As discussed on a previous short essay question, John Donne is considered to be one of the greatest metaphysical poets of our time, even though he published only a small number of poems in his lifetime. The poems he did write were metaphorical and often humorus poems telling the tale of religious love and sex. Being a metaphysical poet he exhibited many characteristics of the metaphysical poets. He wrote with metaphysical wit, metaphysical conceit, metaphors, symbols and paradoxes. If these were some of the things that defined a metaphysical poet, then John Donne is a good example of one. I will use three of his poems, "Holy Sonnet 14", "The Flea", and "Song" to show how Donne uses these aspects in his writing.Metaphysical conceit is a comparison between two things that is so far out in left field and so abstract that no one would ever think of using it. But John Donne isn't no one, and he used metaphysical conceit in many of his poems. In "Holy Sonnet 14" Donne is talking to god and asking for forgiveness for all his sins. He wants God to punish him in order to make him a stronger and better person. He uses two examples of metaphysical conceit in his quest to convince God that he should punish him for all that he has done wrong. On line 5 when Donne states "I, like an unsurpt town to'another due," he is comparing himself to a town that the enemy has taken over. Many people would never think of making such a comparison, a man being similar to a town is not something that people can really grasp on first sight, but I think what Donne was really saying was that because he was a sinner, and had done so many wrongs his body had been taken over by the devil, or the enemy. Because of this he was unable to be held unaccountable for his actions and did not really have a mind of his own, just as a town under enemy control would not have a choice in what they did or the rules that they passed. In line 11 he says "Divorce me, 'untie, or...
