John Donne

Showcasing the creative power of one of the most outstanding English Metaphysical Poets, the Penguin Classics edition of John Donne's Selected Poems includes an introduction and notes by Ilona Bell. Regarded by many as the greatest of the Metaphysical poets, John Donne was also among the most intriguing figures of the Renaissance. A sensualist who composed erotic and playful love poetry in his youth, he was raised a Catholic but later became one of the most admired Protestant preachers of his time. The Selected Poems reflects this wide diversity, and includes his youthful Songs and Sonnets, epigrams, elegies, letters, satires, and the profoundly moving Divine Poems composed towards the end of his life. From joyful poems such as 'The Flea', which transforms the image of a louse into something marvellous, to the intimate and intense Holy Sonnets, Donne breathed new vigour into poetry by drawing lucid and often startling metaphors from the world in which he lived. His poems remain among the most passionate, profound and spiritual in the English language. Ilona Bell's introduction considers Donne's life, faith and influence. This edition also includes detailed notes and a further reading list. John Donne (1572-1631) was born into a family of devout Catholics. He studied at Oxford University, travelled on the continent, and then studied law at Lincoln's Inn. In the early 1600s Donne became a Member of Parliament and Justice of the Peace, obtaining temporary positions and patronage from a number of aristocrats who are the subjects of his poems. He was ordained as an Anglican minister in 1615, and in 1621 was made Dean of St. Paul's Cathedral, a position he held until his death. If you enjoyed Donne's Selected Poems, you might enjoy John Milton's Paradise Lost, also available in Penguin Classics.

Praise for previous volumes:"This variorum edition will be the basis of all future Donne scholarship." —ChroniqueThis is the 4th volume of The Variorum Edition of the Poetry of John Donne to appear. This volume presents a newly edited critical text of the Holy Sonnets and a comprehensive digest of the critical-scholarly commentary on them from Donne's time through 1995. The editors identify and print both an earlier and a revised authorial sequence of sonnets, as well as presenting the scribal collection—which contains unique authorial versions of several of the sonnets—inscribed by Donne's friend Rowland Woodward in the Westmoreland manuscript.

This anthology comprises approximately 1000 extracts, 800 of which are prose from the writings of John Donne. An extended introduction considers the complex and contradictory character of John Donne, the wellspring of his literary genius.

Whether sharing his anxieties about his writing, consoling bereaved friends, complaining about the meanness of a patron or defending himself against malicious gossip, John Donne reveals himself in his letters with a directness that can be found nowhere else in his writings. These letters corroborate the impression created by his better-known writings that he was one of the most remarkable figures produced by the English Renaissance and that he possessed an extraordinarily subtle and creative intelligence.

This Modern Library edition contains all of John Donne's great metaphysical love poetry. Here are such well-known songs and sonnets as "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning," "The Extasie," and "A Nocturnall Upon S. Lucies Day," along with the love elegies "Jealosie," "His Parting From Her," and "To His Mistris Going to Bed." Presented as well are Donne's satires, epigrams, verse letters, and holy sonnets, along with his most ambitious and important poems, the Anniversaries. In addition, there is a generous sampling of Donne's prose, including many of his private letters; Ignatius His Conclave, a satiric onslaught on the Jesuits; excerpts from Biathanatos, his celebrated defense of suicide; and his most famous sermons, concluding with the final "Death's Duell." "We have only to read [Donne]," wrote Virginia Woolf, "to submit to the sound of that passionate and penetrating voice, and his figure rises again across the waste of the years more erect, more imperious, more inscrutable than any of his time."

