John Donne (b. 1572) was the son of a successful London merchant who died when
Donne was only 4 years old. His family
were ‘recusant’ Roman Catholics which means they remained loyal to the Catholic
Church despite being persecuted by the English crown for so doing. Donne attended Oxford University from the
very young age of 11 and also studied in Cambridge but he could not received a
degree from either institution as he would have had to swear an oath against
his faith if he had.
In 1601, Donne secretly married Anne More,
with whom he had twelve children. Anne
died tragically at the age of 33 giving birth to their twelfth child who was
stillborn. In 1615, he became an Anglican priest because King James I persistently ordered him to do so. In 1621, he was appointed the Dean of St
Paul's Cathedral in London. He also served as a
member of parliament in 1601 and in 1614.
His poems are noted for their passionate,
sensual style and include sonnets, religious poems, love poems, elegies, satires, Latin translations and
sermons. The Leaving Cert course features a representative collection of both
serious and humorous love poems and a selection of his ‘holy sonnets’ where he
addresses God directly.
Donne's style is characterised by abrupt
openings and various paradoxes, ironies and dislocations. Batter My Heart demonstrates his use of paradox clearly. In it his
soul can only be redeemed by being destroyed: ‘break, blow, burn and make me
new’ and the speaker can only find freedom through imprisonment by God: ‘Take
me to You, imprison me, for I, Except You enthrall me, never shall be free.’
He is particularly famous for his mastery of
metaphysical conceits or extended metaphors. In The Flea
the starring insect is compared to a church where the poet and his love have
been married:
This flea is you and I, and this
Our marriage bed, and marriage temple
is;
Though parents grudge, and you, w'are
met,
And cloistered in these living walls of jet.
Another example of a conceit features in Thou Hast Made Me where God is compared to a magnet that will draw
the poet up to Heaven: ‘And Thou like adamant draw mine iron heart.’
Romantic
Love
Much of Donne’s poetry concerns love between men
and women both as a physical bond as in The
Flea and as a deeper more emotional bond in The Anniversary, The Sun
Rising and A Valediction: Forbidding
Mourning.
The
Flea deals simply with the act of seduction. The
poet’s goal is to lure a young woman to his bed and he will make any argument
that might help him succeed, including that a flea has already mixed their
blood so why are they waiting?!
Yet this enjoys before it
woo…
And
this, alas, is more than we would do.
The
Flea demonstrates a one-dimensional view of love
that consists purely of carnal lust but it has a teasing, humorous tone and
isn’t supposed to be taken too seriously.
In A
Valediction: Forbidding Mourning he argues that the love he shares with his
wife is not merely physical but involves a merging of souls: ‘Our two souls,
therefore, which are one.’ He compares their souls to the feet of a single
compass. His lover’s soul is the fixed foot
in the center, and his is the foot that moves around it. The firmness of the
center foot makes the circle that the outer foot draws perfect: “Thy firmness
makes my circle just, / And makes me end, where I begun.” He sees their love as
eternal and permanent, a message which is repeated in The Anniverarie and The Sun
Rising. In these poems love is a deep bond between two people that
transcends time and is uneffected by the passing seasons:
Only our love hath no
decay;
This no tomorrow hath, nor
yesterday,
Running it never runs from
us away,
But truly keeps his
first, last, everlasting day.
The Sun Rising demonstrates Donne’s use of hyperbole to emphasise the strength and power
of his love. He states that love, “no
season knows, nor clime, / Nor hours, days, months, which are the rags of
time”. Also he claims that his love affair brings them such happiness that
kings and princes are but pretending to be as happy as them: ‘Princes do but play us’ and that the
whole world is contained within their bedroom:
Shine here to us, and thou art everywhere;
This bed thy centre is, these walls thy sphere.
Sin
and Redemption
Donne’s later poetry, written when he was dean
of St Paul’s Cathedral, is concerned greatly with religious themes, especially
those of sin and redemption. His three ‘Holy Sonnets’ on the Leaving Cert.
course all explore these themes.
In Batter
my Heart he uses very striking
conceits to depict the threat of sin in his life. Sin has hijacked his heart
like invaders taking over a town, sin traps him like a woman betrothed to her
true love’s enemy. He begs God to fight for him for it is only in God’s grace he
can be free from sin:
Divorce me, untie or break that knot again,
Take me to you, imprison me, for I,
Except you enthrall me, never shall be free,
He also feels weighed down with sin in Thou Hast Made Me: ‘my feebled flesh doth waste/ By sin in it, which it towards hell doth
weigh.’ He depicts himself as being weak and unable to fight temptation without
God’s help. In At the Round Earth’s
Imagined Corners he begs for more time before Judgement Day to make himself
worthy of salvation.
Teach me how to repent; for that's as good
As if thou'hadst seal'd my pardon with thy blood.
Death
As many poets do, Donne explores the theme of
death in great depth. In Thou Hast Made
Me he questions why God created man only to destroy him later: ‘Thou hast made me, and shall thy work decay?’ This poem vivdly captures
the frailty and indignity of old age with ‘dim eyes’ and ‘feeble flesh’. He is
terrified of death and feels that his soul has been corrupted with
sin and hell may await him after death: ‘Despair behind, and death before doth
cast/ Such terror’.
In At the Round Earth’s Imagined
Corners he considers all who have died since the dawn of time and paints a
dramatic picture of Judgement Day when, according to the Bible, the souls of
the dead will return to their bodies.
At the round earth's imagin'd corners, blow
Your trumpets, angels, and arise, arise
From death, you numberless infinities
Of souls, and to your scatter'd bodies go;
If he can repent
and stay close to God he feels that death will hold no fear for him and begs
God for help in Thou Hast Made Me:
Thy grace may wing me to prevent his [the devil] art
And
Thou like adamant draw mine iron heart.
Regarded as one of
the greatest poets of the sixteenth century, John Donne explored both the
deeply spiritual and the raw physical aspects of life. His clear expression of
inner conflict and passion for life remains vivid and relevant four hundred
years on.
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