is of a birth as rare As tis for object strange and high It was begotten by Despair Upon Impossibility On the other hand Henry Vaughan mostly wrote on religion These poets always showed their learning They wanted to look clever They used strange comparisons from different subjects Johnson studied them intensely He found both power and problems in their way of writing Search for Conceits Metaphysical poets used conceits in place of simple images They searched all over nature art and science for ideas Their comparisons were often hard to follow Johnson gave Cowley and Donne as examples Let us study such lines from Donne s poem A Valediction Forbidding Mourning If they be two they are two so As stiff twin compasses are two Thy soul the fixed foot makes no show To move but doth if the other do This made the poems sound very complex Still Johnson praised their sharpness when their deep ideas matched the subject well Cowley s Place in The Group Johnson said Cowley followed the metaphysical style He did not do much in real life as a doctor but he wrote Latin books on plants He wrote poems on herbs trees and flowers Cowley showed that he had good taste and deep thought Johnson said Cowley stayed with the popular style of the time But he gave that style more music and emotion In this way Cowley went ahead of others Weakness of the School Johnson said that metaphysical poets wanted to show their learning and cleverness more than their real feelings He criticized them by saying No man could be born a metaphysical poet nor assume the dignity of a writer by descriptions copied from descriptions by imitations borrowed from imitations by traditional imagery and hereditary similes by readiness of rhyme and volubility of syllables This means metaphysical poets were not true poets by nature Instead they copied old descriptions and used traditional images and similes repeatedly They cared more about form rhyme and clever wordplay than deep or natural thoughts Their poems often looked good on the page but were difficult and less pleasing to hear Though some of their ideas were new their poems were not always beautiful or natural In summary Dr Johnson gave a full picture of metaphysical poetry He showed its cleverness and also its problems He thought the poets used too much thought and not enough feeling Still he praised Cowley for adding music and heart to the style Johnson s ideas help readers understand this hard but rich kind of poetry His judgment was honest clear and useful even today