Lauren Kennedy
Andrew Wadoski
English 4120
12 November 2015
“Do Muttering Thoughts Rise and Repine” Form and Style Analysis
The poems copied down by Elizabeth Newell have recently been viewed as a component of four 17th century poets that together are called Metaphysical Poets. The Metaphysical Poets used various techniques that connected all of their different poems into one group. Some of these techniques included the Metaphysical conceit, rhyming couplets, and religious imagery. In order to understand why the poems transcribed by Elizabeth Newell could also be included as Metaphysical Poetry I will conduct an analysis of the poem “Do Muttering Thoughts Rise and Repine” using the techniques of conceit, rhyming couplets, and religious imagery compared to the contemporaries of the Metaphysical.
The Conceit is one of the defining characteristics of Metaphysical Poetry which involves odd metaphors that may analog the entire poem. The device of the conceit is used often by Metaphysical Poet, John Donne in order to convey an idea in his poetry that causes the reader to pay attention. When TS Eliot lectured on the conceit he wrote: “In Donne, the interest is dispersed, it may be, the ingenuity of conveying the idea by that image; or the image may be more difficult than the idea; or the interest may lie in the compulsion, rather than in the discovery of resemblances”1 .
For Eliot, Donne’s conceit is not just about the resemblance of the metaphor to the idea that it is being compared to but in the way that metaphor is presented within the poem. An example of the conceit in John Donne’s poems, as Eliot described it, can be found in the poem “A Validation: Forbidden Mourning”: “As stiffe twin compasses are two, / Thy soule the fixt foot, makes no show/ To move, but doth, if th’ other doe”2 .
In these lines Donne compares two lovers and their connection to one another as a compass that moves around with one needle following the other. The image of a compass as two bodies, while odd, conveys his message about the pair being combined by their love. “Do Muttering Thoughts Rise and Repine” also has a conceit similar to Donne’s in “A Validation: Forbidden Mourning”. These are: “Thy words infold/ A mine of gold/ A pearl of price; all richer stone?” (“Do Muttering Thoughts Rise and Repine”, lines 17-20). In these lines the conceit comes from the comparison between the richness and fulfilling nature of the words written by God. While the idea of God’s word being more valuable than any riches in the world is not unusual, directly comparing God’s word which is full of spirituality and comfort, to mines of gold or a pearl, which is an earthly item, that while rare, is not going to last forever. The poem uses the plentiful uses people have for valuables, and the rarity of some of them, to the Holy word of God which transcends all earthly pleasures and can save many souls.
Another aspect of Metaphysical poetry is the use of many different poetic styles and how these styles are used to express various feelings or points to the reader. One of the forms used by the Metaphysical Poets, although not exclusively by them, is the rhyming couplet. The usage of the rhyming couplet came about due to a reaction toward the popular fourteen line Petrarchan poetry that was popular during the Seventeenth Century. Rhyming couplets, unlike a fourteen line sonnet, gave poets shorter lines and because of this, poems could be written to convey different themes in their poetry apart from the typical love poems Petrarchan sonnets were known for. Richard Willmott wrote on the various ways the Metaphysical poets would use rhyming couplets in their poetry. He wrote: “Rhyming couplets were used as an equivalent to Latin elegiac couplets, not only in love elegies, but also as a suitably dignified form for elegies for the dead (…). They also provided a convenient form for some of Donne’s verse letters and were used in a variety of ways in satire”3 .
The uses that the Metaphysical poets had for rhyming couplets, from elegies, to satire, or in the case of “Do Muttering Thoughts Rise and Repine”, devotional poetry. An iconic use of devotional rhyming couplets is George Herbert’s “The Altar”4 . Using rhyming couplets as opposed to a fourteen line sonnet, Herbert formed his famous devotional poem to actual take the form of an altar one would see in a church, achieving the desired effect the poem wanted readers to have. While “Do Muttering Thoughts Rise and Repine” does not use the couplet form to create a literal image like Herbert, the rhyming couplets give the poem a simplistic feeling. The last stanza of the poem provide a final rhyming couplet: “Adore the author too and when/Thou canst not raise/Sufficient praise/Sit down and wondering say, Amen” (“Do Muttering Thoughts Rise and Repine, lines 142-45). In these last five lines, and throughout the whole poem, the couplets create an easy to read tone that makes the poem sound sing-song like. The sing-song quality of the poem gives the poem short lines that create a relaxed and comforting tone that reflects the wandering and praising nature of the devotional poem. While the couplet form assists “Do Muttering Thoughts Rise and Repine in having a devotional tone, it is not the last aspect of Metaphysical secular poetry in the poem.
