T.S. Eliotâs essay âThe Metaphysical Poetsâ (1921) argues that the Metaphysical poets of the 17th century, such as John Donne and Andrew Marvell, achieved a fusion of thought and feeling that later poets lacked. Eliot introduced his concept of the âdissociation of sensibilityâ to describe the loss of this fusion in later English poetry.
Eliotâs essay viewed the Metaphysical poets as a model for modern 20th-century poets, praising the Metaphysical poetsâ ability to combine emotion and intellectual ingenuity in their works. He defended them against earlier critics and writers such as John Dryden and Samuel Johnson, who thought their works were affected and used the pejorative term metaphysical to describe them.