Literature of Puritan age

 Literature of the Puritan Age - Poetry

In the literature of the puritan Age the common themes literature included were religious and political idealism. There were no fixed literary standards, imitations of older poets and exaggeration of the poets replaced the original, dignified and highly imaginative compositions of the Elizabethan writers. The literature produced in this age was not of higher order so this period is also known as gloomy age

The poetry writers of the puritan age can be divided into four parts:

1. Transition poets

2. Spenserian  Poets

3. Metaphysical poets

4. Cavalier Poets

Transition Poets	James Thomson (1700-1748) Thomas Gray (1716-71) William Collins (1721-1759) Oliver Goldsmith (1728-1774) William Cowper (1731-1800)
Spenserian Poets	Samuel Daniel (1562- 1619) Giles Fletcher (1588- 1623) George Wither (1588-1667)
Metaphysical Poets	John Donne (1573- 1631) George Herbert (1593- 1633)
Cavalier Poets	Thomas Carew (1589? - 1639?) Robert Herrick (1591- 1674) Sir john Suckling (1609-1642) Sir Richard Lovelace (1618- 1658) John Milton (1608- 1674)

The Transition Poets:

Starting with the literal meaning of transition, transition means the process or a period of changing from one state or condition to another.

At the beginning of bewildering confusion of ideals expressed in literature, we note a few writers who are generally known as Jacobean poets, but whom we have called the Transition poets because, with the later dramatists, they show clearly the changing standards of the age.There were few 18th century poets who showed some elements of Romanticism while not completely ignored the old conventions. These poets were caught in the middle of neoclassical writing and the Romantic Age, are known as the Transitional poets.

Characteristics of transitional poets:

• Transitional Poets were tired of Neoclassical ideals of Reason and Wit.

• These transitional Poets find a midway, they dropped conventional poetic diction and forms in favour of freer forms and bolder language.

• They preached a Return to Nature.

• The poets returned to real Nature and not to the bookish nature of the artificial pastoral.

• The age of Transition was an era of innovation and varied experiment. The poets of this time believed in individual poetic inspiration.

• Passion, Emotion and Imagination was valued by them.

• Their poetry is no longer ‘Drawing Room Poetry.’ They don’t limit their attention to urban life and manners.

• Their poetry became much more subjective.

• There was a strong revolt against the heroic couplet as the only eligible verse unit.

• They show a much greater interest in the middle ages that Dryden and Pope had neglected. 

Spenserian Poets:

The poets whose works relate to the Spenserian poets in terms of style or characteristics are known as Spenserian Poets. Spenserian poets Giles Fletcher and George Wither are worth Reading.

Giles Fletcher (1588?-1623)- Fletcher was the younger son of Giles Fletcher the Elder (Ambassador to Russia of Elizabeth I). His principal work has the full title 'Christ's Victore and Triumph', in Heaven, in Earth, over and after Death, and consists of four cantos. The first canto, Christ's Victory in Heaven, represents a dispute in heaven between justice and mercy, using the facts of Christ's life on earth; the second, Christ's Victory on Earth, deals with an allegorical account of Christ's Temptation; the third, Christ's Triumph over Death, covers the Passion; and the fourth, Christ's Triumph after Death, covering the Resurrection and Ascension, ends with an affectionate eulogy of his brother Phineas as Thyrsis's. The meter is an eight-line stanza in the style of Spenser; the first five lines have the rhyme Scheme ABABB, and the stanza concludes with a rhyming triplet.

George Wither (1588-1667)- The life of George Wither  covers the whole period of English history from Elizabeth to the Restoration, and the enormous volume of his work covers every phase of the literature of two great ages. Students of this period find him interesting as an epitome of the whole age in which he lived; but the average reader is more inclined to note with interest that he published in 1623 Hymns and Songs of the Church, the first hymn book that ever appeared in the English language. 

