John Donne

(1572-1631)
METAPHYSICAL POET
A life of Paradox
 Born & raised into a Catholic recusant family but becomes a popular Anglican priest (Dean of
St. Paul’s Cathedral)
 A womanizer in his youth, later becomes a devoted husband and father of 12 children
 Worldly & spiritual / dramatic & introspective / a doubter & a believer / a sensualist & an
intellectual
 Not only a writer but once sailed with Sir Walter Raleigh on a treasure-hunting expedition
 Had his portrait drawn while dressed in his burial shroud
 Wrote lines that inspired the titles of the novels Death be not Proud by john Gunther and For
whom the Bell Tolls by Hemingway
The price of being Catholic
 A catholic birth at a time when Protestantism was the religion of the Anglican Church
 Studied at Hart Hall and Cambridge University but never received a degree because of his faith
and would not take an oath of allegiance to the Queen
 In 1593, Donne’s brother died in prison, where he was sent for sheltering a Jesuit priest
 Thomas More (great-niece of his mother) had been a martyr for his Catholicism
 Donne begins to question his faith, abandons Catholicism and becomes an Anglican priest in
1615 at the King’s urging
Impoverished by Love
 Marriage also strongly influenced Donne’s fortunes in life
 In 1597, Donne (25) becomes the personal secretary of Sir Thomas Egerton, a royal official.
 Four years later, secretly marries Egerton’s 17 niece Anne More, without her father’s permission
 Loses his job and briefly imprisoned
 For more than 10 years, he battles poverty as his family grew
 Donne described it to his wife thus : “John Donne, Anne Donne, Undone”
Art reflects life
 Death, love and the question of true religion were a prominent theme in Donne’s writing
 Donne’s wife dies at age 33. two his children were stillborn and others died at ages of 3, 7
and 19.
 For instance, “Holy Sonnet X” reflects Donne’s concerns about death and salvation
 Donne wrote “Meditation XVII” in 1623 while recovering from a serious illness
 “A Valediction : Forbidding Mourning” was perhaps written to console his distressed wife,
because of his impending departure for France in 1611
Origin of the term ‘metaphysical’
 “He affects the metaphysics, not only in his satires, but in his amorous verses, where nature only should
reign; and perplexes the minds of the fair sex with nice speculations of philosophy, when he should engage
their hearts, and entertain them with the softnesses of love. In this...Mr. Cowley has copied him to a fault.” -
John Dryden
 “The metaphysical poets were men of learning, and, to show their learning was their whole endeavour; but,
unluckily resolving to show it in rhyme, instead of writing poetry, they only wrote verses, and, very often,
such verses as stood the trial of the finger better than of the ear; for the modulation was so imperfect, that
they were only found to be verses by counting the syllables... The most heterogeneous ideas are yoked by
violence together; nature and art are ransacked for illustrations, comparisons, and allusions; their learning
instructs, and their subtilty surprises; but the reader commonly thinks his improvement dearly bought, and,
though he sometimes admires, is seldom pleased.” - Samuel Johnson
Metaphysical Poetry
 John Donne & other metaphysical writers (Andrew Marvell, Richard Crashaw, George
Herbert, Henry Vaughan) examined similar themes and questions using similar literary
techniques in their poetry
 Metaphysical poetry asks questions about existence and philosophy, often using wit and high
levels of complexity to explore these challenging ideas.
 The poems feature metaphysical conceits, arguments and wit, colloquial diction,
philosophical exploration, and Platonic ideals.
 A shift away from the cliches and conventions of Petrarchan tradition – through original
expressions and style
 employ ideas and images derived from contemporary scientific or geographical discoveries to
examine religious and moral questions
Metaphysical Conceit

 Metaphysical conceit is a type of metaphor or simile in which the comparison is

unusually striking, original and elaborate
 Comparing two unlike things that may at first seem to have no connection whatsoever
 In “Meditation XVII” Donne compares humanity to a book in which each person
makes up a chapter
 Other examples – lovers to a pair of compass legs / flea bite as a sexual union
between lovers
Paradox

 Donne has been acclaimed for his ability to convey complex ideas in poetry and
prose
 These ideas are sometimes expressed in the form of a paradox – a statement that
seems to contradict, or oppose, itself but is actually true
 One can find it in Donne’s poem by locating the apparent contradictory, or
contrasting elements in the paradox

 “Our two souls therefore, which are one, / Though I must go, endure not yet / A
breach, but an expansion”
Arresting language: Questions & Imperatives