Define conceit, a characteristic of Elizabethan poetry, and provide at least one example

Question

Please provide the best answer for the statement.

Answer 1

1. Conceits are elaborate and witty images in poetry.
2. One example is “On Monsieur’s Departure” by Elizabeth I, who used several conceits, which would become characteristic of the poetry of the Elizabethan age. Here, “care,” first referred to in line 7, is both the emotional side of her personality—the feelings that she says, in line 1, she “dare not show”—and also her lover. When she says, in line 15, “Or be more cruel, love, and so be kind,” she invites her lover to spurn her and thus relieve her of her feelings. This witty reversal of expectation is a standard Elizabethan poetic practice. And in the final couplet, the word “die” is standard word-play as well, referring not only to literal death but also to sexual orgasm. In the sixteenth century, such elaborate conceits were normally employed in sonnets, or “little songs,” one of the most significant literary forms of the era.