Metaphysical Poets:

The metaphysical poets followed the lead of Donne. He imitated Horace by writing, like him, satires, elegies, epistles and complimentary verses. But though his verse possess classical dignity and good sense, it does not have its grace and ease Highly intellectualized poetry marked by bold and ingenious conceits (figure of speech), incongruous (not in harmony, inappropriate) imagery, complexity and subtlety of thought, frequent use of paradox (puzzle), and often by deliberate harshness or rigidity of expression. The term Metaphysical poets was coined by the critic Samuel Johnson to describe a loose group of 17th-century English poets whose work was characterised by the inventive use of conceits, and by a greater emphasis on the spoken rather than lyrical quality of their verse. 

Samuel Daniel (1562- 1619)- Daniel, who is often classed with the first Metaphysical poets, is interesting to us for two reasons,--for his use of the artificial sonnet, and for his literary desertion of Spenser as a model for poets. His Delia, a cycle of sonnets modeled, perhaps, after Sidney's Astrophel and Stella, helped to fix the custom of celebrating love or friendship by a series of sonnets, to which some pastoral pseudonym was affixed. Daniel's poetry, which was forgotten soon after his death, has received probably more homage than it deserves in the praises of Wordsworth, Southey, Lamb, and Coleridge. The style and language are just such as any pure and manly writer of the present day would use. It seems quite modern in comparison with the style of Shakespeare. 

We can consider here only Donne and Herbert, who in different ways are the types of revolt against earlier forms and standards of poetry. In feeling and imagery both are poets of a high order, but in style and expression they are the leaders of the fantastic school whose influence largely dominated poetry during the half century of the Puritan period.

John Donne (1573-1631)- The metaphysical poets were eclipsed in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries by romantic and Victorian poets, but twentieth-century readers and scholars, seeing in the metaphysicals an attempt to understand pressing political and scientific upheavals, engaged them with renewed interest. Another important theme in Donne's poetry is the idea of true religion, something that he spent much time considering and about which he often theorised. He wrote secular poems as well as erotic and love poems. He is particularly famous for his mastery of metaphysical conceits. Donne threw style and all literary standards to the winds; and precisely for this reason he is forgotten, though his great intellect and his genius had marked him as one of those who should do things "worthy to be remembered." 

George Herbert (1593-1633)- George Herbert is known as the metaphysical poet by virtue of his faith in God and religion. His poetry is a record of strivings, failures and victories in the practice of the Christian life.  Professor Palmer, calls Herbert the first in English poetry who spoke face to face with God. That may be true; but it is interesting to note that not a poet of the first half of the seventeenth century, not even the gayest of the Cavaliers, but has written some noble verse of prayer or aspiration, which expresses the underlying Puritan spirit of his age. Herbert is the greatest, the most consistent of them all. In all the others the Puritan struggles against the Cavalier, or the Cavalier breaks loose from the restraining Puritan; but in Herbert the struggle is past and peace has come. Those who seek for faults, for strained imagery and fantastic verse forms in Herbert's poetry, will find them in abundance; but it will better repay the reader to look for the deep thought and fine feeling that are hidden in these wonderful religious lyrics, even in those that appear most artificial. The fact that Herbert's reputation was greater, at times, than Milton's, and that his poems when published after his death had a large sale and influence, shows certainly that he appealed to the men of his age; and his poems will probably be read and appreciated, if only by the few, just so long as men are strong enough to understand the Puritan's spiritual convictions.

Herbert's chief work, The Temple, consists of over one hundred and fifty short poems suggested by the Church, her holidays and ceremonials, and the experiences of the Christian life. The first poem, "The Church Porch," is the longest.Among the remaining poems of The Temple one of the most suggestive is "The Pilgrimage.”

