John Donne
John Donne | |
---|---|
Born | 1571 or 1572[a] London, England |
Died | 31 March 1631[1] London, England | (aged 59)
Occupation |
|
Nationality | English |
Alma mater | Metaphysical poetry |
Spouse |
Anne More
(m. 1601; died 1617) |
Children | 12 (incl. John and George) |
Relatives | Edward Alleyn (son-in-law) |
John Donne (
Donne's style is characterised by abrupt openings and various paradoxes, ironies and dislocations. These features, along with his frequent dramatic or everyday speech rhythms, his tense syntax and his tough eloquence, were both a reaction against the smoothness of conventional
Despite his great education and poetic talents, Donne lived in poverty for several years, relying heavily on wealthy friends. He spent much of the money he inherited during and after his education on womanising, literature, pastimes and travel. In 1601, Donne secretly married Anne More, with whom he had twelve children.
Biography
Early life
Donne was born in London in 1571 or 1572,
His father died in 1576, when Donne was four years old, leaving his mother, Elizabeth, with the responsibility of raising the children alone.[1] Heywood was also from a recusant Roman Catholic family, the daughter of John Heywood, the playwright, and sister of the Reverend Jasper Heywood, a Jesuit priest and translator.[1] She was a great-niece of Thomas More.[1] A few months after her husband died, Donne's mother married Dr. John Syminges, a wealthy widower with three children of his own.
Donne was educated privately. There is no evidence to support the popular claim that he was taught by
In 1593, five years after the defeat of the Spanish Armada and during the intermittent Anglo-Spanish War (1585–1604), Queen Elizabeth issued the first English statute against sectarian dissent from the Church of England, titled "An Act for restraining Popish recusants". It defined "Popish recusants" as those "convicted for not repairing to some Church, Chapel, or usual place of Common Prayer to hear Divine Service there, but forbearing the same contrary to the tenor of the laws and statutes heretofore made and provided in that behalf". Donne's brother Henry was also a university student prior to his arrest in 1593 for harbouring a Catholic priest, William Harrington, and died in Newgate Prison of bubonic plague, leading Donne to begin questioning his Catholic faith.[8]
During and after his education, Donne spent much of his considerable inheritance on women, literature, pastimes and travel., his earliest biographer,
... he returned not back into England till he had stayed some years, first in Italy, and then in Spain, where he made many useful observations of those countries, their laws and manner of government, and returned perfect in their languages.
— Walton 1888, p. 20
By the age of 25 he was well prepared for the diplomatic career he appeared to be seeking.[11] He was appointed chief secretary to the Lord Keeper of the Great Seal, Sir Thomas Egerton, and was established at Egerton's London home, York House, Strand, close to the Palace of Whitehall, then the most influential social centre in England.
Marriage to Anne More
During the next four years, Donne fell in love with Egerton's niece Anne More. They were secretly married just before Christmas in 1601, against the wishes of both Egerton and Anne's father George More, who was Lieutenant of the Tower.[12] Upon discovery, this wedding ruined Donne's career, getting him dismissed and put in Fleet Prison, along with the Church of England priest Samuel Brooke, who married them,[13] and his brother Christopher, who stood in, in the absence of George More, to give Anne away. Donne was released shortly thereafter when the marriage was proved to be valid, and he soon secured the release of the other two. Walton tells us that when Donne wrote to his wife to tell her about losing his post, he wrote after his name: John Donne, Anne Donne, Un-done.[14] It was not until 1609 that Donne was reconciled with his father-in-law and received his wife's dowry.
