Metaphysical Aspects of John Donne’s Poetry

Abstract

John Donne stands as the central figure of Metaphysical poetry, a tradition marked by intellectual rigor, emotional intensity, and philosophical depth. This research article examines the metaphysical aspects of John Donne’s poetry, focusing on his treatment of love, religion, death, body–soul dualism, and epistemological inquiry. Donne’s poetry is characterized by the use of conceits, paradoxes, wit, and argumentative structures that merge abstract thought with lived human experience. The study explores how Donne synthesizes Renaissance humanism, medieval scholasticism, and emerging scientific thought to construct a poetic universe that challenges conventional binaries such as sacred and profane, body and soul, reason and faith.

Using qualitative textual analysis as the primary research method, this study analyzes selected poems including The Canonization, A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning, The Flea, Holy Sonnets, and Death Be Not Proud. Secondary data from critical works by T. S. Eliot, Helen Gardner, John Carey, and Achsah Guibbory are employed to contextualize Donne’s metaphysical concerns within broader literary and philosophical traditions. The research also includes thematic categorization, frequency analysis, and comparative tables to demonstrate the recurrence and distribution of metaphysical themes across Donne’s secular and religious poetry.

The findings reveal that Donne’s metaphysical vision is unified by a persistent quest for truth, whether through erotic love or divine communion. His poetry dramatizes intellectual struggle rather than offering doctrinal certainty, making his work strikingly modern. The study concludes that Donne’s metaphysical poetry represents not a rejection of emotion in favor of intellect, but a fusion of both, redefining poetic expression in early modern English literature.