Commemoration John Donne

Monday, March 31, 2014

Commemoration

John Donne, Poet, d. 1631

Reflection

John Donne was a contemporary of Shakespeare. Both were Catholic, thus imperiled by Queen Elizabeth’s determination to wrest her country from the old faith. Donne, superbly educated at both Oxford and Cambridge, could not earn a degree from either because of his Catholicism.

Donne’s early secular poetry displayed his intellectual gifts and sensual nature. His poems’ metaphysical conceits often use an extended metaphor combined with vibrant, challenging imagery. Though well-connected, he was constrained in his career. He fell in love with the daughter of his employer and married the young Anne More against her father’s will or knowledge, so was imprisoned for a time. In this passionate match, Anne bore 12 children before her death, and he grieved that in effect his love killed her. King James I pressured Donne to become an Anglican priest, and he complied after initial resistance. Famed for the power and eloquence of his preaching, by 1621 he was Dean of St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. Even as he lay dying during Lent of 1631, he arose from his sickbed and delivered the Death’s Duel Sermon--in effect, for his own funeral. He ordered himself sketched in his shroud and spent his final days contemplating this portrait and his impending death.

Lynn Tryggestad