Highly intellectualized poetry written chiefly in 17th-century England.
Less concerned with expressing feeling than with analyzing it, Metaphysical poetry is marked by bold and ingenious conceits (e.g., metaphors drawing sometimes forced parallels between apparently dissimilar ideas or things), complex and subtle thought, frequent use of paradox, and a dramatic directness of language, the rhythm of which derives from living speech. John Donne was the leading Metaphysical poet; others include George Herbert, Henry Vaughan, Andrew Marvell, and Abraham Cowley.
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