“Meta” means “beyond” and “physics” means “physical nature”. Metaphysical poetry means poetry that goes beyond the physical world of the senses and explores the spiritual world.
The metaphysical school of poetry
“Meta” means “beyond” and “physics” means “physical nature”. Metaphysical poetry means poetry that goes beyond the physical world of the senses and explores the spiritual world. John Donne was the leader and founder of the metaphysical school of poetry. Among other metaphysical poets are Abraham Cowley, Henry Vaughan, Richard Crashaw, Andrew Marvell, George Herbert, Robert Herrick, etc. An expanded epigram would be a fitting description of a metaphysical poem. For instance:
Moving of th’ earth brings harms and fears
Men reckon what it did and meant,
But trepidation of the spheres,
Though greater far, is innocent.
- A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning by John Donne
Waltzer on the loose
By Suhd Nazeer
O fancy’s food!
You’re not one of those tournesols
from Van Gogh’s canvas, you’re much merrier.
You belong to dahlias, wisterias, to mirabilis
and wildflower, you belong to me,
for I cherry picked them; for I fused them.
Among your scented neighbours that eve
I trod and stargazed, till song sang stars of fireflies.
Fret not, yet many springs burgeoning you’d see
while waltzing with me, your summer breeze.
Weak
By Asma Zainab
They say the pen
Is mightier than the sword,
Yet she felt weaker,
More vulnerable
With every verse
That she wrote.
Vanquished
By Rutaba Tanvir
Someday, quietly;
Without consequence,
Amidst the clamour,
Gradually will I have
Broken away.
In silent whispers,
You’ll remember me.
In the broken tea cup,
Those faded polaroids,
In the dents of your car;
The incomplete painting,
That door left ajar,
In borrowed books,
And, the hollow silence.
Utter desolation
By Afia Mushtaq Bhatti
In the shrill chaos
Following the yearning dreams
Pushing back the intuition
Set aside.
Composing and consoling again and again
Sick of the absurdities
With the furrowed brow
Here I am
Lying in myriad pieces
Scattered all around
I, in utter desolation.
To the fragile ego
By Fatima Zulfiqar
In the complexities of the manner
A monotonous trend I saw
For each time that the garden was visited
You forgot to water
The most precious of the flowers
Confused, my whole being
And deprived for ages
Yet I still clung on?
Masquerade
Maryum Tayyab
Amid the storm
Amid the abyss
Amid death and fear
Amid every failure
Amid the emptiness
Little did you know how I wished to die
Little did you know how I wished to escape
In your ignorance, I learned the skill of
masquerade
In my pretence, I mastered the art of survival
They say, time heals everything
However, with every tick of the clock
My insides smouldered
As I clenched my teeth together
To hide that massive uproar
The eyes erupted in rebellion
As, Nature never shields the eyes
By the safe haven of pretence
However my spectacles still fought for me!
Grabbing every bit of strength, I could
Burying my voice deep down,
I controlled the clatter of my teeth.
“What?” you ask,
“Merciless weather!”
I replied; spectacles still helping me!
