Donne: Poems

by John Donne

The Everyman's Library Pocket Poets hardcover series is popular for its compact size and reasonable price which does not compromise content. Poems: Donne contains Songs and Sonnets, Letters to the Countess of Bedford, The First Anniversary, Holy Sonnets, Divine Poems, excerpts from Paradoxes and Problems, Ignatius His Conclave, The Sermons, Essays and Devotions, and an index of first lines.

Genres: Poetry, Classics, English Literature, Literature

256 pages, Hardcover

First published October 31, 1995

About the author

John Donne was an English poet, preacher and a major representative of the metaphysical poets of the period. His works are notable for their realistic and sensual style and include sonnets, love poetry, religious poems, Latin translations, epigrams, elegies, songs, satires and sermons. His poetry is noted for its vibrancy of language and inventiveness of metaphor, especially as compared to that of his contemporaries.

Despite his great education and poetic talents, he lived in poverty for several years, relying heavily on wealthy friends. In 1615 he became an Anglican priest and, in 1621, was appointed the Dean of St Paul's Cathedral in London.

Reviews

[Roy Lotz]

Verse hath a middle nature: heaven keeps soules,
The grave keeps bodies, verse the fame enroules.

Partly from folly, and partly by design, I have lately been reading books somehow or other beyond my grasp. This book, for example, I picked up as the first step in a scheme to deepen my appreciation of poetry.

For a while now, I’ve been disappointed with my sensitivity to poetry. Partly to excuse myself, I can’t help but pin some of the blame on the present age. From what I can tell, poetry used to be much more commonly read and appreciated than it is nowadays; people appended poems to their letters, recreationally dipped into collections, memorized their favorite verses. I don’t know a single person who does this now.

As a side note, it seems to me that music now occupies the cultural position poetry once held. Now that music is so portable, so easy to acquire, so plentiful and ever-present, people memorize lyrics, share their favorite songs, play music in the background when they exercise—so why bother with poems? This is simply a guess; but, at a first glance, this shift makes sense. In the days when listening to music required either owning an instrument, having a musically inclined friend, or going to a concert, it was easier to simply sit down and open a book of poetry. Now, with iPods and headphones, we can enclose ourselves in a private cocoon of sound.

As I said, this little digression is partly to excuse my insensitivity to poetry. But even a good excuse is still an excuse; I might as well try to overcome the problem. Therefore, I recently bought a bunch of these Everyman’s Library Pocket Poets collections, and resolved to read through them. Wishing to work chronologically, I started at the earliest of the lot: John Donne. But as soon as I opened the book and started reading, I had to ask myself: how does one read poetry?

Reading poetry as one reads prose won’t do. Prose is a conversation; a great writer of prose is talking right to you, trying to get their point across. But poetry is not, as I soon discovered, a conversation; it is a sigh, a cry, a moan, a sob, a shrug, a chuckle—but not a conversation. The content is not conceptual, nor even narrative; rather, the content is a mood, a feeling, an emotional atmosphere—which can, indeed, be evoked by concepts and stories, but is not reducible to them. So should one read a poem slowly, or quickly? Should you try to unravel the metaphors, or let them speak in symbolic undertones? Should you analyze, or respond with pure emotion? Clearly, there aren’t any simple or final answers to these questions; but I found myself continually asking them as I read through the poems in this collection; for, no matter how slowly I read, or how often I re-read, I felt like I was somehow missing the point.

Be that as it may, I did find much to enjoy in Donne. I found him rather odd, though. His tight syntax and frequent enjambment is sometimes conversational, sometimes cramped, and sometimes convoluted. He is amorous, often sensual, rather morbid, and strangely elusive. I use these admittedly vague adjectives because I know of no other way to characterize the style of a poet, without either lapsing into parody, or resorting to example. Perhaps example is best; here is Donne at his wittiest:

And they who write to Lords, rewards to get,
Are they not like singers at doores for meat?
And they who write, because all write, have still
That excuse for writing, and for writing ill;
But hee is worst, who (beggarly) doth chaw
Others wits fruits, and in his ravenous maw
Rankly digested, doth those things out-spue,
As his owne things; and they are his owne, ‘tis true,
For if one eate my meate, though it be knowne
The meate was mine, th’excrement is his own

But Donne is probably at his best when writing of love. What I found most impressive was Donne’s ability to combine both a spiritual and a corporeal conception of love. He was something of a mystic; but, like many mystics, he was also something of a womanizer. For Donne, love and death seem intimately tied together. He is rather obsessed with the idea of dying and being laid in the ground to rot. So against this fear, he matches his flaming ardor, first for sex, and then for God. Well, whatever you think of this emotional complex, you must admit that it inspired him to great heights of eloquence:

And if unfit for tombes and hearse
Our legend bee, it will be fit for verse;
And if no peece of Chronicle wee prove,
We’ll build in sonnets pretty roomes

Very pretty, that. Hey, I’m starting to like this poetry stuff!

[Alvaro de Menard]

Very high variance. His best stuff is fantastic and incredibly Strange. Johnson's critique that his work consists of "the most heterogeneous ideas are yoked by violence together" is spot on. You might be into that sort of thing, though. The word choices in the poems are really something: sublunary, hydroptic, inter-assured, interinanimates!!!

[Christine Norvell]

I enjoyed the realness of his love sonnets (especially "Song"), the moral quandary of his satires, and the absolute sense of the need for God's grace in his spiritual sonnets like "Divine Meditations": “Death be not proud, though some have called thee / Mighty and dreadful, for, thou art not so.” One caution—don't be dissuaded by Middle English spellings. Our phonetics are so similar that you can simply read aloud if a line appears confusing.

[superawesomekt]

John Donne now ranks among one of my favorite poets. So clever and his meditations are so profound. Going to be studying these throughout my life!

[Asher]

I have never picked up this edition, and probably it's sad sack, but every man should be carryin' around some down-home-Donne Metaphysical Lovin'. Like a heart-compass.

[Anthony]

If for no other reason (and there are many), this edition is wonderful for it's correct punctuation at the end of Donne's famous masterpiece Holly sonnet 10 "Death be not proud"

[Jamey]

Try as I might, I didn't really enjoy these poems or essays. It was a strange anthology, I think.

[Yuuma shinkan]

A very beautiful book describing the beauty as well as the complexity of the Love in real world without concealing the ugliness that lurks within. Such great analogies and imagery employed by the poet, the poems take us to new world and it is very difficult to get back to reality after reading them.

[Daniel]

Sex, love, and exegesis.

[Vitoria]

No