Read complete books and articles on: John Donne

Donne, John - dŭn, dŏn, 1572–1631, English poet and divine. He is considered the greatest of the metaphysical poets.

Life and Works

Donne, John - dŭn, dŏn, 1572–1631, English poet and divine. He is considered the greatest of the metaphysical poets.

Life and Works

Reared a Roman Catholic, Donne was educated at Oxford, Cambridge, and Lincoln's Inn. He traveled on the Continent and in 1596–97 accompanied the earl of Essex on his expeditions to Cádiz and the Azores. On his return he became secretary to Sir Thomas Egerton (later Baron Ellesmere), lord keeper of the great seal, and achieved a reputation as a poet and public personage. His writing of this period, including some of his Songs and Sonnets (others were written as late as 1617) and Problems and Paradoxes, consist of cynical, realistic, often sensual lyrics, essays, and verse satires.

Donne's court career was ruined by the discovery of his marriage in 1601 to Anne More, niece to Sir Thomas Egerton's second wife, and he was imprisoned for a short time. After 1601 his poetry became more serious. The two Anniversaries—An Anatomy of the World (1611) and Of the Progress of the Soul (1612)—reveal that his faith in the medieval order of things had been disrupted by the growing political, scientific, and philosophic doubt of the times. He wrote prose on religious and moral subjects; a polemic against the Jesuits; Biathanatos (not published until 1644), a qualified apology for suicide; and the Pseudo-Martyr (1610), an argument for Anglicanism.

After a long period of financial uncertainty and desperation, during which he was twice a member of Parliament (1601, 1614), Donne yielded to the wishes of King James I and took orders in 1615. Two years later his wife died. The tone of his poetry, especially the Holy Sonnets, deepened after her death. After his ordination, Donne wrote more religious works, such as his Devotions (1624) and sermons. Several of his sermons were published during his lifetime. Donne was one of the most eloquent preachers of his day. He was made reader in divinity at Lincoln's Inn, a royal chaplain, and in 1621, dean of St. Paul's, a position he held until his death.

Poetry

All of Donne's verse—his love sonnets and his religious and philosophical poems—is distinguished by a remarkable blend of passion and reason. His love poetry treats the breadth of the experience of loving, emphasizing, in such poems as "The Ecstasie," the root of spiritual love in physical love. The devotional poems and sermons reveal a profound concern with death, decay, damnation, and the possibility of the soul's transcendent union with God.

Original, witty, erudite, and often obscure, Donne's style is characterized by a brilliant use of paradox, hyperbole, and imagery. His most famous poems include "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning," "Go and catch a falling star," "Hymn to God the Father," and the sonnet to death ("Death be not proud"). Neglected for 200 years, Donne was rediscovered by 20th-century critics. His work has had a profound influence on a number of poets Including W. B. Yeats, T. S. Eliot, and W. H. Auden.

Bibliography

See biography by R. C. Bald (1970); studies by R. E. Hughes (1968), R. S. Jackson (1970), and M. Roston (1974); centenary volumes edited by P. A. Fiore (1972) and A. J. Smith (1972).

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14 of the Best Books and Articles on: John Donne

as selected by Questia librarians

1.

John Donne » Read Now
by Frank Kermode. 48 pgs.

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...Writers and Their Work : No. 86 JOHN DONNE by FRANK KERMODE PUBLISHED...CO. Revised Price 2s. 6d. net John Donne 1572-1631 said of his own verse...GENERAL EDITOR Bonamy...
2.

Complete Poetry and Selected Prose » Read Now
by John Donne, John Hayward. 798 pgs.

Collections: Literature, Entire Library

...JOHN DONNE DEAN OF ST. PAULS...Jessop for his study of Donne as a theologian; to...invidious to pick out Mr. John Sparrow ed. Devotions...the Sermons, which Donne prepared...
3.

The Poetry of John Donne: A Study in Explication » Read Now
by Doniphan Louthan. 196 pgs.

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...The Poetry of John Donne THE POETRY OF JOHN DONNE A Study in Explication BY Doniphan Louthan BOOKMAN...OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS: A Study of the Prose Works of John Donne ...
4.

John Donne: A Collection of Critical Essays » Read Now
by Helen Louise Gardner. 186 pgs.

