Bio
·
Born in 1572 London England during a time of
political/religious unrest (Protestant Massacre in France on Saint
Bartholomew’s day; persecution of Catholics)
·
Studied at Oxford and Cambridge in his early
teen years but never took a degree from either because it meant subscribing to
the 39Articles of Anglicanism.
·
Studied law at Lincoln’s Inn, and two years
later joined Anglican church after his brother died in prison, having been put
there for being a Catholic. Wrote his Satires
and Songs and Sonnets volumes during
these times
·
He was appointed private secretary to Sir Thomas
Egerton in 1598 after a 2year naval expedition against Spain
·
He sat on Queen Elizabeth’s last Parliament in
1601 and secretly married Anne More, for which her father (Egerton) imprisoned
him and refused them a dowry
·
They succame to extreme financial instability in
their subsequent isolation, especially
cuz they had so many kids. He published a group of works called Divine Poems during this time
·
1615 – James I pressured him to enter the
Anglican Ministry by declaring that Donne could not be employed outside of the
church, and he was appointed Royal Chaplain later that year
·
His wife died in 1617 after giving birth to
their 12 child, a stillborn (only 7 actually lived). It is during this period
of his life he published Holy Sonnets
·
In 1621 he became dean of Saint Paul’s
Cathedral, and during this time wrote his private prayers, Devotions upon Emergent Occasions
·
He was the founder of the Metaphysical School of poetry (a term created by Samuel Johnson,
the actual word “metaphysics” developed by Dryden upon observation of Donne’s
odd terminology) who are known for their ability to startle the reader and coax
new perspective through paradoxical images, subtle argument, inventive syntax,
and imagery from art, philosophy, and religion using an extended metaphor known
as a conceit
·
His learned, charismatic, and inventive
preaching made him a highly influential presence in London (especially amongst
the younger generation of poets), best known for his vivacious, compelling
style and thorough examination of moral paradox. Died 1631
Influences
He drew influence from:
·
Ovid (treating love cynically or as reduced to
mere sexual attraction) note, there is some debate on whether he was actually
involved in the rank sexual lifestyle or if he was just using Ovidian themes
satiricly for implicitly moral purposes à
his first published works, the Satires,
almost seem to suggest the latter
·
Petrarch (impassioned and romantic) – quote “For
Rachel I have severed, and not for Leah” became his motto, also was influenced
by the Petrarchan idea that it is idolatrious to attach your love to a person,
and so to rectify your love you must redirect it to the unchanging image Dei (God; that is, turn from worldly love to
divine love – perhaps Donne’s reaction after Anne’s death, and definitely in
part the message of Farewell to Love)
·
The Church (his mother was catholic, but he was
taught at Anglican universities, led to his acceptance of Christian Platonism à a reconciliation of the human
need to love with both body and soul, but with each not beyond what they should
be so that they don’t take from the
relationship with God ----- there would be three types of unions, the union of
human bodies sexually, the union of souls emotionally, and the union of souls
with God spiritually) This is why so many of his poems are so shockingly
sexual, even when dealing with religion
He influenced:
Renaissance love lyric and conational 16th
century poetry
·
Passages are not as smooth or mellifluous, but
instead he speaks with “a vocabulary and syntax reflecting the emotional
intensity of a confrontation and whose metrics and verbal music conform to the to
the needs of a particular dramatic situation” (using “living speech”)
·
He used conceit more fully
·
Drew his imagery from more diverse fields
(alchemy, astronomy, medicine, politics, global exploration, philosophical
disputation)
·
Direct confrontation of the “ladies” of his
poems, instead of about them but apart from them
·
Through all these he influenced Robert Browning,
William Butler Yeats, T.S. Eliot, Alexander Pope, and Ernest Hemingway (for
whom the bell tolls)
Work Cited
"John Donne." Poets.org.
The Academy of American Poets. Web. 13 Mar. 2012
Naugle, David. "John Donne's Poetic Philosophy of
Love." Web.
Farewell to Love
WHILST yet to prove
I thought there was some deity in love,
So did I reverence, and gave
Worship ; as atheists at their dying hour
Call, what they cannot name, an unknown power,
As ignorantly did I crave.
Thus when
Things not yet known are coveted by men,
Our desires give them fashion, and so
As they wax lesser, fall, as they size, grow.
But, from late fair,
His highness sitting in a golden chair,
Is not less cared for after three days
By children, than the thing which lovers so
Blindly admire, and with such worship woo ;
Being had, enjoying it decays ;
And thence,
What before pleased them all, takes but one sense,
And that so lamely, as it leaves behind
A kind of sorrowing dulness to the mind.
Ah cannot we,
As well as cocks and lions, jocund be
After such pleasures, unless wise
Nature decreed—since each such act, they say,
Diminisheth the length of life a day—
This ; as she would man should despise
The sport,
Because that other curse of being short,
And only for a minute made to be
Eager, desires to raise posterity.
Since so, my mind
Shall not desire what no man else can find ;
I'll no more dote and run
To pursue things which had endamaged me ;
And when I come where moving beauties be,
As men do when the summer's sun
Grows great,
Though I admire their greatness, shun their heat.
Each place can afford shadows ; if all fail,
'Tis but applying worm-seed to the tail.
I thought there was some deity in love,
So did I reverence, and gave
Worship ; as atheists at their dying hour
Call, what they cannot name, an unknown power,
As ignorantly did I crave.
Thus when
Things not yet known are coveted by men,
Our desires give them fashion, and so
As they wax lesser, fall, as they size, grow.
But, from late fair,
His highness sitting in a golden chair,
Is not less cared for after three days
By children, than the thing which lovers so
Blindly admire, and with such worship woo ;
Being had, enjoying it decays ;
And thence,
What before pleased them all, takes but one sense,
And that so lamely, as it leaves behind
A kind of sorrowing dulness to the mind.
Ah cannot we,
As well as cocks and lions, jocund be
After such pleasures, unless wise
Nature decreed—since each such act, they say,
Diminisheth the length of life a day—
This ; as she would man should despise
The sport,
Because that other curse of being short,
And only for a minute made to be
Eager, desires to raise posterity.
Since so, my mind
Shall not desire what no man else can find ;
I'll no more dote and run
To pursue things which had endamaged me ;
And when I come where moving beauties be,
As men do when the summer's sun
Grows great,
Though I admire their greatness, shun their heat.
Each place can afford shadows ; if all fail,
'Tis but applying worm-seed to the tail.
