Jon Donne
Jon Donne was the most outstanding of the English metaphysical poets and a churchman famous for his spellbinding sermons. His poetry is noted for its ingenious fusion of wit and seriousness and represents a shift from classical models toward a more personal style. Jon Donne's poetic genius has been appreciated by many throughout history. Donne broke away from the "decorative and flowery" verse that characterized most poetry during the Elizabethan period to develop his own unique style. His poetry is rich in metaphor and admittedly can be difficult and allusive. However, his poetry is well worth the effort it demands on the part of the reader. Jon Donne was born in London, England to a prominent Roman Catholic family but eventually converted to Anglicanism during the 1590's. At the age of eleven years old he entered the University of Oxford, where he studied for three years. He then attended Cambridge University, and Lincoln's Inn (a law school) in 1592 but was barred from getting a degree because of his faith. In 1596, Jon Donne joined the naval expedition that Robert Devereux, 2nd earl of Essex, led against Cadiz, Spain. On his return to England, Donne was appointed private secretary to Sir Thomas Egerton, Keeper
------------------------------------------------------------------------ Carey, John. John Donne. Life, Mind and Art, Faber and Faber, London, 1990. It was formerly assumed that Donne's poetry reflected the growth of "Jack Donne" libertine into "Dr. John Donne", that sensual love poetry typified his youth, while obsessive thoughts of sun and death characterized his later career. Whatever the subject, his poems reveal the same characteristics that typified the work of the metaphysical poets: dazzling wordplay, often explicitly sexual, paradoxical, subtle argumentation, surprising contrasts, intricate psychological analysis, and striking imagery selected from nontraditional areas such as law, physiology, scholastic philosophy, and mathematics. Donne's principal literacy accomplishments during this period were Divine Poetry (1607) and the pros work Biathanatos (1608, posthumously published, 1644), a half-serious extenuation of suicides, in which he argued that suicide is not intrinsically sinful. Donne's poetry embraces a wide range of secular and religious subjects. He wrote cynical verse about in constancy such as Go! Haydn, Hiram. The Counter-Renaissance, Peter Smith Publishing, Gloucester, Massachusetts, 1966. Internet: www2.wku.edu/~vanzekm/frames.htm "Jon Donne." The Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia. 1996 ed. Abrams, M. H. The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Norton & Co.: New York, 1993. Donne was to experience a life threatening illness and was to be plagued by depression. He had a growing family he was unable to support and st
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