The Unlovable, Irresistible John Donne

Absolutely, he deserves a lot of respect and study. I find him to be one of the funniest poets ever. The unedited version of "An Anagram" [0] is one of the greatest and silliest put-downs recorded in English.

0 - http://www.online-literature.com/forums/showthread.php?18947... (two of the last four lines are removed in many online versions)

I'd never read the whole excerpt.[1] It's much more communitarian than the commonly recited phrase, "never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee", which seems self-centered in isolation, emphasizing one's own mortality rather than what one loses when someone else dies. Of course, "No man is an island" is also commonly recited and can stand alone, but I hadn't known it was from the same paragraph.

[1] I originally wrote poem but it's excerpted from a larger work of prose, Devotions, chapter XVII: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/23772/23772-h/23772-h.htm#Pa... See also https://interestingliterature.com/2021/08/never-send-for-who...

A Hymn to God the Father

    Wilt thou forgive that sin where I begun,      
    Which was my sin, though it were done before?  
    Wilt thou forgive that sin, through which I run,  
    And do run still, though still I do deplore?  
    When thou hast done, thou hast not done,  
    For I have more.

    Wilt thou forgive that sin which I have won  
    Others to sin, and made my sin their door?  
    Wilt thou forgive that sin which I did shun  
    A year or two, but wallow'd in, a score?  
    When thou hast done, thou hast not done,  
    For I have more.

    I have a sin of fear, that when I have spun  
    My last thread, I shall perish on the shore;  
    But swear by thyself, that at my death thy Son  
    Shall shine as he shines now, and heretofore;  
    And, having done that, thou hast done;  
    I fear no more.

I love the devout pun between "done" and "Donne" here.

I was unfamiliar with John Donne myself, but from the first paragraph it was clear the author was writing in a deliberately stylized manner; a manner which in retrospect seems perhaps intended to evince or reflect Donne's conversational poetic style. I enjoyed the article, but even if I hadn't, I would still appreciate the effort; sort of like how I can appreciate an otherwise inscrutable quine (program).

The article tells you plenty of things about John Donne.

It tells you a thing or two about his life: that he was born a Catholic and some of his family were imprisoned on account of their religion; that he went to sea with the Earl of Essex; that he had a lot of sex in his youth and became a religious minister later on, becoming the dean of St Paul's cathedral; that as his death approached he wore what would be his winding-sheet so that a sculptor could prepare to make a monument for him.

It gives you some quotations, for a sense of the small-scale sound of his language. "License my roving hands, and let them go / Before, behind, between, above, below" (from a distinctly naughty earlyish poem). "A man may be an adulterer in his wife’s bosom, though he seek not strange women" (from a sermon). "Busy old fool, unruly sun [...] saucy pedantic wretch, go chide / Late school boys" (from a poem whose speaker is in bed with his lover and doesn't want to have to go). "For God’s sake hold your tongue, and let me love". "I run to death, and death meets me as fast". Etc.

It tells you some things about (the author's opinion of) his character and writing style. "He was a splenetic satirist, all-observing, all-condemning, who was also a world-class flatterer/ingratiator. He had a slicing, dicing, predatory mind that he applied with equal force to sex, to politics, and finally to a religious vocation." His writing is intricate and difficult but with flashes of forceful clarity. (See the paragraph beginning "As for his poetry".) "Donne’s love poetry is extreme: Bodies melt, souls commingle, genders elide, death is an atom away.". "The almost Tantric lover, seeking an essence beyond the body, was also the yearning-for-eternity preacher.".

The article could have confined itself more strictly to quoting Donne and commenting on his life and work, I suppose. But it seems perfectly OK to me. It's not very long. It gives you some idea of how he sounded. It gives you some information about his life and its context. It tells you what sort of poems he wrote. I'm not sure it's reasonable to demand much more.

I don't know about that in particular, but I certainly find the writing style annoying. There's nothing wrong with choosing a light tone, but I find the comedic ambitions rather out of place, and they add nothing to my wanting to read on.

Philip Sidney, Christopher Marlowe, and John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester all had military adventures on the continent. Do you remember what the poet was escaping from (bad debt, political intrigue, illicit affair, etc)?