The metaphysical poets is a term coined by the poet and critic John Dryden to describe a loose group of British lyric poets of the 17th century, whose work was characterized by the inventive use of conceits, and by speculation about topics such as love or religion. These poets were not formally affiliated; most of them did not even know or read each other.
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Famous quotes containing the words metaphysical and/or poets:
“Some authors have what amounts to a metaphysical approach. They admit to inspiration. Sudden and unaccountable urgencies to write catapult them out of sleep and bed. For myself, I have never awakened to jot down an idea that was acceptable the following morning.”
—Fannie Hurst (1889–1968)
“The West is preparing to add its fables to those of the East. The valleys of the Ganges, the Nile, and the Rhine having yielded their crop, it remains to be seen what the valleys of the Amazon, the Plate, the Orinoco, the St. Lawrence, and the Mississippi will produce. Perchance, when, in the course of ages, American liberty has become a fiction of the past,—as it is to some extent a fiction of the present,—the poets of the world will be inspired by American mythology.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)