This article analyses two sixteenth-century lyrics (referred to as metaphysical) from the collection of John Donne’s Songs and Sonnets – “The triple Foole” and “The Apparition” – by means of methods proposed by transgeneric narratology. The author highlights those aspects of Donne’s poems which reveal the features of the narrative text as well as those of the dramatic text, thus pointing to their multigeneric and multifaceted character. The method adopted results in the recognition of chains of happenings triggered by the text in specific manners as well as levels of text-internal communication and distinct perspectives, with the role of the reader in the management of these carefully observed.