Metaphysical Poetry: Much More Than Wit The two main views of metaphysical poetry, as composed by poets A.E. Housman and T.S. Eliot, are vastly different. Eliot’s view of metaphysical poetry is a very positive and respectful one. He admires the uniqueness of the metaphysical poets when he describes them as “reflective poets” as opposed to merely intellectual ones. Eliot says they have the ability to “feel their thought as immediately as the odor of a rose,” compared to the strictly thought-driven traditional poetry of lyrical poets. Housman’s view is significantly more harsh and critical. In reference to metaphysical poetry, he says that “poetry, as a label for this particular commodity, is not appropriate.” According to Housman, similes and metaphors, which are primary factors in metaphysical poetry, are “things inessential to poetry.” He describes the far-fetched paradoxes of metaphysical poets as “wit,” not poetry. Despite Housman’s negative claims regarding metaphysical poetry, there are several works of metaphysical poets, such as John Donne, that have proven to be very effective. In Donne’s “Holy Sonnet 14,” often referred to as “Batter My Heart,” there is a plethora of evidence of the work’s overall effectiveness as a poem in the poet’s use of poetic devices. The poem is written in first person and the speaker is someone who is struggling with sin and is desperately seeking the guidance of God, who is intended to be the recipient of the speaker’s message. “Batter My Heart” is a fixed form sonnet written in iambic pentameter. Enjambment is used in the title of the poem because it is the same as the poem’s first line. The form of the sonnet is closed and it is composed of three quatrains and one couplet. It has a regular rhyme scheme, but a half rhyme does exist in Donne’s rhyming of the words “enemy” (Line 10) and “I” (Line 12). Overall, the