The Puritan poetry, also called the Jacobean and Caroline poetry and can be

divided into three parts-

1. Poetry of the school of Spencer

2. Poetry of the Metaphysical school

3. Poetry of the cavalier poets

The Puritan Poetry

The school of Spenser

The Spenserians were the followers of Spenser, In spite of the changing conditions
and literary tastes which resulted in a reaction against the diffuse, flamboyant,
Italianate poetry, they preferred to follow Spenser and considered him as their
master. The most thorough going disciplines of Spenser were Phineas Fletcher
(1582-1648) and Giles Fletcher (1583-1623)

Phineas Fletcher wrote a number of Spenserian pastorals and allegories. His most
ambitious poems is The Purple Island.

Giles Fletcher was more lyrical and mystical than his brother. His Christ’s Victorie
and Triumph in Heaven and Earth over and after Death (1610) is a link between
the religious poetry of Spenser and Milton.

Other poets who wrote under the influence of Spenser were William Browne
(1590-1645), George Wither (1588-1667) and william Drummond (1585-1649)

Browne’s Important poetical work is “Britannia’s Pastorals’ which shows all the
characteristics of Elizabethan Pastoral poetry.

The didactic tone and lyrical strain are noticed in the poetry of George Wither. His
best known poems are ‘The shepherd’s Hunting; Fidella and Fair Virtue’. Most of
Wither’s poetry is pastoral which is used by him to convey his personal
experiences.
Drummond who was a Scottish poet, wrote a number of pastorals, Sonnets, Songs
elegies and religious poems. His poetry is the product of refined nature, high
imaginative faculty and musical eras. His well known poems are Tears opn the
Death of Maliades (anelegy), Sonnets, Flowers of Sion and Pastorals.

The Poets of the Metaphysical Schools

The metaphysical poets were John Donne, Herrick Thomas Carew, Richard
Crashaw, Henry Vaughan, George Herbert and Lord Herbert of Cherbury. They are
called the Metaphysical poets because their poetry is full of conceits,
exaggerations, quibbling about the meanings of words display of learning and far-
fetched similes and metaphors.

Dr. Johnson mentioned, one important feature of metaphysical school, was their
discovery of accult resemblances in things apparently unlike”. The metaphysical
poets were honest, original thinkers.

John Donne( 1537-1631), the leader of the Metaphysical school of poets. His best
known works are The progress of the Soul; An anatomy of the world, an elegy;
and Epithalamium. His poetry can be divided into three parts:

1. Amorous

2. Metaphysical

3. Satirical

In his amorous lyrics, he broke away from the Petrarchan model. His metaphysical
and Satirical works were written in later years. Donne has often been compared to
Browning on account of his metrical roughness, obscurity, ardent imagination,
taste for metaphysics and unexpected divergence into sweet and delightful music .
While, his poetry is most difficult to understand because of its careless
versification and excessive terseness.

Robert Herrick (1591-1974)

Robert Herrick wrote amorous as well as religious verse but he is more famous for
his love poems.
Thomas Carew (1598-1639)

He was the finest lyric writer of his lyric writer of his age. He is superior to Herrick
in fine workmanship. His persuasions of Love’ is a fine piece of rhythmic cadence
and harmony.

Richard Crashaw (1612-1649)

He was a fundamentally religious poet, and his best work is ‘The Flaming Heart’.
At times, Crashaw reaches the heights of rare excellence is his poetry.

Henry Vaughan (1622-1695), through a mystic like Crashaw, was equally at home
in sacred as well as secular verse. He is more uniform and clear, tranquil and deep.

George Herbert (1592-1633)

This is due to the clarity of his expression and the transparency of his conceits,
that he is the most widely read of all teh poetrs except, Donne. In his religious
earnestness.

Lord Herbart of Cherbury

Herbert is best remembered as the author of an autobiography. He was the first

poet to use the meter. Other poets who are also included in te group of
Metaphysics are Abraham Cowley (1618-1667), Andrew Marvel (1621-1672) and
Edmund Waller (1606-1687). Cowley is famous for his pindaric Odes; Marvel is
famous for his loyal friendship with Milton. Waller was the first to use the ‘closed’
couplet. The Metaphysical poets show the spiritual and moral fervor of the
Puritans as well as the frank amorous tendency of the Elizabethans.

The Cavalier Poets

The cavalier poets followed Ben Johnson. Jonson followed the classical method in
his poetry as in his drama. Like the metaphysical the label Cavalier is not correct,
because a ‘Cavalier’ means a royalist. The followers of Ben Jonson were not all
royalists, These are, therefore, not two distinct schools, but they represented two
groups who followed two different maters- Donne and Ben Jonson. The important
Cavalier poets were Herrick, Lovelace, Suckling and Carew. They were generally in
lighter vein.

Sir John Suckling (1609-1642)

He is a courter of Charles I wrote poetry. Most of his poems are trivial written in
daggered verse.

Sir Richard Lovelace (1618-1658)

He was another follower of King Charles I. His volume of love lyrcis-Lucasta are on
a higher plane.

John Milton (1608-1674)

Milton was the greatest poet of the Puriton Age. He completely identified himself
with Puritanism. Milton was a great scholar of classical as well as Hebrew
Literature. He was also a child of the Renaissance, and a great humanist. Milton’s
early poetry is lyrical. The important poems of the early period are; The Hymn on
the Natiobity (1629), L’Allegro, Il Penseroso (1632); Lycidas (1637); and Comus
(1934). The Hyma, written when Milton was only twenty-one. Lycidas is a pastoral
elegy and it is the greatest of its type in English literature. Comus marks the
development of the Milton’ mind from the merely pastoral and idyllic to the more
serious and purposive tendency. His greatest poetical works-Paradise Lost,
Paradise Regainear and Samson Agonistes