John Donne
...ften hardly less formal) structure of the poem's argument. Wit and conceit were both aspects of a mental set, shared by writers looking for analogies and connections between things. Conceit Definition: an idea or concept expressed in a clever way. Often took form in ingenious and consciously far-fetched metaphor. Conceits attempt to capture elusive insights into the nature of human experience, which are partly feelings and partly intellectual perceptions. They play between literal and figurative meaning. Wit Definition: the apt association of thought and expression, calculated to surprise and delight by it John Donne was born in 1572 to a London merchant and his wife. The characteristic elements of John Donne’s poetry are plentiful. Donne was the leader of a style of poetry writing called "metaphysical poetry," which was popular near the end of the sixteenth and early seventeenth century. This writing has complex figures of speech with unusual verse forms, meters, puns, metaphors, imagery, and paradoxes. Nevertheless, Donne has amazing wordplay, often sexual or subtle. From reading his poetry, one may find a sense of formality, as he writes of clever (and sometimes shocking) logic. He uses sensible irony with often ...