John Donne

John Donne
John Donne
Occupation	Poet, Priest
Nationality	English
Genre	Satire, Love poetry, Elegy, Sermons
Subject	Love, Sexuality, Religion, Death
Literary movement	Metaphysical Poetry

For the Welsh courtier and diplomat, see Sir John Donne.

John Donne (pronounced like done, /dʌn/; 1572 – March 31 , 1631) was a Jacobean poet and preacher, representative of the metaphysical poets of the period. His works, notable for their realistic and sensual style, include sonnets, love poetry, religious poems, Latin translations, epigrams, elegies, songs, satires and sermons. His poetry is noted for its vibrancy of language and inventiveness of metaphor, compared with that of his contemporaries. He is famous for his Holy Sonnets.

Donne came from a Roman Catholic family, and so he experienced persecution until his conversion to the Anglican Church. Despite his great education and poetic talents, he lived in poverty for several years, relying heavily on wealthy friends. In 1615 he became an Anglican priest and in 1621 Dean of St Paul's. Some scholars believe his literary works reflect these trends, with love poetry and satires from his youth, and religious sermons during his later years. Other scholars, such as Helen Gardner, question the validity of dating when 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 1623. His sermons are also dated, sometimes quite specifically, by year and date.

External links

• John Donne at Luminarium.org
• Poems by John Donne at PoetryFoundation.org
• The Literature Network
• John Donne's Monument, St Paul's Cathedral
• Homepage of the John Donne Society
• Donne undone: Review of "John Donne: The Reformed Soul"(John Stubbs), Guardian Unlimited, July 22, 2006, by Andrew Motion.
• Selected Poems of John Donne
• Complete sermons of John Donne
• John Donne: Sparknotes
• The Donne Variorum
• Digital Donne (digital images of early Donne editions and manuscripts)

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