Book about metaphysical poetry

Several months ago I read TS Eliot’s “Varieties of Metaphysical Poetry” and, wow, was I out of my depth with that one. Way, way out of my depth. Completely incomprehensible.

I would like to read some books on metaphysical poetry suitable for someone who has not studied literature and in particular not studied poetry. A book for laymen. I do not understand or like poetry. The best I can do is “I sort of like the rhythm of that one” “I found the wording there to be really memorable”.

Before reading the Eliot book my understanding was that metaphysical poetry was this sort of violent poetry where the author builds up very unlikely analogies in order to jar the reader I guess like the worlds most disgusting author, Chuck Pahluniak, uses visceral disgust reactions to get under a reader’s skin and make her vulnerable to an emotional reaction.

I got the impression that Eliot sort of agrees with that? He contrasted the metaphysical poets with Dante. That makes sense because certainly inferno/purgatory/heaven is a really gigantic elaborate conceit but Dante is not trying to be unlikely and startle the reader. It’s more like France’s Yates suggested in “Art of Memory”, that he is making a vivid visual image out of abstract ideas in order to help the reader meditate on the topic. But I am not sure if that was what Eliot meant (that Dante wanted harmonious metaphors not startling metaphors) when he said Dante was not a metaphysical poet?

Also Eliot spent a lot of time saying that the whole soul of religious man (dante) was different from the fragmented soul of modern man (Donne and the other metaphysical poets)?? I think?? And maybe this meant something about how metaphysical poetry could only be written in that time period, hundreds of years ago, and not today??

Any help on understanding metaphysical poetry, or for that matter TS Eliot would be appreciated. All I know about Eliot is that I liked “The Wasteland” and “Prufrock” and some lines from a failed attempt to read “Four Quartets”. Well, also I loved the musical “Cats”

Oh, and why was Eliot lecturing about metaphysical poets anyway? Was there stuff in his work clearly influenced by metaphysical poets?

The last book I read about poetry that I thought was really great was a literary (critical?) biography of Coleridge by Rosemary Ashton. That was really accessible!

by LostMyAppetite