Metaphysical poets still young, introducing into it a string of Metaphysical conceits in the lines beginning “Most souls, ‘tis true, but peep out once an age” which in part echo a passage from Donne's “Second Anniversary”. By the time Pope wrote this, the vogue for the Metaphysical style was over and a new orthodoxy had taken its place, of which the rewriting of Donne's satires was one expression. Nevertheless, Johnson's dismissal of the ‘school’ was still in the future and at the start of the 18th century allusions to their work struck an answering chord in readers. During the course of the
Anser (poet) Anser (poet) Anser was a poet of ancient Rome who lived in the 1st century BCE. He was a friend of the triumvir Mark Antony, and one of the detractors of Virgil. He wrote in an indelicate or unserious style. Ovid calls him "procax", an adjective meaning "shameless" or "impudent". Some scholars have suggested that Anser is the same man who is elsewhere referred to as Lycidas, and that "Anser" is a pseudonym for this poet writing unserious work. ("Anser" is Latin for "goose".) Other scholars—even if they do not identify "Anser" with Lycidas—question whether there was ever a person