'I do believe that the primary concern of the metaphysical poets was to 'employ something unexpected and surprising' (Johnson in ed. Greene, 1984, p.678) in terms of comparison, and to achieve a certain emotion through this. It would be impossible to write purely intellectual poetry about love for example. The additional factor though which makes me believe that intellect is not valued exclusively above emotion is that much of the poetry has a self conscious wit to it - the poets are aware of the ironies of their work in that they use highly complex analogies with lofty images of science and mechanics and even the Universe, to (for example) persuade a woman into bed. A certain incongruity does add to the richness of the form, in which through juxtaposing obscure images and emotional situations, the Metaphysical poets achieved 'their wish to say what they hoped had never been said before' (Johnson in ed. Greene, 1984, p.678).'