Metaphysical Poetry was a movement of British poets including John Donne in the 1600s. The term metaphysical was not coined until later, and there was never any actual group of poets that identified themselves in such a manner. The main components of metaphysical poetry include the use of metaphors, paradoxes, and subtle complexities of the English language. Metaphysical poetry was more concerned with the analyzing of a feeling rather than the description of such. Its sexual innuendos and dark themes caused it to be surrounded by much controversy in its day. (1)

Metaphysical poems are not only known as controversial, but lyrical as well. The author usually uses a play on words, or a witty comparison to hint at a deeper meaning. There is sometimes irony in these poems, and it is very rare that an author of these poems will be striaghtforward about getting a point across. The author will compile all of these comparisons and ironies into a flowing poem that forces a reader to search for the meaning. Aside from the actual rhyming structure of the poem, the poem is built off of a central argument or arguments. Many times, there are reflections on love or God. (2)

Metaphysical poems have a strange or shocking metaphor where something ordinary is compared to the unordinary. For example John Donne compares the relationship of two lovers to the legs of a compass in "A Valediction Forbidding Mourning." Also in Holy Sonnet 14 he compares God to a violent intruder. (3)

Famour Metaphysical Poets of the 17th century:
John Donne
George Herbert
Henry Vaughan
Edward Herbert
Thomas Carew
RIchard Crashaw
Andrew Marvell
Richard Lovelace
Sir John Suckling
(4)


(1) http://www.answers.com/topic/metaphysical-poetry
(2) http://www.universalteacher.org.uk/poetry/metaphys.htm#8
(3)http://spider.georgetowncollege.edu/english/allen/donne2.htm
(4)http://www.luminarium.org/sevenlit/metaphysical.htm