife are apart, since they cannot express physical love, they are like the body of a dead man. Through his metaphor of the compass, the reader can conclude that although Donne and his wife are separate by distance, like the legs of a compass, they remain united because they are part of the same soul.
The brilliance of Donne's conceits is that, through extended metaphor, they allow us to see the world and our experiences of it and in it in a new light. We think mainly through association so associating something with which we are familiar with something new, gives us a new perspective. This perspective hunting is the main job of any poet. Donne just does it extremely well.
ReplyDeleteIts great how you analyzed Donne's symbol so thoroughly and accurately. By doing this, I really got to see how Donne continued with this conceit throughout his poem. I somehow now have the impression that a metaphysical conceit, although a symbol, is much more thoroughly written about by an author.
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