GCE A/L English Literature - Made Easy

John Donne

John Donne (born 1573 died 1631) is one of the great metaphysical poets. The affinities between the metaphysicals and modern pacts are quite interesting "Metaphysical poets had reactions to the tradition they inherited".

Having chosen a wide variety of themes, made "unimaginative use of rhythms of the speaking voice preferring a rough line which achieved dramatic intensity to a smooth line which lacked it" The accented syllables coming at equal intervals and regular rising and fall of the sounds enhancing the ideas conveyed by the poet.

There's no "burden of refrain" though the usage of certain words appears to be in a state of repetition. John Donne has a vision while the ordinary man attempts at only grasping what he sees.

Donne's popular sonnet "Death be not proud" has a theme, an exception from his other poems. The theme is "weighty, straight forward and easily comprehensible."

The accented syllables coming at equal intervals and a regular rising and fall of the sounds enhancing the ideas conveyed by the poet using the rhythm of the spoken language, emphasising the fact that Donne has a vision, following the concepts of immortality the idea of an eternal life beyond death.

Usually in Donne's sonnets, the octet delivers the message and the sestet follows with an analysis while the rhythming couplet sums up the whole situation unfolding the inner feelings of the poet.

A prominent characteristic in metaphysical poetry is the "unexpected image which unites contrasting suggestions."

John Donne's poem "The Sun Rising" opens with one of the startling unexpected images.

"She is all states and all Princes I nothing else is....."

The reader gets alerted to the fact that this is an exaggeration. The "dramatic and poignant lines" bringing "reflective interest and psychological curiosity to bear on the original and the meaning of their emotional experiences," Metaphysical poets preferred "The note of authenticity conveyed by rhythms of the speaking voice" taking the imagery from the real world.

Donne, who had achieved much benefit by the Revival of Learning known as the Renaissance was perfectly aware "how small man is in relation to the Sun, whose laws it obeys by going round it."

Throughout the poems of Donne, the dominant image remains highlighted or emphasised.

Lyric poetry of the sixteenth century usually had set themes. They were very often "imitations or translations from Italian or French". Lyrics were usually sung while the metaphysical poets chose "a wide variety of themes, ranging from personal loves and hates to religious questions".

Making use of the imaginative use of rhythms of the speaking voice, producing what Grierson called "The peculiar blend of passion and thought."

Mrs. C. Ekanayake,
Retd. Specialist Teacher Eng.,
St. Anne's College,
Kurunegala

Poetry

An Anatomie of the World (1612)

An Anatomy of the World (1611)

Deaths Dvell (1632)

Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions (1624)

Divine Poems Divine Poems (1607)

Ignatius his Conclaue (1611)

Ivvenilia (1633)

Poems (1633)

Psevdo-Martyr (1610)

Sapientia Clamitans (1638)

Satires (1593)

Songs and Sonnets (1601)

The Second Anniuersarie. Of The Progres of the Soule (1611)

Wisdome crying out to Sinners (1639)

Prose

A Collection of Letters, Made by Sr Tobie Mathews, Kt. (1660)

Letters to Severall Persons of Honour (1651)

Essays

A Sermon Of Commemoration Of The Lady Dauers (1627)

A Sermon Vpon The VIII. Verse Of The I. Chapter of The Acts Of The Apostles (1622)

A Sermon Vpon The XV. Verse Of The XX. Chapter Of The Booke Of Ivdges (1622)

A Sermon, Preached To The Kings Mtie. At Whitehall (1625)

Biathanatos: A Declaration of that Paradoxe, or Thesis that Selfe-homicide is not so (1644)

Encania. The Feast of Dedication. Celebrated At Lincolnes Inne, in a Sermon there upon Ascension day (1623)

Essayes in Divinity (1651)

Five Sermons Vpon Speciall Occasions (1626)

Fovre Sermons Upon Speciall Occasions (1625)

LXXX Sermons (1640)

Naturally Sinne, that it may never be otherwise (1647)

Six Sermons Vpon Severall Occasions (1634)

The First Sermon Preached To King Charles (1625)

Three Sermons Upon Speciall Occasions (1623)

****

John Donne was born in 1572 in London, England. He is known as the founder of the Metaphysical Poets, a term created by Samuel Johnson, an eighteenth-century English essayist, poet, and philosopher.

The loosely associated group also includes George Herbert, Richard Crashaw, Andrew Marvell, and John Cleveland.

The Metaphysical Poets are known for their ability to startle the reader and coax new perspective through paradoxical images, subtle argument, inventive syntax, and imagery from art, philosophy, and religion using an extended metaphor known as a conceit.

Donne reached beyond the rational and hierarchical structures of the seventeenth century with his exacting and ingenious conceits, advancing the exploratory spirit of his time.

Donne entered the world during a period of theological and political unrest for both England and France; a Protestant massacre occurred on Saint Bartholomew's day in France; while in England, the Catholics were the persecuted minority.

Born into a Roman Catholic family, Donne's personal relationship with religion was tumultuous and passionate, and at the center of much of his poetry. He studied at both Oxford and Cambridge Universities in his early teen years.

He did not take a degree at either school, because to do so would have meant subscribing to the Thirty-nine Articles, the doctrine that defined Anglicanism. At age twenty he studied law at Lincoln's Inn.

Two years later he succumbed to religious pressure and joined the Anglican Church after his younger brother, convicted for his Catholic loyalties, died in prison. Donne wrote most of his love lyrics, erotic verse, and some sacred poems in the 1590's, creating two major volumes of work: Satires, and Songs and Sonnets.

In 1598, after returning from a two-year naval expedition against Spain, Donne was appointed private secretary to Sir Thomas Egerton. While sitting in Queen Elizabeth's last Parliament in 1601, Donne secretly married Anne More, the sixteen-year-old niece of Lady Egerton. Donne's father-in-law disapproved of the marriage.

As punishment, he did not provide a dowry for the couple and had Donne briefly imprisoned.

This left the couple isolated and dependent on friends, relatives, and patrons. Donne suffered social and financial instability in the years following his marriage, exacerbated by the birth of many children.

He continued to write and published the Divine Poems in 1607. In Pseudo-Martyr, published in 1610, Donne displayed his extensive knowledge of the laws of the Church and state, arguing that Roman Catholics could support James I without compromising their faith.

In 1615, James I pressured him to enter the Anglican Ministry by declaring that Donne could not be employed outside of the Church. He was appointed Royal Chaplain later that year. His wife, aged thirty-three, died in 1617, shortly after giving birth to their twelfth child, a stillborn. The Holy Sonnets are also attributed to this phase of his life.

In 1621 he became dean of Saint Paul's Cathedral. In his later years, Donne's writing reflected his fear of his inevitable death. He wrote his private prayers, Devotions upon Emergent Occasions, during a period of severe illness and published them in 1624.

His learned, charismatic, and inventive preaching made him a highly influential presence in London. Best known for his vivacious, compelling style and thorough examination of mortal paradox, John Donne died in London in 1631.