Dissociation of sensibility Dissociation of sensibility Dissociation of sensibility is a literary term first used by T. S. Eliot in his essay “The Metaphysical Poets”. It refers to the way in which intellectual thought was separated from the experience of feeling in seventeenth century poetry. Eliot used the term to describe the manner by which the nature and substance of English poetry changed “between the time of Donne or Lord Herbert of Cherbury and the time of Tennyson and Browning.” In this essay, Eliot attempts to define the metaphysical poet and in doing so to determine the metaphysical poet’s era as well as
John Cunningham (poet and dramatist) 1766 Extract from an Elegy on a pile of Ruins Search where Ambition raged with rigour steeled Where Slaughter like the rapid lightning ran And say, while memory weeps the blood-stained field Where lies the chief? And where the common man? Newcastle Beer – A lyrical poem with classical illusions, aimed at the moneyed class Holiday Gown John Cunningham (poet and dramatist) John Cunningham (1729–1773) was a Dublin born playwright, poet and actor, who spent much of his life in, and according to Allan, "whose name and fame will for ever be identified with Newcastle." John Cunningham was born in