John Donne

(1572-1631)
John Donne
 was the most outstanding of the English Metaphysical Poets
and a churchman famous for his spellbinding sermons.
 born in London to a prominent Roman Catholic family but
converted to Anglicanism during the 1590s.
 At the age of 11 he entered the University of Oxford, where
he studied for three years.
 According to some accounts, he spent the next three years
at the University of Cambridge but took no degree at either
university.
 He began the study of law at Lincoln's Inn, London, in 1592,
and he seemed destined for a legal or diplomatic career.
 Donne was appointed private secretary to Sir Thomas
Egerton, Keeper of the Great Seal, in 1598.
 His secret marriage in 1601 to Egerton's niece, Anne More,
resulted in his dismissal from this position and in a brief
imprisonment. During the next few years Donne made a
meager living as a lawyer.
John Donne
 principal literary accomplishments:

 Holy Sonnets (1607) – 19 devotional poems published in

1633 posthumously – characterized by innovative
rhythm and imagery: personal and passionate
examination of Donne’s love for God dealing with the
poet’s doubts, fears and sense of spiritual
unworthiness: the poet reflects on his past errors and
he is worried that it is too late to repent.
 the prose work Biathanatos (c.1608, posthumously
published 1644), in which he argued that suicide is not
intrinsically sinful.
 The Anniversaries (1611-1612): two long poems on the
decay and disintegration of the world. They reveal the
poet’s pessimism and disillusion.

 became a priest of the Anglican Church in 1615 and was

appointed royal chaplain later that year - end of financial
problems
John Donne
 In 1621 - dean* of St. Paul's Cathedral.
 attained eminence as a preacher, delivering sermons
that are regarded as the most brilliant and eloquent
of his time – the king’s favourite preacher
 160 sermons survive (“For Whom the Bell Tolls”):
reflections on death, sin, salvation.
 In 1631 – memorable sermon on death in St Paul’s
Cathedral: “Death’s Duel”

 Death in 1631

 *Dean = a priest of high rank in the Anglican church in charge of

other priests in a cathedral.
John Donne
 poetry embraces a wide range of
secular and religious subjects
 wrote
 cynical verse about inconstancy,
 poems about true love,
 lyrics on the mystical union of lovers'
souls and bodies,
 brilliant satires
 and hymns depicting his own spiritual
struggles
Conceit

 a figure of speech which makes an

unusual and sometimes elaborate
comparison between two dissimilar
things.
 a figure of speech, usually
a simile or metaphor, that forms an
extremely original or bizarre parallel
between apparently dissimilar
or incongruous objects or situations.
Petrarchan Conceit
 imitates the metaphors used by the Italian poet
Petrarch.
 used in love poetry, exploits a particular set of
images for comparisons with the despairing lover and
his unpitying but idealized mistress.
 the lover is a ship on a stormy sea, and his
mistress "a cloud of dark disdain“
 the lady is a sun whose beauty and virtue shine
on her lover from a distance.
 The paradoxical pain and pleasure of lovesickness
is often described using oxymoron*
 uniting peace and war
 burning and freezing

 *oxymoron=
 1) two words used together that have, or seem to have, opposite
meanings.
 2) a combination of contradictory or incongruous words (such as cruel
kindness);
Metaphysical Conceit
 characteristic of seventeenth-century writers influenced by
John Donne
 noteworthy specifically for their lack of conventionality. In
general, the metaphysical conceit will use some sort of
shocking or unusual comparison as the basis for the
metaphor. When it works, a metaphysical conceit has a
surprising appropriateness that makes us look at
something in an entirely new way.
 draws upon a wide range of knowledge, mainly using
highly intellectual analogies; its comparisons are
elaborately rationalized.
 "The Flea" compares a flea bite to the act of love
 In "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning“* separated lovers
are likened to the legs of a compass, the leg drawing the
circle eventually returning home to "the fixed foot"
 * ”Commiato: Divieto di Lamentarsi”
 https://www.britannica.com/art/conceit
Characteristic of Donne's Poetry

 It is sharply opposed to the rich melodies with smooth

rhythm and flow and the idealized view of sexual love
which constituted the central tradition of Elizabethan poetry,
especially in writers like the Petrarchan sonneteers and
Spenser.
 It adopts a diction and meter modeled on the rough give-
and-take of actual speech.
 It is usually organized in the dramatic or rhetorical form
of an urgent or intense passionate argument (first
drawing in the reader and then launching the argument).
 It puts to use a subtle and often outrageous (=shocking)
logic.
 It is marked by realism, irony and often a cynicism in its
treatment of the complexity of human motives.
 It reveals a persistent wittiness, making use of paradox,
puns, and startling (=surprising) parallels.
John Donne

 Donne's poetry marks sharp

stylistic and thematic breaks from
the sort of verse written by his
predecessors and indeed most of
his contemporaries.
Seal =

 a piece of wax, lead, or other material with an

individual design stamped into it, attached to a
document as a guarantee of authenticity.
 Ex. The king put his seal on the letter.“

 The Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England,

and later of Great Britain, was formerly an
officer of the English Crown charged with
physical custody of the Great Seal of England.