Selected Poems

by John Donne, Shane Weller (Editor)

Considered by many critics the foremost English “metaphysical” poet, John Donne (1572-1631) earned renown for both sacred and secular verse, his love poems in the latter genre ranking among his most original and popular works. Brilliant and wide-ranging, Donne's verse is distinguished by its passion, insight and inspired use of striking metaphors or “conceits.” This volume contains a rich selection of the poet's best work, including, from the Songs and Sonnets: “The Good Morrow,” “The Canonization,” “The Relic” and “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning”; from the Elegies: “On His Mistress” and “To His Mistress Going to Bed”; a selection from the Holy Sonnets (including “Death Be Not Proud”); “Good Friday, 1613. Riding Westward,” “Hymn to God My God, in My Sickness” and many more.

Original Dover (1993) selection of 73 poems from a standard text. Note. Alphabetical lists of titles and first lines.

Genres: Poetry, Classics, Literature, Fiction, British Literature, Classic Literature, Christianity

77 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1952

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

[Jonathan Terrington · Rating 5 out of 5]

Again, as a disclaimer I have not read this particular edition of John Donne's poetry. I have however read many of the poems found in this edition and therefore find it a particularly reasonable version to use to talk about the poems I read as stand alone works.

John Donne was a fascinating character, with a most interesting mixture of personality types. He was, I think, the type of character that true Christianity was and is meant to attract: he was a religious rebel. Earlier in his life he was a party animal from all accounts, the type of man who loved women and who found no reason why they should not love him back. His earliest poetry, such as the famous (or infamous) The Flea is a symbol of this early rebellion:

Mark but this flea, and mark in this,
How little that which thou deny'st me is;
It sucked me first, and now sucks thee,
And in this flea, our two bloods mingled be;
Thou knowest that this cannot be said
A sin, nor shame, nor loss of maidenhead.
Yet this enjoys before it woo,
And pampered, swells with one blood made of two,
And this, alas, is more than we would do.

Oh stay, three lives in one flea spare,
Where we almost, yea, more than married are.
This flea is you and I, and this
Our marriage bed, and marriage temple is;
Though parents grudge, and you, we are met
And cloistered in these living walls of jet.
Though use make you apt to kill me,
Let not to that self murder added be,
And sacrilege, three sins in killing three.

Cruel and sudden, hast thou since
Purpled thy nail in blood of innocence?
Wherein could this flea guilty be
Except in that drop which it sucked from thee?
Yet thou triumph'st, and sayest that thou
Find'st not thyself, nor me, the weaker now.
'Tis true, then learn how false fears be;
Just so much honor, when thou yieldst to me,
Will waste, as this flea's death took life from thee.

The argument being here that, since the flea has taken blood from both of us already we have already intermingled in some way. In other words Donne was a smooth talker trying to convince a woman that going to bed was fine since they'd already had blood mixed by a third party. Romantic and smooth...or not.

But even when Donne became drawn into 'religion' becoming a man of great importance in the Anglican Church he was a rebel. Which I find fascinating because in many respects Christ himself was a rebel of his times, not caring about convention or even about contention but more about conversion and salvation. The message of Christ is one which naturally broke and breaks cultural barriers and set rigid structures and is not meant to be one of pomp and celebration. And in many ways Donne's later poetry reflects this. His poetry retains that earthy sensuality of his youth but shows a sense of adult maturity and a sense that Donne has become captured by the wonder of a personal God.

I particularly like these three of his Holy Sonnets:

Batter my heart, three-personed God; for you
As yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend;
That I may rise and stand, o'erthrow me, and bend
Your force to break, blow, burn, and make me new.
I, like an usurped town, to another due,
Labor to admit you, but O, to no end;
Reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend,
but is captived, and proves weak or untrue.
yet dearly I love you, and would be loved fain,
But am betrothed unto your enemy.
Divorce me, untie or break that knot again;
Take me to you, imprison me, for I,
Except you enthrall me, never shall be free,
Nor even chaste, except you ravish me.