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...Series Editor Yale University JOHN DONNE A COLLECTION OF CRITICAL ESSAYS...Helen Gardner 1 JOHN DONNE -- George Saintsbury 13...Mario Praz 61 JOHN DONNE: A RECONSIDERATION...
5.

Donne's Imagery: A Study in Creative Sources » Read Now
by Milton Allan Rugoff. 276 pgs.

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...carefully docu mented study in John Donne and the New Philosophy Columbia...Herbert J. C. Grierson, The Poems of John Donne , Oxford, 1912, II, 132; hereafter...K...
6.

John Donne and the Seventeenth-Century Metaphysical Poets » Read Now
by Harold Bloom. 267 pgs.

Collections: Philosophy, Literature, Entire Library

-- Brings together the best criticism on the most widely read poets, novelists, and playwrights
-- Presents complex critical portraits of the most influential writers in the English-speaking world -- from the English medievalists to contemporary writers
7.

Gender and the Sacred Self in John Donne » Read Now
by Elizabeth M. A. Hodgson. 226 pgs.

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8.

John Donne's Articulations of the Feminine » Read Now
by H. L. Meakin. 276 pgs.

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This book is a historical and theoretical study of some of John Donne's less frequently discussed poetry and prose; it interrogates various trends that have dominated Donne criticism, such as the widely divergent views about his attitudes towards women, the focus on the Songs and Sonets to the...
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This book is a historical and theoretical study of some of John Donne's less frequently discussed poetry and prose; it interrogates various trends that have dominated Donne criticism, such as the widely divergent views about his attitudes towards women, the focus on the Songs and Sonets to the exclusion of his other works, and the tendency to separate discussions of his poetry and prose. On a broader scale, it joins a small but growing number of feminist re-readings of Donne's works. Using the cultural criticism of French feminist philosopher Luce Irigaray, Meakin explores works throughout Donne's career, from his earliest verse letters to sermons preached while Divinity Reader at Lincoln's Inn and Dean of St. Paul's in London. Donne's articulations of four feminine figures in particular are examined: the Muse, Sappho, Eve as `the mother of mankind', and a young girl who lived and died in Donne's own time, Elizabeth Drury. Meakin's reading of Donne's self-described `masculine perswasive force' asserting itself upon the `incomprehensibleness' of the feminine suggests that the Donne canon needs to be reassessed as even richer and more complex than previously asserted, and that his reputation as a supreme Renaissance poet - revived at the beginning of this century - needs to be carried into the next.
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9.

The Dogmatic and Mystical Theology of John Donne » Read Now
by Itrat Husain. 154 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, Entire Library

...THE DOGMATIC AND MYSTICAL THEOLOGY OF JOHN DONNE DR. JOHN DONNE From the original picture by Vandyck, as reproduced...works of Donne. THE DOGMATIC AND MYSTICAL THEOLOGY OF...
10.

Erotic Spirituality: The Integrative Tradition from Leone Ebreo to John Donne » Read Now
by T. Anthony Perry. 152 pgs.

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...Integrative Tradition from Leone Ebreo to John Donne T. ANTHONY PERRY The University...we have some errand to do here. JOHN DONNE This study attempts to...
11.

The Story of All Things: Writing the Self in English Renaissance Narrative Poetry (Chap. 5 "Refiguring the Remains of the World in Donne's Anniversaries: Absolute Monuments to Absolute Knowledge") » Read Now
by Marshall Grossman. 349 pgs.

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...Mary Ann Radzinowicz, Jason Rosenblatt, John Shawcross, David Harris Sacks, Julie Solomon...this book and tell me what they think. John Maynard and Anthony Low of the...
12.

