John Donne, portrait after Isaac Oliver, c. 1616. Wikimedia Commons · public domain.
Poet · Pairing IX
John Donne
1572–1631 · The leading metaphysical poet
“Death, thou shalt die.”
John Donne is the greatest of the “metaphysical” poets — writers known for dazzling wit, tightly-argued logic, and startling comparisons that yoke together the intimate and the cosmic. His early poems are famously sensual and clever; his later ones turn intensely religious.
Donne’s life was itself dramatic: a secret marriage that wrecked his career, years of hardship, and finally ordination in the Church of England, where he rose to become the celebrated Dean of St Paul’s Cathedral in London and one of the most powerful preachers of his age. His Holy Sonnets, including “Death, be not proud,” wrestle boldly with mortality, sin, and salvation.
Largely unpublished in his lifetime and out of fashion for two centuries, Donne was rediscovered in the twentieth century — championed by poets like T. S. Eliot — and is now considered one of the finest poets in the language.
In this curriculum
Read him in Pairing IX — Confronting Mortality →