John Donne 15721631

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John Donne (1572-1631)

• Presented to you by Pierce Brooks and Chad Becht

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Life of John Donne

• Born in Bread Street, London to a Roman Catholic
  family in 1572.
• Widespread anti-catholic sentiment was popular at
  the time.
• His father was a prosperous ironmonger.
• Grandfather was the playwright and epigrammatist
  John Heywood.
• Closely related to Sir Thomas More

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Donnes Early Writing

• He wrote religious pamphlets for Thomas Morton,
  Bishop of Durham.
• During this time he wrote Divine Poems and
  Biathanatos which argued that suicide itself is
  not a sin.
• He later wrote two anti-Catholic polemics
  Pseudo-Martyr and Ignatius his Conclave.
• These were his public renunciation of the
  Catholic faith.

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Metaphysical Poets

• One of the first metaphysical poets, meaning he
  used metaphysical metaphors, wit, and unusual
  similes.
• Metaphysics is a branch of philosophy that
  studies principals of reality that transcend
  those of any form of science.
• They were a group of British lyric poets in the
  17th century, but did not know each other nor did
  they read each others works.

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Donnes Influence

• Donne shifted the tone of poetry away from the
  flowing nature of Elizabethan poetry.
• He made poetry more sincere, more condensed, and
  filled with feelings and thought.

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Works

• Essays
• Meditation I thru
• Meditation XXIII
• Elegies
• Elegy I Jealousy
• Elegy II The Anagram
• Elegy XX To His Mistress Going To Bed

• Poems
• A Fever
• A Dialogue Between Sir Henry Wotton and Mr. Donne
• A Jet Ring Sent
• A Lecture Upon The Shadow
• Air And Angels
• Holy Sonnet X Death be not Proud

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Holy Sonnet X Death be not Proud

• Death, be not proud, though some have called thee
  Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so For
  those, whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow,
  Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me.
  From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures
  be, Much pleasure, then from thee much more must
  flow, And soonest our best men with thee do go,
  Rest of their bones, and soul's delivery.
  Thou'rt slave to Fate, chance, kings, and
  desperate men, And dost with poison, war, and
  sickness dwell, And poppy, or charms can make us
  sleep as well, And better than thy stroke  why
  swell'st thou then ? One short sleep past, we
  wake eternally, And Death shall be no more
   Death, thou shalt die.

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Work Cited

• Jokinen, Anniina. The Works of John Donne.
  1996. Anniina Jokinen. http//www.luminarium.org/
  sevenlit/donne/donnebib.htm
• John Donne. The Cambridge History of English
  and American Literature. 1907-21.
  http//www.bartleby.com/cambridge/
• Jokinen, Anniina. "The Life of John Donne."
  Luminarium. 22 June 2006. 17 December 2007.
  lthttp//www.luminarium.org/sevenlit/donne/donnebio
  .htmgt