John Donne

by abdo Wed Apr 06, 2011 2:54 pm

John
Donne

John Donne
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] John Donne
Born	21 January 1572(1572-01-21) [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
Died	31 March 1631(1631-03-31) (aged 59) London
Occupation	[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
Nationality	[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
Genres	[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], Love poetry, [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
Subjects	[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
Literary movement	[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
Influences[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] · [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
Influenced[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] · W. B. Yeats, [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]^{[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]}

John Donne ( John Donne Clip_image003

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]; 21 January 1572
– 31 March 1631) was an [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] poet, satirist, lawyer, and priest who is considered
a prominent representative of the [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
of the period. His works are notable for their realistic and sensual style and
include [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.],
love poetry, religious poems, [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
translations, [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.],
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], songs, [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] and [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]. His poetry
is noted for its vibrancy of language and inventiveness of [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], especially as
compared to that of his contemporaries. John Donne's style is characterized by
abrupt openings, various paradoxes, ironies, dislocations. These features in
combination with his frequent dramatic or everyday speech rhythms, his tense
syntax, and his tough eloquence were both a reaction against the smoothness of
conventional Elizabethan poetry and an adaptation into English of European
baroque and mannerist techniques. His early career was marked by poetry that
bore immense knowledge of British society and he met that knowledge with sharp
criticism. Another important theme in Donne’s poetry was the idea of true
religion, which was something that he spent a lot of time considering and
theorizing about. He wrote secular poems as well as erotic poems and love
poems. Donne is particularly famous for his mastery of metaphysical [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.].^{[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]}

Despite his great education
and poetic talents, he lived in [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
for several years, relying heavily on wealthy friends. He spent much of the
money he inherited during and after his education on womanising, literature,
pastimes and travel. In 1601 Donne secretly married Anne Moore with whom he had
12 children.^{[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]}
In 1615 he became an [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
although he did not want to take Anglican orders. He did so because [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] persistently ordered it. In 1621,
he was appointed the [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] Cathedral in [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]. He also served as a
member of parliament in 1601 and again in 1614.

Early life

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

A
portrait of Donne as a young man, c. 1595. Artist unknown. In the collection of
the [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.].^{[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]}

John Donne was born in London,
England, into a [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] family at a time when open practice
of that religion was illegal in England.^{[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]}
Donne was the third of six children. His father, also named John Donne, was of [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
descent, and a warden of the [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] in the [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]. Donne's
father was a respected Catholic who avoided unwelcome government attention out
of fear of being persecuted for his religious faith.^{[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]}

Donne's father died in 1576,
leaving his wife, Elizabeth Heywood, the responsibility of raising their
children.^{[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]}
Elizabeth Heywood was also from a [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
Catholic family, the daughter of [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], the
playwright, and sister of Rev. [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], a Jesuit
priest and translator. She was a great-niece of the Catholic [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.].^{[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]}
This tradition of martyrdom would continue among Donne’s closer relatives, many
of whom were executed or [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] for religious reasons.^{[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]}
Donne was educated privately; however there is no evidence to support the
popular claim that he was taught by [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.].^{[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]}
Donne's mother married Dr. John Syminges, a wealthy widower with three
children, a few months after Donne's father died. In 1577, his mother died,
followed by two more of his sisters, Mary and Katherine, in 1581.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Part
of the house where John Donne lived in [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.].

Donne was a student at [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.],
now Hertford
College, Oxford, from the age of 11. After three years at Oxford he was admitted to the University of
Cambridge, where he studied for another three years.^{[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]}
He was unable to obtain a degree from either institution because of his
Catholicism, since he could not take the [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
required of graduates.^{[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]}

In 1591 he was accepted as a
student at the [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] legal school, one of the [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] in [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]. In 1592 he was admitted
to [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], one of the [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.].^{[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]}
His brother Henry was also a university student prior to his arrest in 1593 for
harbouring a Catholic priest, [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], whom Henry betrayed
under [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.].^{[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]}
Harrington was tortured on the rack, [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] until not
quite dead, then was subjected to [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.].^{[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]}
Henry Donne died in [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] of [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], leading
John Donne to begin questioning his Catholic faith.^{[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]}

During and after his
education, Donne spent much of his considerable inheritance on women,
literature, pastimes and travel.^{[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]}
Although there is no record detailing precisely where he traveled, it is known
that he traveled across Europe and later fought with the [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] and Sir [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] against
the [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] at [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] (1596) and
the [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] (1597) and
witnessed the loss of the Spanish flagship, the [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.].^{[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]}
According to [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.],
who wrote a biography of Donne in 1640:

...
he returned not back into England till he had stayed some years, first in [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], and then in Spain, where
he made many useful observations of those countries, their laws and manner of
government, and returned perfect in their languages.

