17th Century Poetry: Baroque and Metaphysical Characteristics

Flashcards covering the definitions and characteristics of 17th-century Baroque and Metaphysical poetry based on the lecture notes.

Baroque art

Art characterized as full of emotions and dynamic, aiming to touch the reader or spectator through moments of ecstasy or high drama.

Musical phrase

A musical sentence that represents a short, complete musical idea.

Contrasting phrases

A musical technique where phrases vary in speed and volume (e.g., soft and slow vs. loud and fast) to create drama, tension, and emotional intensity.

La Primavera (Spring)

A movement in Antonio Vivaldi’s "The Four Seasons" that uses contrasting phrases, such as joyful bird-like sounds followed by stormy, dramatic thunder and lightning effects.

Main aim of Baroque literature

To catch the moment and fleeting appearances, time, movement, and change.

Common Baroque imagery

Natural elements such as cloud, fire, wind, and water, which are chosen because they change very quickly.

Conceit

A hallmark of Baroque and Metaphysical poetry consisting of a surprising chain of metaphors that Imaginatively connects two very different things.

John Donne's compass metaphor

A famous conceit where two lovers are compared to the legs of a compass, remaining connected even as one moves.

Metaphysical poets

The term used for English poets associated with the Baroque style, including John Donne, George Herbert, Henry Vaughan, and Andrew Marvell.

Core themes of Baroque poetry

Time and change, movement and instability, and ephemeral beauty.

Key words of John Donne’s poetry

Conceit, wit, and paradoxes.

Characteristics of John Donne’s style

Features far-fetched images, philosophical doubt, self-analysis, expressions borrowed from science, and a mix of poetic and everyday language.