Conceit

Literary/ Cultural Context Essay

David Reid (University of Stirling)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.6.1: Italian Writing and Culture, 453-present.
Vol. editors: Carla Bregman (Independent Scholar - North America), Jo Ann Cavallo (Columbia University)

Domains

Poetic/ rhetorical term

Dates

Places

Italy (Location)
United Kingdom (Location)

Literally meaning a ‘concept’, an ingenious comparison between things seemingly unlike. Shakespeare’s sonnet which begins “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun” makes fun of standard Renaissance conceits which were to an extent modelled on those of Petrarch (1304-74). “Metaphysical conceits,” used in the early seventeenth century by Donne and others, established connections between many aspects of the new sciences, the world of commerce, and human existence. Mocked by Johnson, they were reinstated in critical respect by T.S Eliot. Donne’s “Valediction forbidding Mourning” builds a famous conceit around the idea of ‘compasses’:

Our two souls, therefore, which are one,
Though I …

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2554 words

Citation: Reid, David. "Conceit". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 21 March 2002; last revised 30 December 2004. [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=213, accessed 26 November 2024.]

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Conceit

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