Historical Figures Codexery

John Donne

Metaphysical poet and Dean of St Paul's

The metaphysical poets find their foremost representative in Donne.[1] From 1621 until his death in 1631, Donne served as Dean of St Paul's Cathedral in London, a position he obtained through royal patronage.[1]

Quick Facts

Birthplace
London, England
Occupation
  • Poet
  • priest
  • lawyer
Education
Hart Hall, Oxford; University of Cambridge
Genre
  • Satire
  • love poetry
  • elegy
  • sermons
Subject
  • Love
  • sexuality
  • religion
  • death
Movement
Metaphysical poetry
Relatives
Edward Alleyn (son-in-law)

Facts from the source article.

Life and work

Donne began studies at Hart Hall, Oxford in 1583 and later studied at Cambridge, but could not obtain a degree because of his Catholicism.[2][3] Donne secretly married Anne More just before Christmas in 1601, which ruined his career and led to his imprisonment.[4] After his release, he lived in a small house in Pyrford, Surrey, and later in Mitcham, Surrey, scraping a meagre living as a lawyer.[5] Donne was ordained a priest in the Church of England in 1615 and became a Royal Chaplain the same year.[6][7]

Donne died on 31 March 1631 and was buried in old St Paul's Cathedral.[8] Donne, the third of six children, was born in London in either 1571 or 1572 to a recusant Roman Catholic family at a time when practicing that faith was illegal in England.[9] In 1596, Donne fought with the Earl of Essex and Sir Walter Raleigh against the Spanish at Cadiz, and in 1597 he participated in a similar campaign at the Azores.[10] Over sixteen years of marriage, Anne More gave birth to twelve children; two of these were stillbirths, the eighth and the last in 1617.[11]

What the cited sources add

Izaak Walton's biography records that Donne personally modeled for his statue, posing in his winding sheet on a wooden urn.[12] This manuscript contains 139 poems by Donne and is one of the largest contemporary collections of his poetry to survive.[13] The Guardian article notes that Donne preferred his work to be circulated among an exclusive coterie in written form rather than printed.[13]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "John Donne" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Grierson 1971, p. xiv–xxxiii; Colclough 2011 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  2. Wikipedia, "John Donne" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Colclough 2011 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  3. Wikipedia, "John Donne" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: ; Walton 1999, p. ; Colclough 2011; Colclough 2011 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "John Donne" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Gosse, "The Life and Letters of John Donne", Heinemann, 2018, p. 97–99; Lee 1886 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  5. Wikipedia, "John Donne" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Colclough 2011; Jokinen 2006 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  6. Wikipedia, "John Donne" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Ferris, "DONNE, John (1572–1631), of Drury Lane, Westminster; formerly of Mitcham, Surr.", historyofparliamentonline.org; Kunitz Haycraft 1952, p. 156–158; Durant Durant 1961, p. 154 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  7. Wikipedia, "John Donne" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Colclough 2011; Hutchings, "John Donne (1572–1631) and Lincoln's Inn", lincolnsinn.org.uk (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  8. Wikipedia, "John Donne" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Memorials of St Paul's Cathedral" Sinclair, W. p. 464: London; Chapman & Hall, Ltd; 1909.; Sinclair 1909, p. 93 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  9. Wikipedia, "John Donne" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Papazian, "John Donne and the Protestant Reformation : new perspectives", Wayne State University Press, 2003, p. 3 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  10. Wikipedia, "John Donne" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Colclough 2011; Durant Durant 1961, p. 154 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  11. Wikipedia, "John Donne" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Greenblatt 2012, p. 1370–1372 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  12. Cottrell, "The John Donne Monument (d. 1631) by Nicholas Stone St Paul's Cathedral, London", churchmonumentssociety.org. facts only, no text reused. churchmonumentssociety.org
  13. Flood, "Unknown John Donne Manuscript Discover in Suffolk", The Guardian, 30 November 2018. facts only, no text reused. theguardian.com

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article John Donne (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

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