John Donne Biography

English Metaphysical Poet, Lawyer and Anglican Priest

Nov 8, 2008
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John Donne, Poet and Preacher - Wikimedia Creative Commons

Biography and works of John Donne, England's Poet and Priest, famous for the phrase 'no man is an island.'

John Donne was the leading figure of a group of 17th-century English writers who were called the Metaphysical Poets. He is best known for his Sermons, Devotions upon Emergent Occasions and Death's Duel.

Early Life of John Donne

John Donne (1572-1631) was born in London into a prosperous Roman Catholic family. His father was a prosperous ironmonger and his mother, the daughter of dramatist John Heywood. He was educated at Oxford University, even though Roman Catholics were usually banned from attending classes. At 19, he returned to London to study Law.

In his 20s Donne took part in military expeditions to Spain and the Azores. That time, England and Spain were in a state of almost constant war in the 16th century. Donne seemed set to enjoy a successful career as a diplomat until he secretly married Ann Moore, a minor at 17, and the niece of a powerful aristocrat for whom he was employed. The aristocrat had him jailed for a while. This ended his ambitions for a career in politics.

Donne's Poems and Poetry

Donne wrote poetry all his life. In his 20s and 30s, he wrote some of his famous lyric poems, including the collections Satires and Songs and Sonnets. His first Anniversarie did not appear until he was 39. Very little of Donne's work appeared in print during his lifetime and most of his other poetry was not published until after his death. His poems were widely read and admired among aristocratic and literary circles.

Donne's Style and Themes

Though his style has the same organic development, Donne's verse is divided into the love poetry of his youth and the religious poetry of his older years. The love poetry is energetic, passionate with intellectual rhetorics. Physically urgent and erotic, he has some influence from Ovid on this. Donne was the first writer to use 'sex' in its present sense.

On the other hand, as a devotional poet, his verse is less arresting in terms of style and less sure of direction. This has been interpreted as a spiritual struggle, that in order to achieve faith, one has to conquer doubt.

Donne's Later Life

In 1615 Donne converted to the Anglican faith and became a priest. Later, he was chaplain to the king and, in 1621, head of St. Paul's Cathedral in London. He died on March 31, 1631, c. 59 years old.

As a writer of religious prose and poetry, Donne is best known for his Sermons, more than 150 of them published after his death. He had influence on future writers, for example, Ernest Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls which was taken from a passage in Donne's Meditation XVII.

One well-known phrase is "no man is an island," which appears in his book Devotions upon Emergent Occasions. His style had influence on younger poets.