Donne context
RELIGIOUS DESPAIR IS A FORM OF NARCISSISTIC DEPRESSION
https://www.jstor.org/stable/1556155?seq=1
1556155
https://journals.lwbooks.co.uk/newformations/vol-1987-issue-3/article-7702/
Is Donne actually religious or is it just convenient for his narcissistic self in the face of
death?
Donne is an APOSTATE, still uses catholic imagery, this is because not for
publication
Context of reception
● For private
● Probably passed to legal clerks
Life
● Reign of Elizabeth and James I
● Avant garde poetry
● Raised a Catholic but switched to Protestantism
● Sonnets like Shakespeares but rougher and truer
● Rejected chivalric, pastoral, countryside poems typical of the time
● Metaphysical poet
● Born in 1572, in the centre of London
● Father a prosperous merchant
● Jesuit uncles and related to Thomas Moore
● Oxford at age 12
● Gregarious, ached to belong
● When John was age 21, brother arrested for sheltering a jesuit and died in
prison
● Turned protestant and became a soldier
● Fell in love with Anne Moore and was secretly married, betraying his
reputation
● He ended up arrested and without job prospects
● After isolation in the countryside, gets a patronage
● Whilst on a trip in France, his wife had a miscarriage
● ‘sinful, wasted life’- Donne
● In 1615, Donne became a preacher
● His wife died after giving birth to 12 child
● Donne is egotistical, arrogant and is aware of his intelligence
● Dean of St Pauls in 1621
,Tudor insecurity: Tudors had a weak claim to the throne. Geopolitical insecurity as
Catholicism is very real in Europe.
1534 Act of Supremacy: Pope excluded from powers in Britain as Henry VIII was
announced supreme head on Earth of the Church of England
Thomas Moore: King’s councillor, refused to sign Act of Supremacy and was killed.
1571: Ridolfi plot, plant to assassinate Queen Elizabeth
1583: Throckmorton plot, Throckmorton was arrested, tortured and confessed to a
pan for France and Spain to invade England
1586: Babington plot, plan to assassinate Elizabeth
1588: Spain attempts to invade England
1605: Gunpowder plot
1564- 1642: English renaissance. In Europe, this was when men became the centre
over religion, particularly in art. However, in England, this was the outpour of written
works including Shakespeare and Donne. To be successful in this era, you have to
be witty and work with both the arts and science.
Metaphysical poets
➔ ‘Some men of late, transformers of everything. Consulted upon her
reformation, endeavoured to abstract her to metaphysical ideas and
scholastical quiddities, denuding her of her own habits, and these ornaments
with which she hath amused the world some thousand years’ Drummond of
Hawthorne
➔ ‘He affects the metaphysics…perplexes the minds of the fair sex with nice
speculations when he should engage their hearts’ John Dryden
➔ ‘The most heterogeneous ideas are yoked by violence together; nature and
art are ransacked for illustrations, comparisons and allusions; their learning
instructs..though he sometimes admires, he is seldom pleased’ Samuel
Johnson
➔ ‘Conceits are used to defamiliarize the familiar things’ Jiapeng Du
➔ They are a group of 16th 17th century poets e.g Donne, Carew, Marvell
➔ Not a cohesive group in their own time
➔ Linked posthumously by stylistic similarities
➔ Donne uses: arresting turns of phrases, conciseness, conceits, emphasis on
argumentative
➔ Topics of interest: love, religion and morality. Considered using unusual
comparisons and unforeseen similes and metaphors, included contemporary
scientific advancements
➔ ‘Origins in this general desire at the close of Elizabeth’s reign for concise
expression, achieved by an elliptical syntax, and accompanied by a staccato
rhythm in prose and a certain deliberate roughness’ Helen Gardner
➔ Tacitus- roman historian, simple writing style
,Startling simplicity
● Flashes of simplicity
● Has thematic and ideological complexity
● Rejects flowery phrasing favoured by Elizabethan predecessors
● In favour of plainer style
● Monosyllabic diction
● Linguistic minimalism
● Conversational directness
Questions
➔ Characterised by freshness and energy of these voices
➔ Connotes childish imagination
➔ Stuttering in disbelief
Imperatives
➔ Rebellious vein of metaphysical poetry
➔ Direct
Conceits: Inventive metaphors e.g a compass becoming a metaphor for love
The Holy Sonnets Published 1633
● A collection of 19 poems
● Published two years after his death
● Written mainly in the Petrarchan style. Several rhythmic and structural
patterns as well as the inclusion of couplets- influenced by Shakespeare’s
sonnet form
● Written during a period of emotional, physical and financial hardships.
Religious turmoil as Donne was converting from Roman catholicism to
Anglicanism.
● “Make a universal drama of religious life, in which every moment may confront
us with the final annulment of time’ A.J. Smith
● ‘The problem of faith in a tortured world with its death and misery’ Gooch
“The first thing to remember about Donne is that he was a Catholic, the second that he
betrayed his faith’ John Carey
The Elizabethan form
● Traditional verse
● Regular metre
King James
● King James has an optimistic vision of European religious peace
, ● Royal policy of emphasising Christian unity
1593 George Herbert
● Another metaphysical poet
● Known for the effectiveness of his choice in words
● Like George Herbert, a successful metaphysical poet, Donne employs…
Melancholia
● His seeming religious despair perhaps stems from his lack of belief in God
● An absent God is depressing, as an intelligent person he would struggle to
believe
● Explains why his imagery is so visceral when it pertains to God, because he
wants to be invigorated by the hope of God’s presence
● As he grows older, he becomes faced with existentialism
● Instead of attempting to replace this absence of God like he was when he was
younger (through his possession of women), he realises he is condemned to
die
Poem analysis
Top 10 poems to know
1. the sun rising
2. canonization
3. air and angels
4. twickenham garden
5. the valediction of weeping
6. Love’s alchemy
7. Nocturnal upon st lucy's day
8. a valediction forbidding mourning
9. good friday riding westward
10. a hymn to god in my sickness
The Good Morrow
Talking about falling in love and the inexplicable power of love, as you cannot
control your soul, you cannot control love. Tempest of romance. Written at a
high point for Donne.
Aubade: Morning song of love
