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,

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Published 21 March 2002; revised 30 December 2004

Citation: Reid, David. "Conceit". The Literary Encyclopedia. 21 March 2002.
[http://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=213, accessed 20 November 2009.]

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