The biography of John Donne

 John Donne  1572-1631

LIFE

Born in London into a Roman Catholic household, his father was a

wealthy iron-monger and his mother was a daughter of John Heywood, the

dramatist.

He was sent to Oxford (1584) and later was entered at Thaives Inn (1591)

and Lincoln's Inn (1592-96) to study law. It is during this period - as

scholar, lover and man about town - that he composed many of his secular 

poems (Songs and Sonets). He also joined the Church of England at this

time.

After service overseas with Essex, to Cadiz and accompanying the Azores

expedition in 1597, he became private secretary to Sir Thomas Egerton in

1598. With every prospect of a great secular career ahead of him, in

1601 Donne secretly married Egerton's young niece, Anne More, for which

he was stripped of office and thrown in prison.

Reconciliation followed, but not secular employment; and Donne - pressured

by James I, continued poverty and a growing family - eventually and 

reluctantly took holy orders in 1615, rising very rapidly to become, in

1621, Dean of St Paul's. In this capacity he became the most famous

preacher of his day, and one of the most brilliant writers of sermons,

meditations and religious verse in the language.

PRINCIPAL WORKS

Pseudo-Martyr  1610                      - an anti-Catholic tract

An Anatomie of the World  1611           - an elegy

Of the Progresse of the Soul  1612       - an elegy

Devotions upon Emergent Occasions  1624  - meditations

Poems by I.D.  1633  

A further collection of his poems appeared in 1649

Folios of his Sermons appeared in 1640, 1649 and 1660

His letters were published in 1651

THE POEMS

THE SUNNE RISING

First appeared in the posthumous Poems by I.D. in 1633, although, as 

with most of Donne's secular verse, it would have been circulating in

manuscript form amongst the intelligentsia since its composition.

th'India's = East Indies (reknowned for its spices)

             West Indies (reknowned for its gold [mines])

THE EXTASIE

First appeared in the posthumous Poems by I.D. in 1633.

extasie = mind transcending the body

entergraft = a word coined by Donne

negotiate = negotiated

severall = separate

convay = guide

forces = functions

allay = alloy (i.e., necessary base metal support)

spirits = Natural, Vital and Animal: within the blood, acting as the 

          media and channels between the soul and the body enclosing 

          it; thus allowing one soul to communicate - via its body - 

          with another.

A VALEDICTION: FORBIDDING MOURNING

First appeared in the posthumous Poems by I.D. in 1633