—Izaak
Walton, ^{[[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]]}

By the age of 25 he was well
prepared for the diplomatic career he appeared to be seeking.^{[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]}
He was appointed chief secretary to the Lord Keeper
of the Great Seal, Sir [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], and was
established at Egerton’s London home, [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
close to the Palace
of Whitehall, then the most influential social centre in [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.].

Marriage to Anne More

During the next four years he
fell in love with Egerton's niece Anne More, and they were married just before [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]^{[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]}
in 1601 against the wishes of both Egerton and George More, Lieutenant of the
Tower and Anne's father. This ruined Donne's career and earned him a short stay
in [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], along
with the priest who married them and the man who acted as a witness to the
wedding. Donne was released when the marriage was proven valid, and soon
secured the release of the other two. Walton tells us that when he wrote to his
wife to tell her about losing his post, he wrote after his name: John Donne,
Anne Donne, Un-done. It was not until 1609 that Donne was reconciled with
his father-in-law and received his wife's [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.].

Following his release, Donne
had to accept a retired country life in [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.].^{[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]}
Over the next few years he scraped a meagre living as a lawyer, depending on
his wife’s cousin Sir Francis Wolly to house him, his wife, and their children.
Since Anne Donne had a baby almost every year, this was a very generous
gesture. Though he practised law and worked as an assistant pamphleteer to [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], Donne was in a constant state
of financial insecurity, with a growing family to provide for.^{[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]}

Anne bore him 12 children in
16 years of marriage (including two [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]—their
eighth and then in 1617 their last child); indeed, she spent most of her
married life either [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] or [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.].
The 10 surviving children were named Constance, John, George, Francis, Lucy
(after Donne's patroness [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], her
godmother), Bridget, Mary, Nicholas, Margaret and Elizabeth. Francis, Nicholas
and Mary died before they were ten. In a state of despair, Donne noted that the
death of a child would mean one fewer mouth to feed, but he could not afford
the burial expenses. During this time Donne wrote, but did not publish, [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], his
defence of [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.].^{[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]}
His wife died on 15 August 1617, five days after giving birth to their twelfth
child, a still-born baby. Donne mourned her deeply, including writing the [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] Holy
Sonnet.^{[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]}
He never remarried; this was quite unusual for the time, especially as he had a
large family to bring up.

Early poetry

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An
Art Cover for some of John Donne's most popular poetry, his 'Divine Poems'

Donne's earliest poems showed
a developed knowledge of English society coupled with sharp criticism of its
problems. His [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
dealt with common [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] topics, such as corruption in the
legal system, mediocre poets, and pompous courtiers. His images of sickness,
vomit, manure, and [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] assisted in the creation of a strongly
satiric world populated by all the fools and knaves of England. His
third satire, however, deals with the problem of true religion, a matter of
great importance to Donne. He argued that it was better to examine carefully
one's religious convictions than blindly to follow any established tradition,
for none would be saved at the Final
Judgment, by claiming "A Harry, or a Martin taught [them] this."^{[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]}

Donne's early career was also
notable for his erotic poetry, especially his [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], in which he
employed unconventional [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], such as a flea biting two lovers being compared
to sex.^{[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]}
In Elegy
XIX: To His Mistress Going to Bed, he poetically undressed his mistress
and compared the act of fondling to the exploration of [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]. In Elegy
XVIII, he compared the gap between his lover's breasts to the [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.].^{[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]}
Donne did not publish these poems, although did allow them to circulate widely
in manuscript form.^{[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]}

Career and later life

Donne was elected as [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
for the [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] in
1602, but this was not a paid position and Donne struggled to provide for his
family, relying heavily upon rich friends.^{[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]}
The fashion for coterie poetry of the period gave him a means to seek patronage
and many of his poems were written for wealthy friends or patrons, especially
Sir [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], who
came to be Donne's chief patron in 1610.^{[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]}
Donne wrote the two Anniversaries, An Anatomy of
the World (1611) and Of the Progress of the Soul, (1612), for
Drury. While historians are not certain as to the precise reasons for which
Donne left the Catholic
Church, he was certainly in communication with the King, [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.],
and in 1610 and 1611 he wrote two [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]: Pseudo-Martyr
and [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.].^{[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]}
Although James was pleased with Donne's work, he refused to reinstate him at
court and instead urged him to take holy orders.^{[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]}
At length, Donne acceded to the King's wishes and in 1615 was ordained into the
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.].^{[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]}

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

A
few months before his death, Donne commissioned this portrait of himself as he
expected to appear when he rose from the grave at the [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.].^{[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]} He
hung the portrait on his wall as a reminder
of the transience of life.

