THE
P RTAL
April 2013
John Donne
by Fr Keith Robinson
Page 7
Anglican
Luminary
You have to search quite carefully to discover the Baroque style in England, where Protestant censorship
tended to favour a more reserved Classicism. But you may find it in the writings of the “metaphysical poets”
of whom John Donne was the foremost.
He was born into a Catholic family
in London in 1572. His uncle was a
Jesuit priest and several of his close
relatives were executed or exiled. His
mother, a great-niece of St Thomas
More, died when he was four, and
there is nothing to indicate how he
felt about her death, or his father’s
remarriage only months later.
First he was educated privately, but
at the age of eleven began three years
in Oxford, followed by three years
in Cambridge, but he was unable to
graduate because he was a Catholic.
diplomatic career
John inherited a good fortune, but spent it rather
unwisely on women (his relationships with whom
form the inspiration for many of his earlier poems),
on pastimes, including literature, and on travel. It was
his time in Italy and Spain, his ability with foreign
languages, and his engaging personality which made it
look as though he was destined for a diplomatic career.
At the age of twenty five he was offered a government
post, which brought him to live in the Strand, close to
the royal Palace of Whitehall, the centre of the nation’s
social and political life. He was meanwhile maturing,
as one might say, and fell in love with Anne More.
Disastrously, he married her in secret in 1601, and it
was the end of his career.
was returned as an MP on two
occasions.
ordained in 1615
King James I who thought well
of him, but refused to allow him
back into his former occupation,
encouraged him to become a priest
in the Church of England. John was
not in fact so minded himself, but
because of the King’s persistence – he
almost ordered it – he was ordained
in 1615. Perhaps the King was, on
this occasion, a wise patron, for only
six years later he was appointed to
the prestigious deanery of St Paul’s.
It is out of his profound experience that his poetry
comes: his experiences of love and friendship, and
also of death, and latterly it was his friendship with
God which occupied his thoughts. John proved to be a
great and eloquent preacher, and amazingly, no fewer
than 160 of his sermons
survive.
His poetry was not
published (with few
exceptions) during his
lifetime, but circulated in
manuscript form. John
died in the Deanery of St
Paul’s, possibly of bowel
cancer, on the 31 March
He actually spent a period in the Fleet Prison over 1631, and was buried
it, together with the priest who married them, and in his cathedral church
the witness. He signed a letter written at the time to under a monument of
his wife, “John Donne, Anne Donne, Un-done.” It his own devising.
was not until 1609 that he was finally reconciled with
her family, and even after his release from prison, the
The cathedral was of
family went through a period of considerable poverty. course destroyed in the
Great Fire of 1666, but
Meanwhile Anne bore him no less than twelve Donne’s
monument
children, which made things harder still. She died, survived and is now
after giving birth to a still-born child, in 1617, and installed in the south
John mourned her greatly. Yet John was a striking choir aisle of Wren’s
and attractive character. He had many friends, and masterpiece.