JOHN DONNE

JOHN DONNE

John Donne was born in London in 1572. He is the most outstanding metaphysical poet. He is poet, theologian and lawyer. He was born to a Roman Cathlic family. His father was warden of the Ironmogers’ company. He went to Trinity College Cambridge1587-1589.  He went to attend Lincoln’s Inn in 1592.  He entered Anglican Communion in 1593. He travelled to foreign countries in 1595-96. He was appointed secretary to Sir Thomas Egerton who was the keeper of the great seal in 1598. He was dismissed from this job in 1601 as a result of his secret marriage to Egerton’s niece, Anne More. He was imprisoned for a short time. Donne worked as a lawyer to earn his living for the next few years.     

He found refuge with Sir Francis Wooley, Mrs Donne’s cousine at Pryford. He lived at Mitcham from 1605-1607 after living at Camberwell for a short time. He was employed with Sir Thomas Morton in 1605. He reconciled with his father-in-law in 1608. He did M.A from Oxford in 1610. He resided at the Drury House in 1610. He wrote Eulogy on the death of 15 years old Elizabeth Drury due to which he gained Sir Robert Drury’s favour. He travelled with him on the continent. He wrote Epithalamion in 1613 on the occasion of marriage of Rochester and the Countess. He became a priest of Anglian Church in 1615. Later he was appointed royal chaplain in the same year. His wife died in 1617. He became dean of St. Paul’s Cathedral in 1621. He became prolocutor of the Lower House of Convocations in 1621. He held the living of St. Dunstan’s in the West from 1624-1631.

His prose works include Juvenilia, or Certaine Pradoxes and Problemes, Catalogus Librorum Aulicorum, Biathanatos, Pseudo-Martyr, Conclave Ignati, Essays in Divinity, Three Sermons, Four Sermons, Five Sermons, Fifty Sermons, and Letters to Several Persons of Honour. These works were essays, some were satirical in nature. John Donne’s poetry sets itself in contrast to the petrarchan love-doctrine of his time. He wrote songs, sonnets, divine poems, elegies, satires, verse letters, historical epistles etc. his poetical work are unsurpassable, tedious and even wire-drawn in their logic. They are typical of crossgrained and mathematical imaginary. Their analogies and comparisons of his poetry are unconventional. The images drawn from circles, maps, engravings, elephants, fleas, whales, new discoveries etc. his expandes or telescope conceives give his poetry mataphysical meaning. His poetry has immaculate rhythm but it lacks smoothness, dignity. He was obsessed with the idea of death. Donne preached what was called his own funeral sermon, “Death’s Duel” After a few days he died in London on March 31, 1631.