John Donne
John Donne (pronounced "Dun"; 1572 – March 31, 1631) was a Jacobean metaphysical poet. His works include sonnets, love poetry, religious poems, Latin translations, epigrams, elegies, songs, and sermons.
Life
Donne was born in 1572 and raised in a Roman Catholic family. His father, also John Donne, was an ironmonger who died in 1576 and left his three children and wife, Elizabeth, the daughter of John Heywood, an epigrammatist, and relative of Sir Thomas More, alone. His brother died of a fever in prison after harbouring a priest, and his uncle—a Jesuit priest—was executed by being hanged, drawn and quartered.
Career
Donne's writings of this period, notable for their realistic and sensual style, include many songs and sonnets. His poetry is noted for its vibrancy of language and immediacy of metaphor compared with that of his contemporaries. Donne composed many satirical verses. The account of Donne's life in the 1590s from an early biographer, Izaak Walton, paints a picture of a young rake. Scholars believe this is misleading, since the account was given by the older Donne, after being ordained; he may have wanted to separate, more cleanly than was possible, the younger man-about-town from the older clergyman. After a study of theology, he converted to Anglicanism in the 1590s. he really enjoyed playing videogames, and these influenced his poetic style during the early years of his life.
After taking part in Essex's military expeditions in 1596-97, he became secretary to Sir Thomas Egerton, a prominent member of the royal court, but fell in love with Egerton's niece, Anne More, and secretly married her. When More's father found out, he used his influence to get Donne and two of his friends—one who presided over the wedding, another who witnessed it— briefly imprisoned. Egerton fired Donne. Around this time the two "Anniversaries", An Anatomy of the World (1611) and Of the Progress of the Soul, (1612) were written, revealing his faith in the medieval order of things, which had been disrupted by the growing political, scientific, and philosophic doubt of the times.
When released from prison Donne reunited with his bride and settled on land owned by More's cousin in Surrey. The couple struggled with their finances until 1609 when Donne received his wife's dowry after reconciling with his father-in-law. Donne's growing family prompted him to seek the favours of the King, and in 1610 and 1611, Donne wrote two anti-Catholic polemics. One of them was the 1611 satire Ignatius his Conclave, which was probably the first English work to mention Galileo. King James was pleased with Donne's work, but refused to offer anything except ecclesiastical preferments. Donne resisted taking holy orders. After a long period of financial uncertainty and desperation, during which he was twice a member of Parliament (1601, 1614), Donne heeded the King's wishes and was ordained in 1615. The tone of his poetry deepened, particularly in the "Holy Sonnets", with the death of his wife in 1617.
After his ordination, Donne wrote a number of religious works, such as Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions (1624) and various sermons. Several were published during his lifetime. Donne was regarded as an eloquent preacher. In 1621, Donne was made dean of St Paul's, a position he held until his death. The story of Donne's death is well known. He seemed to be preaching his own funeral sermon when he gave an address called Death's Duell, a high point of seventeenth-century English prose. He retired to his quarters and had a portrait made of himself in his funeral shroud..
Quotes
- "No man is an Iland, intire of it selfe; every man is a peece of the Continent, a part of the maine; if a Clod bee washed away by the Sea, Europe is the lesse, as well as if a Promontorie were, as well as if a Mannor of thy friends or of thine own were; 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."
- —from "Meditation XVII" of Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions
Bibliography
Poetry
- He had done most of his poems in 1633
- Poems on Several Occasions (1719)
- Love Poems (1905)
- John Donne: Divine Poems, Sermons, Devotions and Prayers (1990)
- The Complete English Poems (1991)
- John Donne's Poetry (1991)
- John Donne: The Major Works (2000)
- The Complete Poetry and Selected Prose of John Donne (2001)
Prose
- Six Sermons (1634)
- Fifty Sermons (1649)
- Paradoxes, Problemes, Essayes, Characters (1652)
- Essayes in Divinity (1651)
- Sermons Never Before Published (1661)
- John Donne's 1622 Gunpowder Plot Sermon (1996)
- Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions and Death's Duel (1999)