Entangled Voices: Genre and the Religious Construction of the Self (Chap. 3 "'Intoxicated with Intimacy': The Lyric Voice in John Donne's Holy Sonnets") » Read Now
by Frederick J. Ruf. 128 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, Literature, Entire Library

In this book, Ruf tries to understand how the concepts of "voice" and "genre" function in texts, especially religious texts. To this end, he joins literary theorists in the discussion about "narrative." Ruf rejects the idea of genre as a fixed historical form that serves as a template for readers...
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In this book, Ruf tries to understand how the concepts of "voice" and "genre" function in texts, especially religious texts. To this end, he joins literary theorists in the discussion about "narrative." Ruf rejects the idea of genre as a fixed historical form that serves as a template for readers and writers; instead, he suggests that we imagine different genres, whether narrative, lyric, or dramatic, as the expression of different voices. Each voice, he asserts, possesses different key qualities: embodiment, sociality, contextuality, and opacity in the dramatic voice; intimacy, limitation, urgency in lyric; and a "magisterial" quality of comprehensiveness and cohesiveness in narrative. These voices are models for our selves, composing an unruly and unstable multiplicity of selves. Ruf applies his theory of "voice" and "genre" to five texts: Dineson's Out of Africa, Donne's Holy Sonnets, Primo Levi's The Periodic Table, Robert Wilson's Einstein on the Beach, and Coleridge's Biographia Literaria. Through these literary works, he discerns the detailed ways in which a text constructs a voice and, in the process, a self. More importantly, Ruf demonstrates that this process is a religious one, fulfilling the function that religions traditionally assume: that of defining the self and its world.
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13.

In Praise of Scribes: Manuscripts and Their Makers in Seventeenth-Century England (Chap. 2 "'It Shall Not Therefore Kill Itself; That Is, Not Bury Itself': Donne's Biathanatos and Its Text") » Read Now
by Peter Beal. 320 pgs.

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In Praise of Scribes is a major contribution to the field of manuscript studies in the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. This profusely illustrated book argues for the significant role played by clerks and scriveners both in contemporary society and in the transmissional history of literary...
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In Praise of Scribes is a major contribution to the field of manuscript studies in the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. This profusely illustrated book argues for the significant role played by clerks and scriveners both in contemporary society and in the transmissional history of literary texts. Specific case studies are offered of a remarkably industrious contributor to the ferment of ideas leading to the Civil War (the so-called 'Feathery Scribe'), as well as of the notorious 'Captain' Robert Julian in the Restoration period. Other case studies exemplify the wide-ranging empirical use which is to be made of material texts, and shed new light on works by Sir Philip Sidney, John Donne, and Katherine Philips, writers who flourished in a manuscript culture. The book explores questions about the nature of that culture vis à vis print culture, about constructions of authorship, and about the complex nature of texts themselves in an evolving society and changing readership.
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14.

The Columbia History of British Poetry ("Lyric Poetry from Donne to Philips" begins on p. 229) » Read Now
by Carl Woodring, James Shapiro. 740 pgs.

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The Columbia Anthology of British Poetry brings together the most remarkable verse written in the British Isles over the course of the past twelve centuries, offering the greatest diversity of poetic voices in any anthology of its kind. From Shakespeare's memorable sonnets to Keats's haunting odes...
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The Columbia Anthology of British Poetry brings together the most remarkable verse written in the British Isles over the course of the past twelve centuries, offering the greatest diversity of poetic voices in any anthology of its kind. From Shakespeare's memorable sonnets to Keats's haunting odes to T.S. Eliot's mediations on the conditions of modern life, the collection contains many of the best-loved treasures of British poetry. Longer and much-celebrated poems that rarely find their way into anthologies-including Pope's "Rape of the Lock" and Coleridge's "Rime of the Ancient Mariner"-claim a place in this collection. Queen Elizabeth I, Anne Killigrew, Aphra Behn, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, and Felicia Hemans are among dozens of women writers renowned in their own day and now restored to their rightful prominence. Scottish, Welsh, and Irish poets often excluded from anthologies of British poetry are here as well, including such extraordinary voices as Lady Grisell Baillie, Robert Burns, Hugh MacDiarmid, and Seamus Heaney. The finest contemporary poets are fully represented also, from Thom Gunn to Eavan Boland. The result is an amazingly rich and wide-ranging conversation among British poets that transcends the boundaries of time and place. Carl Woodring and James Shapiro, the team scholars who edited The Columbia History of British Poetry, have written incisive introductions to the careers of the poets, making this the most accessible and comprehensive anthology of British verse in print. Covering the new and the ancient, the classic and the rediscovered, this generous volume reimagines the horizons of British poetry.
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