Letteratura inglese - John Donne

John Donne: Life and Literary Contributions

John Donne (1572-1631) was the most outstanding of the English Metaphysical Poets and a churchman famous for his spellbinding sermons. Donne was born in London to a prominent Roman Catholic family but converted to Anglicanism during the 1590s. At the age of 11, he entered the University of Oxford, where he studied for three years. According to some accounts, he spent the next three years at the University of Cambridge but took no degree at either university. He began the study of law at Lincoln's Inn, London, in 1592, and he seemed destined for a legal or diplomatic career.

Career and Personal Life

Donne was appointed private secretary to Sir Thomas Egerton, Keeper of the Great Seal, in 1598. His secret marriage in 1601 to Egerton’s niece, Anne More, resulted in his dismissal from this position and in a brief imprisonment. During the next few years, Donne made a meager living as a lawyer.

Literary Accomplishments

Donne's principal literary accomplishments during this period were Divine Poems (1607) and the prose work Biathanatos (c.1608, posthumously published 1644), a half-serious extenuation of suicides, in which he argued that suicide is not intrinsically sinful. Donne became a priest of the Anglican Church in 1615 and was appointed royal chaplain later that year. In 1621 he was named dean of St. Paul's Cathedral. He attained eminence as a preacher, delivering sermons that are regarded as the most brilliant and eloquent of his time.

Poetic Style and Themes

Donne’s poetry embraces a wide range of secular and religious subjects. He wrote cynical verse about inconstancy, poems about true love, Neoplatonic lyrics on the mystical union of lovers' souls and bodies, and brilliant satires and hymns depicting his own spiritual struggles. The two “Anniversaries” – “An Anatomy of the World" (1611) and "Of the Progress of the Soul" (1612) – are elegies for 15-year-old Elizabeth Drury.

Whatever the subject, Donne’s poems reveal the same characteristics that typified the work of the metaphysical poets: dazzling wordplay, often explicitly sexual; paradox; subtle argumentation; surprising contrasts; intricate psychological analysis; and striking imagery selected from non-traditional areas such as law, physiology, scholastic philosophy, and mathematics. Donne's prose, almost equally metaphysical, ranks at least as high as his poetry.

Sermons and Later Life

The Sermons, some 160 in all, are especially memorable for their imaginative explications of biblical passages and for their intense explorations of the themes of divine love and the decay and resurrection of the body. Devotions upon Emergent Occasions (1624) is a powerful series of meditations, expostulations, and prayers in which Donne's serious sickness at the time becomes a microcosm wherein can be observed the stages of the world's spiritual disease. Obsessed with the idea of death, Donne preached what was called his own funeral sermon, "Death's Duel," just a few weeks before he died in London on March 31, 1631.

Background and Education

John Donne was born to a prosperous London ironmonger (also named John Donne), in 1572. The Donnes were Catholic, and young John was educated by Jesuits. His father died when he was young, and he was raised by his mother, Elizabeth. At the age of 11, John Donne went to Hart Hall at Oxford University, where he studied for 3 years, and then proceeded to Cambridge University for another 3 years. Donne did not take a degree at either university because, as a Catholic, he could not take the required Oath of Supremacy at graduation.

After Cambridge, Donne studied law at Lincoln's Inn in London. His faith was badly shaken when his younger brother Henry died in prison, where he had been sent for sheltering a Catholic priest. Donne's first literary work, Satires, was written during this period. This was followed by Songs and Sonnets, a collection of love poems that enjoyed considerable success through private circulation.

Adventures and Career Changes

Donne gained a comfortable inheritance, which he proceeded to spend in profligate fashion on "wine, women, and song". He joined the Earl of Essex's raid on Cadiz in 1596, and an expedition to the Azores the following year. On his return, Donne became private secretary to Sir Thomas Egerton, Lord Keeper of the Great Seal. His chances of career advancement were destroyed when he secretly married Anne More, daughter of Sir George More. Anne's enraged father had Donne thrown into Fleet Prison for several weeks, and Egerton dismissed him from his post.

Religious Conversion and Later Achievements

Donne's marriage was a happy one, despite constant financial worries. With typical wry wit, Donne described his life with Anne as "John Donne, Anne Donne, Undone". Finally, in 1609, George More was induced to relent and pay his daughter's dowry. In the meantime, Donne worked as a lawyer and produced Divine Poems (1607).

Donne's final break with his Catholic past came with the publication of Pseudo-Martyr (1610) and Ignatius His Conclave. These works won him the favor of King James, who pressured him to take Anglican orders. Donne reluctantly agreed, and in 1615 he was appointed Royal Chaplain, and the following year he gained the post of Reader in Divinity at Lincoln's Inn. There his fierce wit and learning made Donne one of the popular preachers of his day.

Final Years and Legacy

Then in 1617, Anne Donne died in giving birth to the couple's 12th child. Her death affected Donne greatly, though he continued to write, notably Holy Sonnets (1618). In 1621 Donne was appointed Dean of St. Paul's, a post he held for the remainder of his life. In his final years, Donne's poems reflect an obsession with his own death, which came on March 31, 1631. John Donne is remembered for the wit and poignancy of his poetry, though in his own time he was known as much for his mesmerizing sermons and preaching style. As an aside, Donne's memorial in St. Paul's Cathedral was the only one to survive the Great Fire that destroyed the old cathedral in 1666. It can be seen today in the new St. Paul's.

Family Background

John Donne was born in Bread Street, London in 1572 to a prosperous Roman Catholic family - a precarious thing at a time when anti-Catholic sentiment was rife in England. His father, John Donne, was a well-to-do ironmonger and citizen of London. Donne's father died suddenly in 1576 and left the three children to be raised by their mother, Elizabeth, who was the daughter of epigrammatist and playwright John Heywood and a relative of Sir Thomas More. Donne's first teachers were Jesuits. At the age of 11, Donne and his younger brother Henry were entered at Hart Hall, University of Oxford, where Donne studied for three years. He spent the next three years at the University of Cambridge but took no degree at either university because he would not take the Oath of Supremacy required at graduation.

He was admitted to study law as a member of Thavies Inn (1591) and Lincoln's Inn (1592), and it seemed natural that Donne should embark upon a legal or diplomatic career. In 1593, Donne's brother Henry died of a fever in prison after being arrested for giving sanctuary to a proscribed Catholic priest. This made Donne begin to question his faith. His first book of poems, Satires, written during this period of residence in London, is considered one of Donne's most important literary efforts. Although not immediately published, the volume had a fairly wide readership through private circulation of the manuscript. The same was the case with his love poems, assumed to be written at about the same time as the Satires.

Having inherited a considerable fortune, young "Jack Donne" spent his money on womanizing, on books, at the theatre, and on travels. He had also befriended Christopher Brooke, a poet and his roommate at Lincoln's Inn, and Ben Jonson, who was part of Brooke's circle. In 1596, Donne joined the naval expedition that Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, led against Cádiz, Spain. In 1597, Donne joined an expedition to the Azores, where he wrote "The Calm". Upon his return to England in 1598, Donne was appointed private secretary to Sir Thomas Egerton, Lord Keeper of the Great Seal, afterward Lord Ellesmere.

Donne was beginning a promising career. In 1601, Donne became MP for Brackley and sat in Queen Elizabeth's last Parliament. But in the same year, he secretly married Lady Egerton's niece, seventeen-year-old Anne More, daughter of Sir George More, Lieutenant of the Tower, and effectively committed career suicide. Donne wrote to the livid father, saying: "Sir, I acknowledge my fault to be so great as I dare scarce offer any other prayer to you in mine own behalf than this, to believe that I neither had dishonest end nor mea..."