There is this fascinating sense to how Donne writes his poetry here. It's almost Shakespearian but he has his own flavour with how he opens the poetry with an eye catching line like: batter my heart. The alliteration of 'break, blow, burn' reinforces the sense of violence as connected to the holy love this poetry is about. And therefore in many ways it all makes for an interesting final line, which shows how Donne ends much of his poetry, with two connected and yet contradictory ideas. There is the sense that Donne will never be virginal unless God ravishes him, yet it makes little sense for one to be both virgin and have been ravished as the poem suggests. Has perhaps Donne captured something as to the nature of God, that the things God does cannot be understood as we understand them - much as ideas exist in the Bible as in Matthew 16:25 'For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.'

Death, be not proud, though some have callèd thee
Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so;
For those whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow
Die not, poor death, nor yet canst thou kill me.
From rest and sleep, which yet thy pictures be,
Much pleasure, then from thee much more, must low
And soonest our best men with thee do go,
Rest of their bones and soul's delivery.
Thou art slave to fate, chance, kings and desperate men
And dost with poison, war and sickness dwell,
And poppy or charms can make us sleep as well
And better than thy stroke; why swell'st thou then ?
One short sleep past, we wake eternally,
And death shall be no more; death, thou shalt die.

This was the first Donne poem I was ever introduced to. It still retains that sense of rhythm, power and awe when I read it again. It has a strong opening few lines and a strong closing line or two with that same contradictory element: sleep to wake.

Spit in my face you Jews, and pierce my side,
Buffet, and scoff, scourge, and crucify me,
For I have sinned, and sinned, and only he
Who could do no iniquity hath died:
But by my death can not be satisfied
My sins, which pass the Jews' impiety:
They killed once an inglorious man, but I
Crucify him daily, being now glorified.
Oh let me, then, his strange love still admire:
Kings pardon, but he bore our punishment.
And Jacob came clothed in vile harsh attire
But to supplant, and with gainful intent:
God clothed himself in vile man's flesh, that so
He might be weak enough to suffer woe.

Finally I conclude with this poem. I find it fascinatingly bold again and the contradictory element here is of how God became weak to be able to suffer woe.

These seem the hallmarks of John Donne's poems: strong and conflict centred openings and strong semantically contradictory conclusions. If you appreciate these aspects and the wild preacher poet behind them then I recommend checking out more of John Donne's work further. He really was an honest individual in many ways...

[Judith Shadford]

Finally finished, with awe. To my everlasting delight, Donne didn't turn into a stiff old forbidding puritan after his conversion. He was every bit as witty, sly, wonderful as he was before. But with greater depth and compassion. That the last poem, at least in this collection, was a play on donne/done/ wrapped around a prayer for forgiveness of sins, was a measure of his skill and devotion and delight in language. Great, great man. And poet.

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

"When thou hast done, thou hast not done,
For I have more."

I followed this in print while listening to Frederick Davidson's performance on Audible. I feel as though this man, with his incredible mind, was allowing me to be present while he thought -- and prayed -- aloud.

[Noor Ali · Rating 3 out of 5]

The holy sonnets were my favorite. Didn’t care much for the rest.

“Death, be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so;
For those whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow
Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me.
From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be,
Much pleasure; then from thee much more must flow,
And soonest our best men with thee do go,
Rest of their bones, and soul's delivery.
Thou art slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men,
And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell,
And poppy or charms can make us sleep as well
And better than thy stroke; why swell'st thou then?
One short sleep past, we wake eternally
And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die.”

[Lois · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think John Donne is just not for me. I really tried to like his poetry but it was only just meh for me. I even read a biography about him that I ended up liking better than his actual writing. 😂😬 His religious poetry was probably my favorite and his “raunchy” poetry humored me. I think with more exposure to that time period of poetry I’ll probably come to appreciate it more so I’m not giving up on it entirely but it will probably be awhile before I delve into it again.

