Metaphysical

May 8, 2013May 8, 2013

Last night’s dream: I am taking a poetry exam and have the option of choosing my own essay question. I’m excited to write about the influence metaphysical poets had on T.S. Eliot.

In actuality, this was a question on my recent M.F.A. exams that I chose not to answer, because I didn’t know much about the link between Eliot and the metaphysicals. I have a vague memory that he might have been related to George Herbert. I just found Eliot’s essay on the subject in a collection of John Donne’s work, and I’m planning on reading it.

I think the answer would involve a close reading of Ash Wednesday and The Four Quartets. So that’s next.

Published by Christine

Christine Swint’s poems have appeared in Calyx, Birmingham Poetry Review, Slant, a Journal of Poetry, Tampa Review, Heron Tree, Ekphrasis, and others. Her poems have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net, and Best New Poets, and she has won first place prizes from the Georgia Poetry Society and Agnes Scott College. Her first collection, Swimming This, was published in 2015 by FutureCycle Press. She teaches first-year composition at a metro-Atlanta university and writes about poetry, art, hiking, and yoga at Balanced on the Edge, https://balancedonedge.blog Twitter @christine_swint View all posts by Christine