Reading Classics, Chronologically Through the Ages discussion

"John Donne was born in 1572 in London, England. He is known as the founder of the Metaphysical Poets, a term created by Samuel Johnson, an eighteenth-century English essayist, poet, and philosopher.The Metaphysical Poets are known for their ability to startle the reader and coax new perspective through paradoxical images, subtle argument, inventive syntax, and imagery from art, philosophy, and religion using an extended metaphor known as a conceit. Donne reached beyond the rational and hierarchical structures of the seventeenth century with his exacting and ingenious conceits, advancing the exploratory spirit of his time." Source

"John Donne's reputation as a dissolute, poetry-spouting rake who miraculously mutated into a devout priest and dean of St. Paul's Cathedral isn't entirely deserved. True, Donne did spend the first part of his life as a courtier and man about town, and he did carry on an affair with his employer's sixteen-year-old niece, Anne More, when he was himself nearly thirty. But he married Anne (after her father had him jailed) and lived with her faithfully afterward. And although Donne's poetry is traditionally divided into two parts--the earthly love poetry written in the first part of his life, and the poetry of devotion to God produced during his later years--he actually began writing religious poetry years before he became a priest, and was still producing amorous verses two years after his ordination." (Bauer)