[izaro · Rating 2 out of 5]

1.5/5
To be honest, I'm not being very objective with this rating. I had to read these poems (Songs, Sonnets, Holy Sonnets and Hymns) for a seminar and I just did so. I analysed a bit the four works I was asked for, and that's all. Don't trust me much, I'm not a big poetry reader and I was just doing what I was told, not really seeking to enjoy these works.

[The_J · Rating 2 out of 5]

Just not enough there there?

[Willow Redd · Rating 4 out of 5]

Who couldn't do with a little John Donne in their lives?

I'm trying to remember where I picked this one up, but for the life of me I can't. It might have been for a college class I wasn't taking, but seeing it on the shelf at the University Bookstore I was intrigued enough to grab a copy (I did that a lot in college).

This particular book includes selections from every style of Donne's work; from Satires, to Letters, to the Elegies, and a collection of his Holy Sonnets. I feel like it's a good cross-section for anyone interested in his style without wanting to find his whole collected works.

Also, I've now read the Holy Sonnet from which P.J. Farmer took the title for the first Riverworld book, To Your Scattered Bodies Go.

[Nick Black · Rating 4 out of 5]

I believe that shape on the cover is an epitrochoid -- did Dover get one of the Bernoulli brothers to do this edition's artwork? And if so, why? Did they begin with a heart, and batter three salients (each part of the tripartite God -- Divine Poem XIV)? Is that supposed to be the stomach cancer that killed him?

Actually, looking close, it's a flower, presumably a reference to "The Blossom" (from Songs and Sonnets). Well isn't that just jingles. Hell -- I'd have preferred the epitrochoid, or for that matter any brachistochronic form. Way to phone that one in, Dover Publications!

[Kevin Albrecht · Rating 1 out of 5]

I began reading this selection of John Donne's poems but stopped once I realized they had "modernized" the spelling of Donne's poetry. This is a serious problem as it makes it impossible to figure out how Donne intended them to be read. Instead, read The Complete English Poems

[J. Alfred · Rating 4 out of 5]

He's such a goodn', and a good selection will get you some representitives of both his pre- and post-conversion stuff. I need to memorize like all of the holy sonnets.

So in His purple wrapped, recieve me, Lord,
By these His thorns give me His other crown-

(Actually a part of A Hymn to God, My God, in My Sickness. Still great)

[Magila · Rating 4 out of 5]

I guess the rating is more a reflection of my thoughts on John Donne than this book. It's ok. I saw another person comment on the spiritual poems. Personally, I don't believe Donne's conversion was a true one, and it can be felt in his religious series. That said, those poems that he wrote to woo are some of the best out there. An absolute must read for anyone who loves poetry or English.

[Wale · Rating 3 out of 5]

John Donne surely doesn't mince words, he's more concerned about getting his message across that waxing unnecessarily eloquent with words at the expense of theme; a lesson many modern poets will do well to learn.

[SmarterLilac · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun, and more vibrant than I remember Donne being in my 'Intro to the Early Modern Period' class in college. I don't think Donne gets enough credit for the relatively strong emotional content in his work.

[M.I. Lastman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Profound, very difficult poetry but there is very little in the English language that demonstrates such virtuosity. He came from a time of verbal virtuosity and one is reminded of Gongora and Marino. In England his rival is not Shakespeare, but Jonson.

[Karlie Ybarra · Rating 2 out of 5]

His love poems are good, but like all freaking poets of this era, there are way too many about God. Not that poems about God are inherently bad, but they are all very similar (at least with Christian writers).

[Tom · Rating 5 out of 5]

From the seductive poems of his youth to the holy sonnets of his old age, none surpass Donne.

[Fishsanwitt]

stamped

[Felicia · Rating 3 out of 5]

The poetry is quite clever once you get into it... it can just take a while to get to that point.

[Carissa Norris · Rating 5 out of 5]

John Donne is my favorite poet. His images are riveting and his passion explodes on the page. The Holy Sonnets mean the most to me.

