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Biography of John Donne

John Donne was born in London in 1572 into the

family of the successful and wealthy ironmonger
John Donne. His mother, Elizabeth Heywood, was
descended from the family of Sir Thomas More.
Elizabeth was an accomplished literary woman, the
author of epigrams and interludes, although she did
not live long enough to teach John much about
poetry or writing. Both sides of Donne's family were
respected Catholics in an England in which the
dominant religion had become Anglicanism.

When Donne was very young (between the ages of four and five) his parents died
in rapid succession. He was put in the care of Dr. John Syminges, who his mother
had married after the death of John Donne senior. The young Donne was, like
most children of his class at this time, educated at home until he went to Hart
Hall (now Hertford College), Oxford, in 1583. After three years there he went on to
Cambridge for another three. Since he was a Catholic, neither university would
grant him a degree. He left university and studied law at Lincoln's Inn in 1592.

As a young man Donne was, by any standard and certainly by those of a future
clergyman, wild and even dissipated. His early poems, "many of them
outspokenly sensual and at times cruelly cynical" (Chambers 413), do not
reconcile easily with much of the divine literature of his later life. There is some
evidence that he had at least one affair with a married woman, and also that he
frittered away a large portion of his inheritance in unworthy pursuits.

Donne traveled in Europe for a time, and he was part of the English military force,
headed by the Earl of Essex, which fought the Spanish at Cadiz. He spent a few
years in Spain and then in Italy, returning to England at the age of twenty-five. In
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England he was appointed secretary to Sir Thomas Egerton, who was the Lord-
Keeper of the Great Seal, a high government office. This brought Donne into
contact with many influential and important people in governmental, court,
literary, and church circles. A great amount of Donne's poetry was written during
this time, but he did not attempt to publish any of it. It was passed from hand to
hand in manuscript form.

While in Egerton's service, Donne met and fell in love with the Lord-Keeper's
niece, Anne More. In 1601, when Donne was twenty-nine and Anne was
seventeen, the two secretly married, presumably because if they had married
openly they would have met opposition from her family. This action lost Donne
his position with the Lord-Keeper, and he was thrown into Fleet Prison for several
weeks. What followed were several years of poverty for the couple, with Donne
trying, unsuccessfully, to attach himself to another high official in the
government. Doubtless, his Catholic faith and his willingness to deceive authority
figures did not help his career at this time.

Donne was elected to Parliament for Brackley in 1602, but since Members were
not paid it did not help the Donne family's finances. Donne continued to write,
including some poetry that might be considered "on commission" for his rich
friends.

By 1610 Donne had begun to write polemics against his own faith, Catholicism. It
is not clear exactly what turned Donne away from this faith which his family had
so famously adhered to in the face of adversity in years past. Perhaps Donne did
have a true spiritual change of heart, or perhaps the difficulties of his faith and
the needs of his growing family made him accept (or at least pretend to accept)
the dominant faith of his time.

Once married, the Donnes had a new baby almost every year, and for a long time
they were dependent on Anne Donne's cousin, Sir Francis Wolly. Financial
security and success would not come until Donne had joined the Anglican
Church. Notably during this time, Donne wrote Biathanos (a defense of suicide),
the Holy Sonnets, and other divine poems.

In 1611 Donne printed his first poem, an elegy for Sir Robert Drury's daughter.
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This was followed by other published poems, and the Drurys took Donne into
their home as well as abroad with them to Paris. Donne's anti-Catholic writing
had attracted the notice of King James I, who encouraged him to enter the clergy
of the Anglican church. Finally, in 1615, Donne did so. He was almost instantly
successful as a clergyman, being offered several posts during the first year of his
divinity. In this year Donne became a Royal Chaplain, and within three years he
obtained his doctorate of divinity from Cambridge.

Anne Donne died after giving birth to their twelfth child (stillborn) in 1617. His
surviving children numbered ten, although three died before they were ten years
old. Donne never remarried, though it would have been in his best interest to do
so for his large family. It is apparent both from his poetry and from historical
writing about him that he mourned her deeply.

After Anne's death, Donne devoted himself wholeheartedly to religion and

theology, and he became a successful clergyman and a highly sought-after
sermonist. In 1621 Donne became the Dean of St. Paul's Cathedral in London,
which was a very well-paid and influential post within the Church of England. He
held this post until his death in 1631. During the last ten years of his life, his
literary output was mostly sermons.

As was the fashion and custom of the day, Donne's poems were mostly
circulated in manuscript form. A collection of them was not made until after his
death in 1633. His earliest poetry, which is often graphically sensual in nature,
might have embarrassed the staid and respected Dean of St. Paul's in his later
life. The fashion of poetry was slowly changing from the Elizabethan freedom of
expression to a more restrained style. Donne's existing oeuvre spans his early
sensuality and intellectual experimentation up to the dogmatic and theological
works of his later years. His style, though recognizable throughout, changed with
his changes in status and the events around him.

Spanning the Elizabethan and Renaissance worlds, Donne can be viewed as a

transitional poet: both sensual and divine, constrained and free. He has been
studied consistently since his death, weathering fashions in poetry and criticism,
and his poetry and prose have provided food for thought across many
successive generations.
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 g

Study Guides on Works by John Donne

At the round earth's imagined
corners, blow (Holy Sonnet 7) John
Donne
“Holy Sonnets: At the round earth's imagin'd corners, blow”
is one of the poems from the collection of poems that are
concerned with themes of religion, mortality, self-
awareness, and the need for closeness with the divine. It is
a one-stanza...

Study Guide Q & A

Death's Duell John Donne

John Donne was an English poet, scholar, who later in life
became a part of the Church of England. “Death’s Duell”
represents his final sermon at the St Paul’s Cathedral, soon
after which he died.

The contents of the sermon are related to life and...

Study Guide Q & A

John Donne: Poems John Donne

John Donne is so widely quoted that he ranks near the top
of the canon of well-known authors, not far behind his near
contemporary, William Shakespeare. Perhaps his best-
known line, from Meditation 17 in Devotions Upon Emergent
Occasions, a prose...
Study Guide Q & A Essays Lesson Plan

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 The Good-Morrow John Donne
"The Good-Morrow" is a 1633 poem by English poet John
Donne. The poem was originally published in his collection
Songs and Sonnets, and Donne himself considered it a
sonnet, despite the fact that it doesn’t conform to the
standard number of lines,...

Study Guide Q & A

To His Mistress Going to Bed (Elegy

19) John Donne
“To His Mistress Going to Bed” is one of Donne’s elegies
written published after his death as a part of his collection
of metaphysical poetry. The term “elegy” is used to refer to
a poem which is written to mourn the dead or the death
itself....

Study Guide Q & A

A Valediction: Of Weeping John Donne

The poem "A Valediction: Of Weeping" was published two
years after the poet’s death, and it was believed to be
written as a dedication to his wife Anne. Some argue that
the poem’s ambiguity and metaphysical contemplation
speak against the claim...

Study Guide Q & A

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