Context
John Donne was born in 1572 to a London merchant and his wife. Donne's parents
were both Catholic at a time when England was deeply divided over matters of
religion; Queen Elizabeth persecuted the Catholics and upheld the Church of
England established by her father, Henry VIII. The subsequent ruler, James I,
tolerated Catholicism, but advised Donne that he would achieve advancement only
in the Church of England. Having renounced his Catholic faith, Donne was
ordained in the Church of England in 1615. Donne's father died when he was very
young, as did several of his brothers and sisters, and his mother remarried twice
during his lifetime. Donne was educated at Hart's Hall, Oxford, and Lincoln's Inn;
he became prodigiously learned, speaking several languages and writing poems in
both English and Latin.
Donne's adult life was colorful, varied, and often dangerous; he sailed with the
royal fleet and served as both a Member of Parliament and a diplomat. In 1601,
he secretly married a woman named Ann More, and he was imprisoned by her father,
Sir George More; however, after the Court of Audiences upheld his marriage
several months later, he was released and sent to live with his wife's cousin in
Surrey, his fortunes now in tatters. For the next several years, Donne moved
his family throughout England, traveled extensively in France and Italy, and
attempted unsuccessfully to gain positions that might improve his financial
situation. In 1615, Donne was ordained a priest in the Anglican Church;
in 1621, he became the Dean of St. Paul's Cathedral, a post that he
retained for the rest of his life. A very successful priest, Donne preached several times before royalty; his sermons were famous for
their power and directness.
For the last decade of his life, before his death in 1630, Donne concentrated
more on writing sermons than on writing poems, and today he is admired for the
former as well as the latter. (One of his most famous sermons contains the
passage beginning, "No man is an island" and ending, "Therefore ask not for whom
the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.") However, it is for his extraordinary poems
that Donne is primarily remembered; and it was on the basis of his poems that
led to the revival of his reputation at the beginning of the 20th century,
following years of obscurity. (The renewed interest in Donne was led by a new
generation of writers at the turn of the century, including T.S. Eliot.) Donne
was the leading exponent of a style of poetry called "metaphysical poetry,"
which flourished in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries.
Metaphysical poetry features elaborate conceits and surprising symbols, wrapped
up in original, challenging language structures, with learned themes that draw
heavily on eccentric chains of reasoning. Donne's verse, like that of George
Herbert, Andrew Marvell, and many of their contemporaries, exemplifies these
traits. But Donne is also a highly individual poet, and his consistently
ingenious treatment of his great theme--the conflict between spiritual piety and
physical carnality, as embodied in religion and love--remains unparalleled.