[C · Rating 4 out of 5]

Definitely a book to return to over and over. Donne's poems are like beautiful, tightly sprung puzzles.

[Beth]

Your most outrageously emo poetry has nothing on this guy.

[Ginnie Grant · Rating 5 out of 5]

There is kind of a grim romanticism, a kind of brutal honesty in these pages. Beautifully written and will tug at your emotions all over the place.

[Tony Iantosca · Rating 5 out of 5]

He lived near a creek.

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had to give it three stars not for quality per se, but because I much prefer his sexy, witty, inventive earlier work to his tormented, contrite, reverent, death-haunted religious stuff.

[melisa Perrin · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Death be not proud" is easily one of my favorite poems. Each carefully chosen word extends hope.

[Jamie Dougherty · Rating 5 out of 5]

Five stars, despite some stuff, including the selections made, perhaps partly because it ended on such high notes. There are some undeniable concoctions of rhyme, wit, and passion. On the other hand, I was mired in the satires for a while, and the poems that seem to have been commissioned by some dignitaries were no fun. Interesting to see his syntax improve in lucidity (the book is more or less chronological) -- or was I just getting used to it? I wrote this down as being typical about a third of the way through:

stanza one:
1. what
2. oh i get it
3. that’s a beautiful phrase
stanza two:
4. what
5. who is “thou” referring to
6. oh i get it
7. no i don’t
8. guess i’ll press on
stanza three:
9. an apt metaphor
10. what
11. ??? that was nice???

Not really my experience by the latter third of the book. Anyway, here's the favorites:
The Triple Fool
Twickenham Garden
The Flea
Witchcraft by a Picture
The Broken Heart
A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning
[glaring lack of epigrams, elegies, epithalamions, epicedes, obsequies, satires, or verse letters]
As due by many titles I resign
At the round earth's imagined corners, blow
If poisonous minerals, and if that tree
Batter my heart, three-personed God; for, you
Wilt thou love God as he thee? then digest
Oh, to vex me, contraries meet in one
Good Friday, 1613. Riding Westward
Hymn to God my God, in My Sickness
A Hymn to God the Father

[Marshall A. Lewis · Rating 4 out of 5]

If there was a poet who's name I had heard before I was intrigued by poetry, it was probably Donne. And I'd heard great things about him, but in my bias toward long dead poets, I didn't go out of my way to read him, thinking his work would be more stale and formulaic and uninteresting. I was wrong. As I have often found that assumption about dead poets to be, it was unfounded. Donne uses so many unexpected comparisons and images to communicate ideas which often in poetry are overused and worn out by the similitude of their expressions. It was relieving to find his work so original.

My favourite poems in this collection were:

Song
Woman's Constancy
The Legacy
Break of day
Witchcraft by a Picture
The broken heart
The ecstasy
A burnt ship
To Mr. Rowland Woodward
Elegy on the Lady Markham
La Corona
Holy Sonnets I, IX, X, XV

[R · Rating 3 out of 5]

In London's National Portrait Gallery there hangs a picture of the big-hatted, one-gloved, pirate pick-up artist and poet, John Donne. It doesn't take much to imagine this pensive young rake writing "The Flea" in his own dirty, flea-ridden room the same night he was turned down by a young society lady.


Later in life, Donne would also write poems in search of the truth of religion and redemption, but it's safe to say that the young man in this painting was interested in a more physical deliverance.

Reputation - 4/5
John Donne is the foremost of the English Metaphysical poets, a label that was first used by Samuel Johnson. It was lifted from a quote about Donne by John Dryden:
"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."
Despite the sexist implication that women can't enjoy philosophy, Dryden pretty accurately describes what John Donne's poetry does. It takes a familiar subject, and with enough clouded and witty metaphors, it ends up making the subject seem something else.

