Jonson and Donne’s Influence on the Cavalier Poets: A Critical Analysis Essay

poem is never divorced from the contexts within which the poet himself is necessarily part of. This is to say that poesy is a product of the poets political, economic, historical, cultural and intellectual contexts. Such being the case, champion may say that it is through the aforementioned contexts that poetry captures the spirit of the times. The starting time half of the 17th Century witnessed twain the flourishing of the English poetic tradition and science. Such flourishing however, did not come easily for the latent hostility existing between different frame wees metaphysical and scientific.See frequently how to import a critical analysis outlineThis essay explores to explicate Ben Jonson and hindquarters Donnes similarities and differences and how they shaped the English poetic tradition as manifested in the kit and boodle of their successors. Ben Jonson is considered as the earliest theoretician and practitioner of neoclassicism. Such an pioneer is made possible by Jonsons attempt to fuse unitedly classical themes homogeneous civility and public morality within the ground of critical in truthism which heavily characterized post-Medieval thought.This is to say that the value of Jonsons work lies in its capacity to incorporate the traditions of the past with the rapidly changing valet de chambre and the differing worldviews that emerged in the success of the scientific enterprise. Jonsons neoclassicism diagnoses itself manifest in his pursuit of the classical principle of the ethical and didactic lead of poetry. In Jonsons epigram called To My Mere English Censurer, he writes To thee my way in epigrams seems newborn/ When both it is the old way and the new/Prithee believe still, and not pretend so fast/Thy faith is all the knowledge that thou hast.The prior passage strengthens the claim that Jonson pursues the classical principle of the ethical and didactic function of poetry. Jonsons emphasis on civility and public morality may b e seen as an attempt on his part to save that which is dependable and valuable in itself in the past which, as he reckons, should be assimilated into the present. On the other hand, John Donne seems to be more interested in the psyche rather than the public. Metaphysical poetry, as it figures in Donnes works argon more somebodyal, more private.As one may pack observed in the development of Donnes poetry, he is more refer with the individual and the philosophical questions which preoccupy the individual as he finds himself shattered, torn between the seemingly collapsing grasp of Medieval thought and the seemingly shining future of scientific thinking. Such philosophical questions may vary among individuals but in the case of Donne, his concern seems to be the internal conflicts within an individual in his attempt to understand his relation to other human beings and more importantly, his relation to the Divine.That Donne is torn between Medieval thought and scientific thinkin g makes itself manifest when he writes in the Holy Sonnets (1-4) Batter my heart, three persond God for, you/As yet but knocke, breathe, shine and seek to mend/That I may rise, and stand, oerthrow mee, and bend/Your force, to breake, blowe, burn and make me new. Although Jonson and Donne differs significantly on the focus of their poetry, which are, the public or the individual, cavalry or metaphysical, both poets style and underlying theoretical commitments influenced the Cavalier of poets their successors.Naturally enough, much of the influences of the Cavalier poets are derived from the master himself, that is, Jonson rather than Donne. In a real sense, the cavalier poets lyricist orientation in terms of their profundity is simpler than that of the Metaphysicals like Donne. Consider Robert Herricks To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time (1648). He writes gathering ye rosebuds while ye may, /Old time is still a-flying /And this same flower that smiles today, /tomorrow will be dyin g. There is, however, a certain fusion of both traditions (that is, the Cavalier and the Metaphysical) in the poems of other Cavalier poets exhibiting the characteristics of both.In To Althea, From Prison, Richard Lovelace, a undischarged cavalier poet writes Stone walls do not a prison make, /Nor contract bars a cage/If I have freedom in my love, and in my soul am free, /Angels alone that soar above/ bang such liberty. Although Lovelaces opening lines talk about the usual target of affection of the cavalier poets, the quoted passage near the end of the poem (that is, rocknroll walls do not a prison make) presents a large-hearted of profundity which, for the most part, characterizes metaphysical poetry. In the final analysis, although there are certain differences in the poetry of Ben Jonson and John Donne as they represent two different poetic traditions, it is plausible to maintain that both poets, in their aver right, opened new pathways for the flourishing of the English p oetic tradition.