Donne became a [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] in late 1615, Reader of
Divinity at Lincoln's
Inn in 1616, and received a [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
degree from [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] in 1618.^{[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]}
Later in 1618 he became chaplain to [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], who was on an
embassy to the [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]. Donne did not return to
England
until 1620.^{[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]}
In 1621 Donne was made [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], a leading (and well-paid)
position in the Church of England and one he held until his death in 1631.
During his period as Dean his daughter Lucy died, aged eighteen. It was in late
November and early December 1623 that he suffered a nearly fatal illness,
thought to be either typhus or a combination of a cold followed by the
seven-day relapsing fever. During his convalescence he wrote a series of
meditations and prayers on health, pain, and sickness that were published as a
book in 1624 under the title of Devotions
upon Emergent Occasions.^{[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]}
later became well known for its phrase "for whom the bell tolls" and
the statement that "no man is an island". In 1624 he became [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] of St
Dunstan-in-the-West, and 1625
a Royal Chaplain to [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.].^{[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]}
He earned a reputation as an eloquent preacher and 160 of his sermons have
survived, including the famous Death’s
Duel sermon delivered at the [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
before King [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] in February 1631.

Later poetry

“	... any mans death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankinde; And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee..	”
	— Donne, Meditation XVII^{[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]}

Some have speculated that
Donne's numerous illnesses, financial strain, and the deaths of his friends all
contributed to the development of a more somber and [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] tone in his
later poems.^{[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]}
The change can be clearly seen in "An Anatomy of
the World" (1611), a poem that Donne wrote in memory of [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], daughter of his patron, Sir [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] of Hawstead,
Suffolk. This poem treats Elizabeth's
demise with extreme gloominess, using it as a symbol for the [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] and the
destruction of the [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.].^{[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]}

The poem "A
Nocturnal upon S. Lucy's Day, Being the Shortest Day",, concerns the
poet's despair at the death of a loved one. In it Donne expresses a feeling of
utter negation and hopelessness, saying that "I am every dead
thing...re-begot / Of absence, darkness, death." This famous work was
probably written in 1627 when both Donne's friend Lucy, Countess of Bedford,
and his daughter Lucy Donne died. Three years later, in 1630, Donne wrote his [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
on Saint Lucy's day (* December), the date the poem describes as "Both the
year's, and the day's deep midnight."

The increasing gloominess of
Donne's tone may also be observed in the religious works that he began writing
during the same period. His early belief in the value of skepticism now gave
way to a firm faith in the traditional teachings of the [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]. Having converted to the Anglican
Church, Donne focused his literary career on religious literature. He
quickly became noted for his sermons and religious poems. The lines of these
sermons would come to influence future works of [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.],
such as Ernest
Hemingway's For Whom the Bell
Tolls, which took its title from a passage in [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] of Devotions
upon Emergent Occasions, and [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]’s [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], which took its title
from the same source.

Towards the end of his life
Donne wrote works that challenged death, and the fear that it inspired in many
men, on the grounds of his belief that those who die are sent to [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] to live eternally. One
example of this challenge is his Holy
Sonnet [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], from which come the famous lines “Death, be
not proud, though some have called thee / Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not
so.” Even as he lay dying during [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
in 1631, he rose from his sickbed and delivered the Death's
Duel sermon, which was later described as his own funeral sermon. Death’s
Duel portrays life as a steady descent to suffering and death, yet sees hope in
salvation and immortality through an embrace of [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] and the [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.].^{[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]}

Death

It is thought that his final
illness was stomach
cancer, although this has not been proven. He died on 31 March 1631 having
written many poems, most only in manuscript. Donne is buried in [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.],
where a memorial statue of him was erected (carved from a drawing of him in his
shroud), with a Latin epigraph probably composed by himself.