From reviews of previous volumes: "This variorum edition will be the basis of all future Donne scholarship." —Chronique "Academic libraries and specialists in Renaissance and 17th-century studies should feel compelled to own each and every volume of this series." —Seventeenth Century News "An occasion for celebration. Among the most ambitious and valuable collaborative scholarly enterprises at the end of the twentieth century. Superb." —Early Modern Literary Studies This latest addition to the Donne variorum, the third to appear in a projected eight-volume series, presents a newly edited critical text of Donne's elegies and a comprehensive variorum commentary. As with previous volumes, Volume 2 is based on a study of all known manuscript sources and significant printed editions of Donne's poetry and on an examination of the criticism and scholarship of the past four centuries.

John Donne (1572-1631) is best known as the greatest English metaphysical poet. But there was another dimension to Donne's life and writing that, if less well known, is no less profound and beautiful. Born into an aristocratic Catholic family, Donne joined the Church of England at the age of twenty-one out of fear of persecution. At the age of forty-three, he gave up his preoccupations with secular prestige and devoted himself utterly to religion. It was eight years later when, battered with fever, the deaths of his beloved wife, several of his children, and many dear lifelong friends, he composed Devotions upon Emergent Occasions. There is both trauma and great drama in this extended meditation on the meaning of mortality, the possibility of salvation, and the true nature of the passage of eternal life. With a new introduction by poet and biographer Andrew Motion, one of the most revered books of Christian devotion speaks to us again of the higher aspirations of man and the always-present possibility of a relationship with God. This long out of print edition also contains Donne's last sermon, "Death's Duel" as well as the short colorful biography of him written by his contemporary Izaak Walton.

Poems of faith, love and revenge by a man of intense sexuality and an ardent belief in Christian doctrine.

The major seventeenth-century English poet between Shakespeare and Milton, Donne is chiefly celebrated as a love poet. All these genres are represented in this volume, together with a selection from his prayers, letters and sermons, presenting a complete portrait of a great poet an an extraordinary man.

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.

"The appearance of the first volume . . . is an occasion for celebration. Among the most ambitious and valuable collaborative scholarly enterprises at the end of the twentieth century . . . " —Claude J. Summers, Early Modern Literary Studies " . . . especially valuable for its wide-ranging and reliable summaries of textual and critical commentary on these works . . . This variorum edition will be the basis of all future Donne scholarship." —Bibliotèque d'Humanisme et Renaissance " . . . the most important collaborative project in 17th-century studies in recent history . . . " —Seventeenth-Century News A major editorial and interpretive undertaking, this edition includes a newly edited critical text based on exhaustive study of all known manuscripts and significant printed editions of Donne's poetry and a complete digest of critical and scholarly commentary on the poetry from Donne's time to the present.

Donne created new forms of lyric, satire, elegiac and religious verse, and his independence of view, compact manner of expression encompassing conflicting moods, impassioned paradox, outbreaks of cynicism and wry humour make his work particularly appealing to the twentieth-century mind. His poetry reflects every stage of his development from the piratical Jack Donne who sailed with Ralegh against the Spaniards and spent riotous nights in the London streets, to the penitent John Donne who became Dean of St Paul's and the most celebrated preacher of his age. C. A. Patrides' edition of Donne's English poems is undoubtedly the most complete and scholarly available.

Scholars and students of Donne.

A scholarly edition of works by John Donne. The edition presents an authoritative text, together with an introduction, commentary notes, and scholarly apparatus

A scholarly edition of works by John Donne. The edition presents an authoritative text, together with an introduction, commentary notes, and scholarly apparatus.

No poet has been more wilfully contradictory than John Donne, whose works forge unforgettable connections between extremes of passion and mental energy. From satire to tender elegy, from sacred devotion to lust, he conveys an astonishing range of emotions and poetic moods. Constant in his work, however, is an intensity of feeling and expression and complexity of argument that is as evident in religious meditations such as 'Good Friday 1613. Riding Westward' as it is in secular love poems such as 'The Sun Rising' or 'The Flea'. 'The intricacy and subtlety of his imagination are the length and depth of the furrow made by his passion,' wrote Yeats, pinpointing the unique genius of a poet who combined ardour and intellect in equal measure.