Existential Self (ves) as reflected in two Metaphysical poets’: John Donne’s “A Valediction Forbidding Mourning” and Andrew Marvell’s “To His Coy Mistress”

Defining Existentialism reveals that there are plural Existentialisms. The same could also be said of Metaphysical poetry. Throughout the history of literary criticism metaphysical poetry has gained different, positive and negative definitions. Therefore, it could be claimed that the case of metaphysical poetry is as perplexing as Existentialism; not only because of the opinions of critics who have impacted the definition of Metaphysical poetry in positive or negative senses- ranging from Dryden, to Johnson and T.S Eliot- but also because relating that poetry in particular to the term “Metaphysical”, has even increased the obscurity and the difficulty of defining it, or describing it clearly. Metaphysical poetry is also a unique case of contradictions, and the grounds for a wide range of plural moral, existential, religious as well as social questions. Reading Metaphysical poetry through the lenses of Existentialism might reveal hidden links between both concepts and even show the two concepts in a new epistemological light. This article is a close reading of John Donne’s “A Valediction Forbidding Mourning” and Andrew Marvell’s “To His Coy Mistress”. Being two eminent Metaphysical poets, each one reflects his own Metaphysical version of what Metaphysical poetry is. At first reading these might seem utterly opposed to each other. However, the focus of this article is all about the self (ves) in the two poems from the perspective of Existentialism. The article triggers questions about the self in different explanations of Existential philosophy. It raises the question whether there could be any cross references or boundaries between the Metaphysical self (ves) as reflected in the two poems of the study and the Existential self (ves). Besides, the idea of self-revelation in the two poems might redefine the metaphysical dimension of the self (ves) as well as the Existential one.