Point - 3/5
It's an interesting trick. And on the first read, the idea of Donne's poems are often difficult to grasp. "The Flea" and "The Bait" are good examples of the fundamental technique of Donne's poetry: the conceit. A conceit is a analogy that's a bit of a stretch. It compares two things that don't have an obvious relationship, and by extending the metaphor beyond the expectation, it creates a rhetorical effect. We start off thinking, "What? Two people being bit by the same flea is like them having sex?" and, when the conceit is effective, we come away thinking "It really is! What a good pick-up line! I'm gonna try it out."
The technique of the conceit is a bit of a seduction in itself. It makes you re-read the poem several times, trying to follow the comparison. But like seduction, the chase is often better than the prize obtained. We have the fun trying to figure the poems (or the people) out, but when we finally get them naked, it's usually not all we've made it out to be. And, at least in the case of Donne's younger poetry, the result usually is just about sex.
That Donne is almost always talking about Sex or Love or God or Death is no criticism. In fact, it's a saving grace. Poetry of everyday drivel like grapefruits or traffic is often tedious enough on its own, but could you imagine what torture it would be to listen to someone trying to tell you in an extended analogy how grapefruits are like traffic? That John Donne sticks to the big subjects of life makes his poetic technique readable and occasionally captivating.

However, the same technique also keeps Donne's poetry from ever becoming very profound or philosophical. When writing about Sex, Love, God, or Death, a writer usually has something meaningful or personal to express. But when Donne writes about one of these things, the deepest he usually gets is "see, you didn't think I was talking about sex, but I was!" or "people will think we loved each other like this, but really it was like that." His technique often keeps him from expressing any deeply-held conviction, and creates a boundary against sincerity.

Recommendation - 4/5
In this sense, Donne appears extraordinarily modern. Where a contemporary writer manages to avoid being genuine by an unhealthy dose of absurdism, deconstructivism, and irony, John Donne does so with pun, and inventive metaphor.
Now, to take my own comparison perhaps too far: Donne's writing is most memorable in a short, tweet-sized doses. I don't think it's any accident that his phrases commonly appear as the titles of books. "No man is an island" and "For whom the bell tolls" have an arresting quality. Donne's poetry survives the kind of reading that we prefer to do now: in witty, catchy phrases, taken out of context. This book is full of them.
Try to tell me someone wouldn't wake up hungover in the late afternoon and tweet this:

Busy old fool, unruly sun,
Why dost thou thus,
Through windows, and through curtains call on us?

Relatable, funny, and fashionable for a Jacobean gentleman, I think a lot of modern readers will find themselves drawn to Donne. He has a bit of a cult legacy already.

Enjoyment - 3/5
I understand the allure, but for my part, Donne asks a little too much for his return and he bends his language to fit his metaphors in a disorderly way. Rarely was I carried away by his language and he has little philosophy to make up for it. I noted some excellent lines, but found that I liked them more out of context. This seems to be a poetic defect.
That said, in several of his poems his technique really hits its mark, and these are the ones most people know because they're regularly anthologized. One of these, "Elegy XIX: To His Mistress Going to Bed," is probably the sexiest poem in English, all things considered.
I will say that I enjoyed his later religious poetry more. In spite of all of the above about Donne being evasive, hiding behind his witty metaphors, in some of his religious poetry he appears perfectly sincere. Even simple-hearted. The work that ends this book, "A Hymn to God the Father," is a work of modest Christian devotion that could have been written by Martin Luther or some early church father hermit living in the desert of the 4th Century. That the same man could have written the two poems I have just mentioned makes him a fascinating character, indeed.

[Carol · Rating 4 out of 5]

My English teacher friend introduced me to John Donne in my quest for a wider variety of classic poetry. Given that he lived during the same time as Shakespeare, his language and syntax can be as hard to follow, especially when he tends to use seemingly unending sentences. However, like with Shakespeare, I recommend Donne not merely as an educational read, but an exploration of metaphor, theme, and epic use of the semicolon often lost in our modern poetry.

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