Balti state university a. Russo chair of english philology

John Donne 
(1572-1631) 
 John Donne characterized himself as “an adventurous young spark who wrote cynical 
verses and at the same time the grave and eloquent divine, Doctor Donne, the dean of St. Paul‟s 
Cathedral”./ The contrast is striking but the key to both characters is the same – it is a restless 
searching energy. 
J. Donne was born in an old Roman Catholic family at the time when anti-Catholic feeling 
in England was at its height and Catholics were subject to constant harassment by secret police. 
His faith barred him from many usual avenues of success and his point of view has always been 
of an insecure outsider. Though Donne attended both Oxford and Cambridge Universities he 
never took any academic degrees and never practiced law. After quietly abandoning Catholicism 
some time during the 1590s he had scruples about becoming an Anglican. His financial situation 
made him use his wit and charm in order to make his way in life./4 He travelled on the 
Continent and put himself in the way of court employment. In 1601 he secretly married Lady 
Edgerton‟s niece, Ann More, and ruined his own worldly hopes. His father-in-law had 
imprisoned and dismissed him from his post. Donne became poor and sick. He took up writing. 
Approaching the age of 40 he published two anti -Catholic polemics. Donne publicly announced 
about his renunciation to the Catholic faith. In 1611-1612 he wrote several long poems, among 
them was The Anniversaries on the Death of Sir Robert‟s Daughter Elizabeth. 
Polemic is the art of carrying on arguments
Though Donne refused to take Anglican orders, King James was certain to make a great 
Anglican preacher of him. He declared that Donne could have no employment from him except 
in church, so Donne was forced to enter the ministry and received this order in 1615. 
In 1621 Donne was appointed dean of St. Paul‟s Cathedral. Donne‟s metaphorical style, bold 
erudition and dramatic wit established him as a great preacher. 160 sermons of his survived. His 
private devotions were published in 1624 but he continued to write secret poetry. 
The poetry of Donne represents a sharp break with that written by his predecessors and most 
of his contemporaries. Donne took his cue from recent continental poets who had freshened the 
Petrachan tradition, by developing a more intellectualised form of conceit, created highly 
concentrated images, which involve a major element of dramatic contrast.
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4. 
The Northon Anthology of English Literature 6
th
 Edition Major Authors. New York, London 1989 
p 1060 

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66 
66 
The clichés of early love poetry, such as: bleeding hearts, cheeks like roses, lips like 
cherries, appear in Donne‟s poetry only as a mockery or in some ingenious transmutation. The 
tears, which flow in his poem “A Valediction: of Weeping” are different form ordinary fluid of 
unhappy lovers; they are symbols of world‟s emptiness without a beloved./5 
Donne likes to twist not only images and ideas, but also traditional rhythmic and stanzaic 
patterns. His speech patterns are colloquial and varied.
The great change in the interest of the readers by the end of the century made Donne‟s 
poetry rarely read, though in a period of time things changed and in 1612 a new edition of 
Donne appeared and was quickly accepted as standard. Many of his poems were black marks on 
Donne as a Godly Divine, because they were difficult and allusive. His collected poems were 
first published in 1633, the poems were divided into several generic groups such as sonnets, 
epigrams, love elegies, safire, verse letters and funeral elegies.