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
Anne Donne eventually died in 1617, at age thirty-three, after giving birth to their twelfth child. In 1633, two years after his death, his first volume of poetry was published. Donne was to experience a life threatening illness and was to be plagued by depression. Life, Mind and Art, Faber and Faber, London, 1990. In Ignatus His Conclave satirizing the Jesuits, Loyola is ejected from hell and ordered to colonized the moon, where he will do less harm. This secret marriage resulted in his dismissal from his position and in a brief imprisonment. Donne's poetry embraces a wide range of secular and religious subjects. By writing about death he tries to rechannel his fear and tries to minimize death. His work Paradoxes and Problems is a collection of playful demonstrations. In 1621 he was appointed Dean of St. There was only one way he could escape this harsh reality and express himself freely. His work, Pseudo-Martyr (1610), is a prose treatise maintaining that English Roman Catholics could, without break of their religious loyalty, pledge an oath of allegiance to James 1st, King of England. He is ranked by some critics as the greatest metaphysical poet of his time period and up to the present time. The Counter-Renaissance, Peter Smith Publishing, Gloucester, Massachusetts, 1966.
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