After his release, Donne had to accept a retired country life in a small house in Pyrford, Surrey, owned by Anne's cousin, Sir Francis Wooley, where they lived until the end of 1604.[1][4] In spring 1605 they moved to another small house in Mitcham, Surrey, where he scraped a meagre living as a lawyer, while Anne Donne bore a new baby almost every year. Though he also worked as an assistant pamphleteer to Thomas Morton writing anti-Catholic pamphlets, Donne was in a constant state of financial insecurity.[1]
Anne gave birth to twelve children in sixteen years of marriage, including two
In a state of despair that almost drove him to kill himself, Donne noted that the death of a child would mean one mouth fewer to feed, but he could not afford the burial expenses. During this time, Donne wrote but did not publish
Career and later life
In 1602, Donne was elected as a member of parliament (MP) for the
In 1610 and 1611, Donne wrote two
Donne sat as an MP again, this time for Taunton, in the Addled Parliament of 1614. Though he attracted five appointments within its business he made no recorded speech.[17] Although King James was pleased with Donne's work, he refused to reinstate him at court and instead urged him to take holy orders.[8] At length, Donne acceded to the king's wishes, and in 1615 was an ordained priest in the Church of England.[11]
In 1615, Donne was awarded an honorary doctorate in divinity from
In 1616 he was granted the living as rector of two parishes, Keyston in Huntingdonshire and Sevenoaks in Kent, and in 1621 of Blunham, in Bedfordshire, all held until his death.[9] Blunham Parish Church has an imposing stained glass window commemorating Donne, designed by Derek Hunt. During Donne's period as dean his daughter Lucy died, aged eighteen. In late November and early December 1623 he suffered a nearly fatal illness, thought to be either typhus or a combination of a cold followed by a period of fever.[1]
During his convalescence he wrote a series of meditations and prayers on health, pain and sickness that were published as a book in 1624 under the title of Devotions upon Emergent Occasions. One of these meditations, Meditation XVII, contains the well-known phrases "No man is an Iland" (often modernised as "No man is an island") and "...for whom the bell tolls". In 1624, he became vicar of St Dunstan-in-the-West, and in 1625 a prolocutor to Charles I.[1] He earned a reputation as an eloquent preacher. 160 of his sermons have survived, including Death's Duel, his famous sermon delivered at the Palace of Whitehall before King Charles I in February 1631.
Death
Donne died on 31 March 1631. He was buried in old St Paul's Cathedral,[19] where a memorial statue of him by Nicholas Stone was erected with a Latin epigraph probably composed by himself.[20] The memorial was one of the few to survive the Great Fire of London in 1666 and is now in St Paul's Cathedral. The statue was said by Izaac Walton in his biography, to have been modelled from the life by Donne to suggest his appearance at the resurrection. It started a vogue of such monuments during the 17th century.[21] In 2012, a bust of the poet by Nigel Boonham was unveiled outside in the cathedral churchyard.[22]
Writings
Donne's earliest poems showed a developed knowledge of English society coupled with sharp criticism of its problems. His satires dealt with common
Donne's early career was also notable for his erotic poetry, especially his
Some have speculated that Donne's numerous illnesses, financial strain and the deaths of his friends all contributed to the development of a more sombre and pious tone in his later poems.[11] The change can be clearly seen in "An Anatomy of the World" (1611), a poem that Donne wrote in memory of Elizabeth Drury, daughter of his patron, Sir Robert Drury of Hawstead, Suffolk. This poem treats Elizabeth's demise with extreme gloominess, using it as a symbol for the fall of man and the destruction of the universe.[11]
The increasing gloominess of Donne's tone may also be observed in the religious works that he began writing during the same period. Having converted to the
Even as he lay dying during Lent in 1631, he rose from his sickbed and delivered the Death's Duel sermon, which was later described as his own funeral sermon. Death's Duel portrays life as a steady descent to suffering and death; death becomes merely another process of life, in which the 'winding sheet' of the womb is the same as that of the grave. Hope is seen in salvation and immortality through an embrace of God, Christ and the Resurrection.[11][15][25]
Style
His work has received much criticism over the years, especially concerning his metaphysical form. Donne is generally considered the most prominent member of the metaphysical poets, a phrase coined in 1781 by Samuel Johnson, following a comment on Donne by John Dryden. Dryden had written of Donne in 1693: "He affects the metaphysics, not only in his satires, but in his amorous verses, where nature only should reign; and perplexes the minds of the fair sex with nice speculations of philosophy, when he should engage their hearts, and entertain them with the softnesses of love."[26]
In Life of Cowley (from Samuel Johnson's 1781 work of biography and criticism
Donne is considered a master of the
Donne's works are also witty, employing paradoxes, puns and subtle yet remarkable analogies. His pieces are often ironic and cynical, especially regarding love and human motives. Common subjects of Donne's poems are love (especially in his early life), death (especially after his wife's death) and religion.[15]
John Donne's poetry represented a shift from classical forms to more personal poetry. Donne is noted for his
Some scholars believe that Donne's literary works reflect the changing trends of his life, with love poetry and satires from his youth and religious sermons during his later years. Other scholars, such as Helen Gardner, question the validity of this dating—most of his poems were published posthumously (1633). The exception to these is his Anniversaries, which were published in 1612 and Devotions upon Emergent Occasions published in 1624. His sermons are also dated, sometimes specifically by date and year.
