Product Description

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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #94370 in Books
• Published on: 2004-06-24
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 688 pages

About the Author
John Donne was born into a Catholic family in 1572. After a conventional education at Hart Hall, Oxford and Lincoln's Inn, he took part in the Earl of Essex's expedition to the Azores in 1597. He secretly married Anne More in December 1601 and was imprisoned by her father, Sir George, in the Fleet two months later. He was ordained priest in January 1615 and took a Doctorate of Divinity at Cambridge the same year. He was made Dean of St Paul's in London in 1621, a position he held until his death in 1631. He is famous for the sermons he preached in his later years, as well as for his poems. A.J. Smith was Professor Emeritus of the University of Southampton. His book include Literary Love (1983) and Metaphysical Wit (1992). He died in Salisbury in 1991.

Customer Reviews

Good poetry, mediocre edition
The Poetry of John Donne - yes, yes, yes. I can't get enough of it.

Producing an edition of Donne is, however, a rather more difficult task than the platonist critic tends to believe; though first printed in 1633 (I think), these poem circulated widely in manuscript form before they were ever set in the press. Donne never saw his works printed - so how can we be sure of what is the most "authoritative text"? we can't, not really, and perhaps Randall McLeod's forthcoming edition of "On his Mistress Going to Bed" - a typeset version of the poem, plus 68 manuscript facsimiles - indicates this better than anything else.

Get Donne, but don't get this edition, which consistently favours the printed text, forcing the MS variations into the footnotes. I'm not sure what to reccomend in its place, unfortunately, but I imagine the Norton critical text wouldn't be too bad.

NB that I am referring to the AJ Smith edition of Donne's poetry, first published 1976.

The beauty of English
Here we see the English language at its most beautiful exposing the many facets of love with courageous honesty and stunning insight. The human condition has never been better expressed and love has never had such a worthy exponent. For poetry lovers from Wordsworth to TS Eliot, Donne demonstrates how wonderful the English language is at expressing every nuance of our existence and what an amazing servant it can be in the right hands.
You will treasure this book and dip into it often throughout a variety of moods. It will never let you down nor cease to surprise.