0
Your cart

Your cart is empty

Books > Language & Literature > Literature: history & criticism > Poetry & poets

Buy Now

Metaphysical Wit (Paperback, Revised) Loot Price: R1,223
Discovery Miles 12 230
Metaphysical Wit (Paperback, Revised): A.J. Smith

Metaphysical Wit (Paperback, Revised)

A.J. Smith

 (sign in to rate)
Loot Price R1,223 Discovery Miles 12 230 | Repayment Terms: R115 pm x 12*

Bookmark and Share

Expected to ship within 12 - 17 working days

English metaphysical poetry, from Donne to Marvell, is conspicuously witty. A. J. Smith seeks the central importance of wit in the thinking of the metaphysical poets, and argues that metaphysical wit is essentially different from other modes of wit current in Renaissance Europe. Formal theories and rhetorics of wit are considered both for their theoretical import and their appraisals of wit in practice. Prevailing fashions of witty invention are scrutinized in Italian, French, and Spanish writings, so as to bring out the nature and effect of various forms of wit: conceited, hieroglyphic, transformational, and others from which the metaphysical mode is distinguished. He locates the basis of Renaissance wit in the received conception of the created order and a theory of literary innovation inherent in Humanist belief, which led to novel couplings of time and eternity, body and soul, man and God. Yet, he finds that metaphysical wit distinctively works to discover a spiritual presence in sensible events; and he traces its demise in the 1660s to changes in the understanding of the natural world associated with the rise of empirical science.

General

Imprint: Cambridge UniversityPress
Country of origin: United Kingdom
Release date: December 2006
First published: 1991
Authors: A.J. Smith
Dimensions: 217 x 140 x 18mm (L x W x T)
Format: Paperback - Trade
Pages: 284
Edition: Revised
ISBN-13: 978-0-521-03529-3
Categories: Books > Language & Literature > Literature: history & criticism > Literary studies > 16th to 18th centuries
Books > Language & Literature > Literature: history & criticism > Poetry & poets > General
Promotions
LSN: 0-521-03529-5
Barcode: 9780521035293

Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate? Let us know about it.

Does this product have an incorrect or missing image? Send us a new image.

Is this product missing categories? Add more categories.

Review This Product

No reviews yet - be the first to create one!

You might also like..

The Hill We Climb - An Inaugural Poem
Amanda Gorman Hardcover R240 R190 Discovery Miles 1 900
Die Singende Hand - Versamelde Gedigte…
Breyten Breytenbach Paperback R420 R394 Discovery Miles 3 940
Gode Van Papier
Cas Vos Paperback R124 Discovery Miles 1 240
The Circle of Our Vision - Dante's…
Ralph Pite Hardcover R1,617 Discovery Miles 16 170
Langland's Fictions
J. A. Burrow Hardcover R1,324 Discovery Miles 13 240
Shelley and Scripture - The Interpreting…
Bryan Shelley Hardcover R1,295 Discovery Miles 12 950
Plays, Poems, and Miscellaneous Writings…
Robert D. Hume, Harold Love Hardcover R13,755 Discovery Miles 137 550
Reading the Rhythm - The Poetics of…
Clive Scott Hardcover R2,285 Discovery Miles 22 850
The Plays and Poems of Philip Massinger…
Philip Massinger Hardcover R5,048 Discovery Miles 50 480
The Divine - Weeks and Works of…
Josuah Sylvester Hardcover R5,357 Discovery Miles 53 570
Wilfred Owen's Voices - Language and…
Douglas Kerr Hardcover R4,555 Discovery Miles 45 550
Housman's Poems
John Bayley Hardcover R3,142 Discovery Miles 31 420

See more

Partners