Legacy
Donne is remembered in the
During his lifetime several likenesses were made of the poet. The earliest was the anonymous portrait of 1594 now in the National Portrait Gallery, London, which was restored in 2012.[32] One of the earliest Elizabethan portraits of an author, the fashionably dressed poet is shown darkly brooding on his love. The portrait was described in Donne's will as "that picture of myne wych is taken in the shaddowes", and bequeathed by him to Robert Kerr, 1st Earl of Ancram.[33] Other paintings include a 1616 head and shoulders after Isaac Oliver, also in the National Portrait Gallery,[34] and a 1622 head and shoulders in the Victoria and Albert Museum.[35] In 1911, the young Stanley Spencer devoted a visionary painting to John Donne arriving in heaven (1911) which is now in the Fitzwilliam Museum.[36]
Donne's reception until the 20th century was influenced by the publication of his writings in the 17th century. Because Donne avoided publication during his life,[37] the majority of his works were brought to the press by others in the decades after his death. These publications present what Erin McCarthy calls a "teleological narrative of Donne's growth" from young rake "Jack Donne" to reverend divine "Dr. Donne".[38] For example, while the first edition of Poems, by J. D. (1633) mingled amorous and pious verse indiscriminately, all editions after 1635 separated poems into "Songs and Sonnets" and "Divine Poems". This organization "promulgated the tale of Jack Donne's transformation into Doctor Donne and made it the dominant way of understanding Donne's life and work."[38]
A similar effort to justify Donne's early writings appeared in the publication of his prose. This pattern can be seen in a 1652 volume that combines texts from throughout Donne's career, including flippant works like Ignatius His Conclave and more pious writings like Essays in Divinity. In the preface, Donne's son "unifies the otherwise disparate texts around an impression of Donne's divinity" by comparing his father's varied writing to Jesus' miracles.[39] Christ "began his first Miracle here, by turning Water into Wine, and made it his last to ascend from Earth to Heaven."[40]
Donne first wrote "things conducing to cheerfulness & entertainment of Mankind," and later "change[d] his conversation from Men to Angels."
The idea that Donne's writings reflect two distinct stages of his life remains common; however, many scholars have challenged this understanding. In 1948, Evelyn Simpson wrote, "a close study of his works... makes it clear that his was no case of dual personality. He was not a Jekyll-Hyde in Jacobean dress... There is an essential unity underlying the flagrant and manifold contradictions of his temperament."[42]
In literature
After Donne's death, a number of poetical tributes were paid to him, of which one of the principal (and most difficult to follow) was his friend
Beginning in the 20th century, several historical novels appeared taking as their subject various episodes in Donne's life. His courtship of Anne More is the subject of Elizabeth Gray Vining's Take Heed of Loving Me: A novel about John Donne (1963)[46] and Maeve Haran's The Lady and the Poet (2010).[47] Both characters also make interspersed appearances in Mary Novik's Conceit (2007), where the main focus is on their rebellious daughter Pegge. English treatments include Garry O'Connor's Death's Duel: a novel of John Donne (2015), which deals with the poet as a young man.[48]
He also plays a significant role in Christie Dickason's The Noble Assassin (2012), a novel based on the life of Donne's patron and (the author claims) his lover, Lucy Russell, Countess of Bedford.[49] Finally there is Bryan Crockett's Love's Alchemy: a John Donne Mystery (2015), in which the poet, blackmailed into service in Robert Cecil's network of spies, attempts to avert political disaster and at the same time outwit Cecil.[50]
Musical settings
There were musical settings of Donne's lyrics even during his lifetime and in the century following his death. These included Alfonso Ferrabosco the younger's ("So, so, leave off this last lamenting kisse" in his 1609 Ayres); John Cooper's ("The Message"); Henry Lawes' ("Break of Day"); John Dowland's ("Break of Day" and "To ask for all thy love");[51] and settings of "A Hymn to God the Father" by John Hilton the younger[52] and Pelham Humfrey (published 1688).[53]
