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John Donne Updated Version
John Donne Updated Version
(1572-1631)
John Donne
was the most outstanding of the English Metaphysical Poets
and a churchman famous for his spellbinding sermons.
born in London to a prominent Roman Catholic family but
converted to Anglicanism during the 1590s.
At the age of 11 he entered the University of Oxford, where
he studied for three years.
According to some accounts, he spent the next three years
at the University of Cambridge but took no degree at either
university.
He began the study of law at Lincoln's Inn, London, in 1592,
and he seemed destined for a legal or diplomatic career.
Donne was appointed private secretary to Sir Thomas
Egerton, Keeper of the Great Seal, in 1598.
His secret marriage in 1601 to Egerton's niece, Anne More,
resulted in his dismissal from this position and in a brief
imprisonment. During the next few years Donne made a
meager living as a lawyer.
John Donne
principal literary accomplishments:
Death in 1631
*oxymoron=
1) two words used together that have, or seem to have, opposite
meanings.
2) a combination of contradictory or incongruous words (such as cruel
kindness);
Metaphysical Conceit
characteristic of seventeenth-century writers influenced by
John Donne
noteworthy specifically for their lack of conventionality. In
general, the metaphysical conceit will use some sort of
shocking or unusual comparison as the basis for the
metaphor. When it works, a metaphysical conceit has a
surprising appropriateness that makes us look at
something in an entirely new way.
draws upon a wide range of knowledge, mainly using
highly intellectual analogies; its comparisons are
elaborately rationalized.
"The Flea" compares a flea bite to the act of love
In "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning“* separated lovers
are likened to the legs of a compass, the leg drawing the
circle eventually returning home to "the fixed foot"
* ”Commiato: Divieto di Lamentarsi”
https://www.britannica.com/art/conceit
Characteristic of Donne's Poetry