Cavalier Poets:

Cavalier is a supporter of King Charles I in the English Civil War/ Royalist. The cavalier poets was a school of English poets of the 17th century that came from the classes that supported King Charles I during the English Civil War (1642–1651).The cavalier poets followed Ben Jonson. Like the ‘metaphysical’, the label ‘Cavalier’ is not correct, because a ‘Cavalier’ means a royalist—one who fought on the side of the king during the Civil War. All the followers of Ben Jonson were not all royalists, but this label once used has stuck to them. Poets of both the schools, of course, turned away from the long, Old-fashioned works of the Spenserians, and concentrated their efforts on short poems and lyrics dealing with the themes of love of woman and the love or fear of God. The Cavalier poets normally wrote about trivial subjects, while the Metaphysical poets wrote generally about serious subjects.Charles, an expert judge of the fine arts, supported poets who created the art he craved. These poets in turn grouped themselves with the King and his service, thus becoming Cavalier Poets.Some of the most prominent Cavalier poets were Thomas Carew, Richard Lovelace, Robert Herrick, and John Suckling. They emulated Ben Jonson, a contemporary of Shakespeare. These poets opposed metaphysical poetry, such as that of John Donne.

While poets like John Donne wrote with a spiritual, scientific, and moral focus, the Cavalier poets concentrated on the pleasures of the moment. Metaphysical poets also wrote in figurative, lofty language, while the Cavaliers were simple, being more apt to say what they meant in clear terms. The Cavalier poet wrote short, refined verses, and the tone of Cavalier poetry was generally easy-going.

• The Cavalier poets wrote short lyrical poems but did not like sonnets.

• Cavalier lyricists did not write as professionals for publicity. They wrote carelessly and their poetry was immature.

• They avoided the subject of religion, apart from making one or two graceful speeches.

• They avoided discovering the depths of the soul.

• Cavalier poetry’s main thematic concern is pleasure. Many poems favour living in moments and are often erotic in nature. Moreover, as Cavalier poets were aristocrats, Cavalier poetry focuses on the cultural life that aristocrats led.

• The tone of Cavalier poetry is light. It focuses on eroticism and matters of culture. Cavalier poetry is often written from the perspective of a military or aristocratic person, giving it a graceful flair.

Thomas Carew (1598?- 1639?):  Carew may be called the inventor of Cavalier love poetry due the peculiar combination of the sensual and the religious which marked most of the minor poets of the seventeenth century. His poetry is the Spenserian pastoral stripped of its refinement of feeling and made direct, coarse, vigorous. His poems, published in 1640, are like his life, trivial or sensual. His two volumes of poems are “Noble Numbers” & “Hesperides”. Both are collections of short poems.

Robert Herbrick (1591- 1674): Herrick is the true Cavalier, With admirable good nature, Herrick made the best of these uncongenial surroundings. He watched with sympathy the country life about him and caught its spirit in many lyrics, a few of which, like "Corinna's Maying," "Gather ye rosebuds while ye may," and "To Daffodils," are among the best known in our language.He was a reputed wit of his times. He was known as the courtly & polished love poet. Only the best of his poems should be read,The rest, since they reflect something of the coarseness of his audience, may be passed over in silence.

John Suckling (1609- 1642): He was one of the most brilliant wits of the court of Charles I, who wrote poetry as he exercised a horse or fought a duel, because it was considered a gentleman's accomplishment in those days. His poems, "struck from his wild life like sparks from his rapier," are utterly trivial, and, even in his best known "Ballad Upon a Wedding," rarely rise above mere doggerel. He ruined himself in the royalist cause. He was rich, brilliant & witty. His best-known poem is “Why so pale & wan fond lover?”

Sir Richard Lovelace (1618 -1658): Like Suckling, he was also rich & brilliant & ruined himself in the royalist cause. The two are often classed together as perfect representatives of the followers of King Charles. Lovelace's Lucasta, a volume of love lyrics, is generally on a higher plane than Suckling's work; and a few of the poems like "To Lucasta," and "To Althea, from Prison," 

It is a youtube video explaining the same topic hope it might be helpful.

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Here I have tried to simplify the understanding of 4 different classes of poetry, if you  find any corrections or changes please write in the comment box.