After the 17th century, there were no more until the start of the 20th century with Havergal Brian ("A nocturnal on St Lucy's Day", first performed in 1905), Eleanor Everest Freer ("Break of Day, published in 1905) and Walford Davies ("The Cross", 1909) among the earliest. In 1916–18, the composer Hubert Parry set Donne's "Holy Sonnet 7" ("At the round earth's imagined corners") to music in his choral work, Songs of Farewell.[54] Regina Hansen Willman (1914-1965) set Donne's "First Holy Sonnet" for voice and string trio. In 1945, Benjamin Britten set nine of Donne's Holy Sonnets in his song cycle for voice and piano The Holy Sonnets of John Donne. in 1968, Williametta Spencer used Donne's text for her choral work "At the Round Earth's Imagined Corners." Among them is also the choral setting of "Negative Love" that opens Harmonium (1981), as well as the aria setting of "Holy Sonnet XIV" at the end of the 1st act of Doctor Atomic, both by John Adams.[55][56]
There have been settings in popular music as well. One is the version of the song "Go and Catch a Falling Star" on John Renbourn's debut album John Renbourn (1966), in which the last line is altered to "False, ere I count one, two, three".[57] On their 1992 album Duality, the English Neoclassical dark wave band In the Nursery used a recitation of the entirety of Donne's "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning" for the track "Mecciano"[58] and an augmented version of "A Fever" for the track "Corruption."[59] Prose texts by Donne have also been set to music. In 1954, Priaulx Rainier set some in her Cycle for Declamation for solo voice.[60] In 2009, the American Jennifer Higdon composed the choral piece On the Death of the Righteous, based on Donne's sermons.[61][62] Still more recent is the Russian minimalist Anton Batagov's " I Fear No More, selected songs and meditations of John Donne" (2015).[63][64]
Works
- The Flea (1590s)
- Biathanatos (1608)
- Pseudo-Martyr (1610)
- Ignatius His Conclave (1611)
- A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning (1611)
- The Courtier's Library (1611, published 1651)
- The First Anniversary: An Anatomy of the World (1611)
- The Second Anniversary: Of the Progress of the Soul (1612)
- Devotions upon Emergent Occasions (1624)
- The Good-Morrow (1633)
- The Canonization (1633)
- Holy Sonnets (1633)
- As Due By Many Titles (1633)
- Death Be Not Proud (1633)
- The Sun Rising (1633)
- The Dream (1633)
- Elegy XIX: To His Mistress Going to Bed (1633)
- Batter my heart, three-person'd God (1633)
- Poems (1633)
- Juvenilia: or Certain Paradoxes and Problems (1633)
- LXXX Sermons (1640)
- Fifty Sermons (1649)
- Essays in Divinity (1651)
- Letters to severall persons of honour (1651)
- XXVI Sermons (1661)
- A Hymn to God the Father (unknown)
- Song: Go and Catch a Falling Star (1633)
References
Notes
- ^ a b c Biographer John Stubbs points out that, although Donne is known to have been born between January and June, the year is uncertain because of confusion between Old Style and New Style dates.[65]
Citations
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Colclough 2011.
- ^ Grierson 1971, pp. xiv–xxxiii.
- ^ Bloom 2009, pp. 14–15.
- ^ a b c Jokinen 2006.
- ^ Portraits of John Donne at the National Portrait Gallery, London
- ISBN 9780814330128.
- ^ a b Langstaff, Richard W. (1988). "Donne, John". In Johnston, Bernard (ed.). Collier's Encyclopedia. Vol. 8. New York: P.F. Colliers. pp. 346–349.
- ^ a b c Kunitz & Haycraft 1952, pp. 156–158.
- ^ a b "Donne, John (DN615J)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
- ^ Walton 1999.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Durant & Durant 1961, p. 154.
- OCLC 179202190.
- ^ Lee 1886.
- ISSN 1940-3364.
- ^ a b c d e f Greenblatt 2012, pp. 1370–1372.
- ^ Donne, John. "Of the Progress of the Soul: The Second Anniversary". Poetry Foundation. Retrieved 27 October 2017.
- ^ Ferris, John P. "DONNE, John (1572–1631), of Drury Lane, Westminster; formerly of Mitcham, Surr". historyofparliamentonline.org. Retrieved 5 November 2021.
- ^ Hutchings, Josephine. "John Donne (1572–1631) and Lincoln's Inn" (PDF). lincolnsinn.org.uk. Retrieved 27 October 2017.
- Sinclair, W.p. 464: London; Chapman & Hall, Ltd; 1909.
- ^ Sinclair 1909, p. 93.
