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.