Style

His work has received much
criticism over the years, especially concerning his metaphysical form. Donne is
generally considered the most prominent member of the [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.],
a phrase coined in 1781 by the critic Dr
Johnson, following a comment on Donne by the poet [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]. Dryden had
written of Donne in 1693: "He affects the metaphysics, not only in his
satires, but in his amorous verses, where nature only should reign; and
perplexes the minds of the fair sex with nice speculations of philosophy, when
he should engage their hearts, and entertain them with the softnesses of
love."^{[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]} In Life
of Cowley (from Samuel Johnson's [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
work of biography and criticism Lives
of the Most Eminent English Poets), Johnson refers to the beginning of
the seventeenth century in which there "appeared a race of writers that may
be termed the metaphysical poets". Donne's immediate successors in poetry
therefore tended to regard his works with ambivalence, with the [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] regarding his conceits as
abuse of the [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.].
However he was revived by [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] such as [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] and [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.],
though his more recent revival in the early twentieth century by poets such as [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] and critics
like F R
Leavis tended to portray him, with approval, as an anti-Romantic.^{[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]}

Donne's work suggests a
healthy appetite for life and its pleasures, while also expressing deep
emotion. He did this through the use of conceits, wit and intellect—as seen in
the poems "[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]" and "[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]".

Donne is considered a master
of the [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], an extended metaphor that combines two
vastly different ideas into a single idea, often using imagery.^{[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]}
An example of this is his equation of lovers with saints in "[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]".
Unlike the conceits found in other Elizabethan poetry, most notably [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
conceits, which formed clichéd comparisons between more closely related objects
(such as a rose and love), [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] conceits go to a greater depth in comparing
two completely unlike objects. One of the most famous of Donne's conceits is
found in "A
Valediction: Forbidding Mourning" where he compares two lovers who are
separated to the two legs of a [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.].

Donne's works are also witty,
employing [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.],
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], and subtle yet
remarkable analogies. His pieces are often ironic and cynical, especially
regarding love and human motives. Common subjects of Donne's poems are love
(especially in his early life), death (especially after his wife's death), and
religion.^{[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]}

John Donne's poetry
represented a shift from classical forms to more personal poetry.^{[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]}
Donne is noted for his [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], which was structured with changing and
jagged rhythms that closely resemble casual speech (it was for this that the
more classical-minded Ben
Jonson commented that "Donne, for not keeping of accent, deserved
hanging").^{[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]}

Some scholars believe that
Donne's literary works reflect the changing trends of his life, with [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
and [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
from his youth and religious [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] during his later years. Other scholars, such as [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], question the validity of this
dating—most of his poems were published posthumously (1633). The exception to
these is his Anniversaries which were published in 1612 and Devotions
upon Emergent Occasions published in 1624. His sermons are also dated,
sometimes specifically by date and year.

Legacy

John Donne is commemorated as
a priest in the [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] of the [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] and
in the [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] of the Evangelical
Lutheran Church in America on 31 March.^{[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]}

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], interviewed
on [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] in late 1962,
said the following about a book review of her collection of poems titled The
Colossus that had been published in the [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] two years
earlier: "I remember being appalled when someone criticized me for
beginning just like John Donne but not quite managing to finish like John
Donne, and I felt the weight of English literature on me at that
point."^{[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]}

The memorial to John Donne,
modelled after the engraving pictured above, was one of the few such memorials
to survive the Great
Fire of London in 1666 and now appears in [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], where Donne is buried.

Donne in literature

Donne has appeared in several
works of literature:

A
dying John Donne scholar is the main character of Margaret
Edson's Pulitzer prize-winning play [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
(1999), which was made into the film [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
starring Emma
Thompson.
Donne's
Songs and Sonnets feature in [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
(2003), a novel by Edward
Docx.
In
the 2006 novel The Meaning of
Night by Michael Cox, Donne's works are frequently quoted.
John
Donne appears, along with his wife Ann and daughter Pegge, in the
award-winning novel [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] (2007) by [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.].
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] has
a poem called "Elegy for John Donne".
The
love story of John Donne and Ann More is the subject of Maeve Haran's 2010
historical novel The Lady and the Poet.
An
excerpt from "Meditation 17 Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions"
serves as the opening for Ernest Hemingway's "For Whom The Bell
Tolls".
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]'s
Pulizter prize-winning novel [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
makes several references to Donne's work.