- ^ Cottrell, Philip. "The John Donne Monument (d. 1631) by Nicholas Stone St Paul's Cathedral, London". churchmonumentssociety.org. Retrieved 29 May 2022.
- ^ "New John Donne statue unveiled in the shadow of St Paul's". St Paul's Cathedral. 15 June 2012. Archived from the original on 18 November 2021. Retrieved 29 May 2022.
- ^ a b Greenblatt 2006, pp. 600–602.
- ^ Flood, Alison (30 November 2018). "Unknown John Donne Manuscript Discover in Suffolk". The Guardian. Retrieved 3 December 2018.
- ^ a b Sherwood 1984.
- ^ Dryden 1693.
- ^ Bloom 2004, pp. 138–139.
- ^ "The Calendar". Church of England. Retrieved 23 March 2021.
- ^ Brown, Andrew (11 July 1995). "Church picks candidates for not-quite-sainthood". The Independent. Retrieved 25 April 2022.
- ^ Evangelical Lutheran Worship – Final Draft (PDF). Augsburg Fortress Press. 2006. Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 January 2007.
- ISBN 978-1-64065-234-7.
- ^ Cooper 2012.
- ^ "John Donne". National Portrait Gallery. Retrieved 27 October 2017.
- ^ "John Donne". National Portrait Gallery. Retrieved 27 October 2017.
- ^ "Portrait of John Donne (1573–1631) at the age of 49". V&A. 18 September 2023.
- ^ Spencer, Stanley (1911). "John Donne Arriving in Heaven". wikiart.org. Retrieved 27 October 2017.
- ^ Pebworth 2006, p. 23-35.
- ^ a b McCarthy 2013, p. 59.
- ^ Christoffersen 2018, pp. 46–47.
- ^ a b Donne, John (1652). Paradoxes, Problemes, Essayes, Characters, A2–A6.
- ^ Walton, Izaak (1658). Life of John Donne, 86–88.
- ^ Simpson, Evelyn (1948). A Study of the Prose Works of John Donne. Oxford University Press. pp. 4–5.
- ^ "Elegy for Doctor Donne". Poetry Explorer.
- ^ Donne 1633, p. 373.
- ^ Maxton 1983, pp. 62–64.
- ^ Hollander, John (2 April 1964). "This Is Your Life, John Donne". The New York Review of Books. Retrieved 27 October 2017.
- ^ Haran 2009.
- ASIN B019E0NQ1G.
- ^ Dickason 2011.
- ^ Crockett 2015.
- YouTube
- YouTube
- YouTube
- ISBN 9780195327786.
- YouTube
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- YouTube
- ^ Webster, Daniel (31 March 2009). "Two stirring requiems: One old, the other new". The Philadelphia Inquirer. Retrieved 14 September 2015.
- YouTube
- ^ "Anton Batagov – I fear no more". FANCYMUSIC. 1 June 2015. Retrieved 23 October 2015.
- YouTube
- ISBN 978-0-141-90241-8.
Sources
- Bloom, Harold (2004). The Best Poems of the English Language: From Chaucer Through Frost. New York: HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-06-054041-8.
- Bloom, Harold (2009). John Donne : comprehensive research and study guide. Broomall, PA: Chelsea House. ISBN 9781438115733.
- Colclough, David (19 May 2011). "Donne, John (1572–1631)". doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/7819. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
- Christoffersen, Will (2018). A Little World Made Cunningly: The Formation of John Donne in the Civil War Period (Honours). University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. .
- Cooper, Tarnya (16 May 2012). "John Donne nearly finished... –". National Portrait Gallery. Retrieved 27 October 2017.
- Crockett, Bryan (2015). Love's Alchemy. Cengage Gale. ISBN 978-1-4328-3025-0.
- Dickason, Christie (2011). The Noble Assassin. HarperCollins Publishers. ISBN 978-0-00-738381-8.
- Donne, John (1633). Poems, by J.D. With elegies on the authors death. London: Iohn Marriot.
- Dryden, John (1693). A Discourse Concerning the Original and Progress of Satire. London.
- ISBN 978-0-671-01320-2.
- Greenblatt, Stephen (2006). The Norton Anthology of English Literature Major Authors Edition: The Middle Ages Through the Restoration And the Eighteenth Century. Norton. ISBN 978-0-393-92830-3.
- Greenblatt, Stephen, ed. (2012). "John Donne, 1572–1631". Norton Anthology of English Literature. Vol. B (9 ed.). New York: Norton. ISBN 9780393912500.
