Metaphysical poets Flecknoe" and Joseph Addison, in quoting him, singled out the poetry of George Herbert as providing a flagrant example. There is no scholarly consensus regarding which English poets or poems fit within the Metaphysical genre. In his initial use of the term, Johnson quoted just three poets: Abraham Cowley, John Donne, and John Cleveland. Colin Burrow, writing for the "Oxford Dictionary of National Biography", singles out John Donne, George Herbert, Henry Vaughan, Andrew Marvell, and Richard Crashaw as 'central figures', while naming many more, all or part of whose work has been identified as sharing its characteristics. Herbert Grierson’s "Metaphysical
Metaphysical Society much love"; Tennyson, "because after ten years of strenuous effort no one had succeeded in even defining metaphysics." According to Dean Stanley, "We all meant the same thing if we only knew it." The members from first to last were as follows: Citations Metaphysical Society The Metaphysical Society was a British society, founded in 1869 by James Knowles. Many of its members were prominent clergymen. Papers were read and discussed at meetings on such subjects as the ultimate grounds of belief in the objective and moral sciences, the immortality of the soul, etc. A description of one of the meetings