Sep
2007
Posted in At home, Reading Donne, the Reformed Soul
I really enjoyed my 40th birthday present from Michael—
“Donne: The Reformed Soul” (John Stubbs)
I think John Donne is a fascinating character: from young lover who wrote salacious poetry for close friends, through to Dean of St Pauls in London. At 450 pages the book looked a bit intimidating but it was very well written and organised. Much of the book covers Donne’s early life, with less on his time as Dean of St Pauls. The struggles throughout the period between Catholicism and religious reform, and it’s effect on Donne is fascinating: in the final pages of the book there is a brief look forward through 50 or so years and some of the shocking changes that took place in the religious landscape of the time. In many way Donne was driven to ‘toe the line’: writing sermons and poems to order, keeping in with the influential crowd. This comes across in the book as pragmatism and a result of circumstance.
One of his more popular and easy poems is the The Flea.
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[...] a few pages with Ben Johnson). But I really started to get interested in the Stuart literature: John Donne and Ben Johnson. I’ve read quite a bit of Donne’s prose but not yet much of his verse [...]
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