Devotional poetry makes up a great deal of the Metaphysical poetry. Devotional poetry and, particularly religious imagery, is prevalent in the works of George Herbert and Richard Crashaw. Poems such as “Do Muttering Thoughts Rise and Repine” and the rest of the poems Elizabeth Newell transcribed continue the metaphysical focus on religious imagery and devotional poetry to God. While both Richard Crashaw and George Herbert’s poems contain a plethora of religious imagery, Crashaw’s imagery is more focused on the body and eroticism. Herbert, and the poems that Newell transcribed, on the other hand are more humble in their usage of religious images and metaphors.
The poem “Do Muttering Thoughts Rise and Repine” being the religious images from the first two stanzas: “Do muttering thoughts rise and repine/why/thy rod and word/teach patience Lord” (“Do Muttering Thoughts Rise and Repine, lines 1-3). “And still those barking thoughts of mine/Am I tongue ty’d and cannot pray/Thy word inspires/Praying desires” (“Do Muttering Thoughts Rise and Repine, lines 4-7). “Dumb lips unseals; tells what to say/When I in darkness erre and stray/thy word’s a light/most clear and bright/And leads me back into my way” (“Do Muttering Thoughts Rise and Repine, lines ). These first two stanzas set up the theme of the whole poem, which is how the word of God comforts the poet when his or her thoughts wander away from God. The separation between humans and God is a theme of devotional poetry that both Herbert and John Donne use frequently in their religious poetry. The imagery of the word of God being all a person requires to return to the Lord is an idea that is explored by Donne in his secular poetry and in his sermons as well. While the feeling of helplessness and a guiding light that only a loving God can provide, is seen within George Herbert’s poetry collection. All three of these poets also frequently reference passages or words in the Bible, an example of this in “Do Muttering Thoughts Rise and Repine” is the reference to the word of God being a light to guide people from the New Testament and the rod and staff as a source of love and comfort from the Old Testament. The intertwining of religious imagery and references is an essential part of the Metaphysical secular poetry that is a final element in placing Elizabeth Newell’s transcribed poetry, along with rhyming couplets as opposed to sonnets, and the conceit in correspondence to John Donne, George Herbert, Richard Crashaw, and Andrew Marvell.
Footnotes
1 Eliot, T.S., and Ronald Schuchard,. The Varieties of Metaphysical Poetry: The Clark Lectures at Trinity College, Cambridge, 1926, and the Turnbull Lectures at the Johns Hopkins University, 1933. New York: Harcourt Brace, 1994. 265. Print.. Back to text.
2Donne,John. “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning”. Complete Poetry and Selected Prose;. New York: Modern Library, 1952. Lines (26-28). 38. Print. . Back to text.
3Willmott, Richard. Metaphysical Poetry. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2002. 43. Print.. Back to text.
4 Herbert, George, J. J. M. Tobin. “The Altar”. The Complete English Poems. New York City: Penguin Classics, 1991. 23. Print. . Back to text.
Bibliography
Eliot, T. S., and Ronald Schuchard. The Varieties of Metaphysical Poetry: The Clark Lectures at Trinity College, Cambridge, 1926, and the Turnbull Lectures at the Johns Hopkins University, 1933. New York: Harcourt Brace, 1994. Print.
Dime, Gregory T. “The Difference between “Strong Lines” and “Metaphysical Poetry”” Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900 (1986): 47. Jstor.org. Studies in English Literature. Web. 15 Oct. 2015.
Donne, John. “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning.” Complete Poetry and Selected Prose;. New York: Modern Library, 1952. Print.
Duncan, Joseph E. “The Revival of Metaphysical Poetry, 1872-1912.”PMLA 68.4 (1953): 658. Jstor.org. University of Minnesota Press. Web. 15 Oct. 2015.
Herbert, George, and J. J. M. Tobin. “The Altar.” The Complete English Poems. New York City: Penguin Classics, 1991. Print.
Tuve, Rosemond. Elizabethan and Metaphysical Imagery; Renaissance Poetic and Twentieth-century Critics,. Chicago, Ill.: U of Chicago, 1947. Print.
Willmott, Richard. Metaphysical Poetry. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2002. Print.