Metaphysical Verse

Metaphysical Verse, term applied to writing like that of the 17th‐century British poets Donne, Crashaw, Cowley, Herbert, and Vaughan, which conveys a direct emotional apprehension of thought, employing a psychological analysis of love or religion, using the conceit to bring into eccentric and startling juxtaposition the contradictions of life, and usually placing more stress on subtlety of thought than on conventional form. American poets of this sort include Edward Taylor, Emerson, Jones Very, and Emily Dickinson. Many modern poets have been influenced by T.S. Eliot's interest in the 17th‐century metaphysicals. They include Aiken, Louise Bogan, Cummings, Horace Gregory, Marianne Moore, MacLeish, Ransom, Wallace Stevens, Taggard, Tate, W.C. Williams, and Elinor Wylie.