Metaphysical poetry #1

• Engels
• Middelbare school
• vwo
• Leerjaar 4

Conceit

A conceit is a metaphor. 

Very often two unlikely things are compared

The metaphor is extended (= longer and more complex than usual)

Quite often it contains a scientific element

Example: the souls of two lovers are compared to the legs of compasses

Conceit

The Good Morrow - stanza 1

I wonder, by my troth, what thou and I

Did, till we loved? Were we not weaned till then?

But sucked on country pleasures, childishly?

Or snorted we in the Seven Sleepers’ den?

’Twas so; but this, all pleasures fancies be.

If ever any beauty I did see,

Which I desired, and got, ’twas but a dream of thee.

a child is weaned when it no longer breastfeeds

The Seven Sleepers slept in a cave for 300 years 

What did we (or I) do till we
loved one another?

The Good Morrow - stanza 2

And now good-morrow to our waking souls,

Which watch not one another out of fear;

For love, all love of other sights controls,

And makes one little room an everywhere.

Let sea-discoverers to new worlds have gone,

Let maps to other, worlds on worlds have shown,

Let us possess one world, each hath one, and is one.

They don't fear. But what is it they don't fear?

(Hint: what do lovers sometimes fear?)

The 17th century was the time of the great explorations and discoveries

"And makes one little room an everywhere"

What is the little room? (no, not the toilet!)

Let sea-discoverers to new worlds have gone,

Let maps to other, worlds on worlds have shown,

Let us possess one world, each hath one, and is one.

What are the lovers compared to? (What is the conceit?)

The Good Morrow - stanza 3

My face in thine eye, thine in mine appears,

And true plain hearts do in the faces rest;

Where can we find two better hemispheres,

Without sharp north, without declining west?

Whatever dies, was not mixed equally;

If our two loves be one, or, thou and I

Love so alike, that none do slacken, none can die.

Hemisphere = 1/2 of the globe

Plato believed that things and people could go on for ever if their components were mixed perfectly

"Without sharp north, without declining west?"

Why is the north a bad place?

"My face in thine eye, thine in mine appears"

That's how close they are. What are the eyes compared to? (So: what is the conceit?)

"Without sharp north, without declining west?"

Why is the west a bad place?