- ISBN 0-19-281113-4.
- Haran, Maeve (2009). The Lady and the Poet. Pan Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-330-50538-3.
- Jokinen, Anniina (22 June 2006). "The Life of John Donne (1572–1631)". Luminarium. Retrieved 27 October 2017.
- Lee, Sidney (1886). Stephen, Leslie (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 6. London: Smith, Elder & Co. . In
- Kunitz, Stanley; Haycraft, Howard, eds. (1952). British Authors Before 1800: A Biographical Dictionary. New York: Wilson. ISBN 978-0-8242-0006-0.
- Maxton, Hugh (1983). "Josef Brodsky and 'The Great Elegy for John Donne'". The Crane Bag. 7 (1): 62–64. JSTOR 30060547.
- McCarthy, Erin (2013). "Poems, by J. D. (1635) and the Creation of John Donne's Literary Biography". John Donne Journal. 32: 57–85. hdl:10379/5258.
- Pebworth, Ted-Larry (2006). "The Text of Donne's Writings". In Achsah Guibbory (ed.). The Cambridge Companion to John Donne. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-83237-3.
- Sherwood, Terry Grey (1984). Fulfilling the Circle: A Study of John Donne's Thought. University of Toronto Press. ISBN 978-0-8020-5621-4.
- Sinclair, William Macdonald (1909). Memorials of St. Paul's Cathedral. George W. Jacobs & Company.
- Walton, Izaak (1888) [1658]. Izaak Walton's Lives of John Donne, Henry Wotton, Richard Hooker and George Herbert. London: George Routledge and Sons.
- ISBN 978-0-375-70548-9.
Further reading
- Bald, R. C.: Donne's Influence in English Literature. Peter Smith, Gloucester, Massachusetts USA, 1965
- Bald, Robert Cecil (1970). John Donne, a Life. Oxford University Press.
- Berman, Antoine (1995). Pour une critique des traductions: John Donne [Towards a Translation Criticism: John Donne] (in French). Translated by Françoise Massardier-Kenney. Paris: Gallimard.
- ISBN 978-1-4051-0696-2.
- Carey, John (1981). John Donne. Life, Mind and Art. London: Faber and Faber. Revised and republished 1990.
- Colclough, David (2003). John Donne's Professional Lives. DS Brewer. ISBN 978-0-85991-775-9.
- Gosse, Edmund William (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 8 (11th ed.). pp. 417–419. .
- ISBN 0870231588
- Grierson, Herbert J. C., ed. (1902). The Poems of John Donne. Oxford: University Press. In two volumes
- Guibbory, Achsah, ed. (2006). The Cambridge Companion to Donne. Cambridge: University Press.
- Jessopp, Augustus (1885–1900). "Donne, John (1573-1631)". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
- Le Comte, Edward (1965). Grace to a Witty Sinner: A Life of Donne. Walker.
- Stephen, Leslie (1898). . Studies of a Biographer. London: Duckworth and Co. pp. 36–82.
- Lim, Kit (2005). John Donne: An Eternity of Song. Penguin.
- Long, William J. (2013). English Literature: Its History and Significance for the Life of the English-Speaking World. Start Classics. ISBN 978-1-62793-876-1.
- Morrissey, Mary (2011). Politics and the Paul's Cross Sermons, 1558–1642. Oxford: OUP. ISBN 978-0-19-957176-5.
- Rundell, Katherine (2022). Super-Infinite: The Transformations of John Donne. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ISBN 978-0-37460740-1.
- Stubbs, John (2007). John Donne: The Reformed Soul. Penguin Books Limited. ISBN 978-0-14-190241-8.
- Sullivan, Ceri (2008). The Rhetoric of the Conscience in Donne, Herbert, and Vaughan. Oxford: University Press.
- Warnke, Frank J. (1987). John Donne. Twayne. ISBN 978-0-8057-6941-8.
External links
- John Donne on Britannica.com
- Works by John Donne at Project Gutenberg
- Works by or about John Donne at Internet Archive
- Works by John Donne at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
- Poems by John Donne at PoetryFoundation.org
- John Donne's Monument, St Paul's Cathedral
- John Donne: Sparknotes
- Digital Donne (digital images of early Donne editions and manuscripts)
- Michael John Trotta's setting of Break of Day for SATB/piano/English Horn on YouTube
- Poems by John Donne at English Poetry