John Donne: Life and Career

Biographical Information

• John Donne was born on January 22, 1572, in London, England, and died on March 31, 1631.
• He renounced his religion and became a Jacobean Anglican in 1598.
• Donne was appointed the Dean of St. Paul's Cathedral in London in 1621.
• Ben Jonson criticized Donne for his accent in poetry, saying, "Donne for not keeping of accent, deserved hanging."

Literary Works and Style

• Donne's series of meditations and prayers on health, pain, and sickness is titled Devotions upon Emergent Occasions.
• Robert Browning, T.S. Eliot, and W.B. Yeats were influenced by Donne's poetic style.
• In A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning, Donne compared two lovers to two legs of a compass.
• Characteristics of Donne's writing style include abrupt openings, various paradoxes, and ironies.
• His poetry is divided into love lyrics and religious verses.

Literary Works and Analysis

• Biathantos (1608) was written in defense of self-homicide.
• Samuel Johnson coined the term "Metaphysical poets" in 1781.
• Ben Jonson referred to Donne as "the first poet in the world in some things".
• Features of metaphysical poetry include display of learning, far-fetched images, and conceits.
• Donne's two anti-Catholic polemics are Pseudo Martyr and Ignatius his Conclave.

Relationships and Personal Life

• Donne fell in love with and married Anne More.
• He wrote Sonnet 17 after the loss of his wife.
• The two anniversaries written by Donne in memory of Elizabeth Drury are An Anatomy of the World and Of the Progress of the Soul.

Quotes and Epitaph

• "For God's sake hold your tongue and let me love" is a quote from "The Canonization".
• The first lines of the epitaph of Donne are "Here lies a king that ruled as he thought fit the universal Monarchy of wit."

Literary Analysis and Works

• In The Sunne Rising, the sun is called a "busy old fool".