John Donne (1572–1631) led one of the most remarkable double lives in English literary history. Born into a family of devout Catholics, he studied at Oxford, read law at Lincoln’s Inn, and served as both Member of Parliament and Justice of the Peace — before being ordained as an Anglican minister in 1615 and rising to become Dean of St. Paul’s Cathedral. A sensualist in youth who wrote erotic and playful love verse, he became in later life one of the most admired Protestant preachers of his age. This tension between the earthly and the spiritual gives his poetry its enduring charge.
The Penguin Classics edition of Donne’s Selected Poems, with an introduction and notes by Ilona Bell, gathers the full breadth of this extraordinary output: the youthful Songs and Sonnets, epigrams, elegies, verse letters, satires, and the profoundly moving Divine Poems of his final years. From the witty conceits of ‘The Flea’ — which transforms the image of a louse into something genuinely marvellous — to the intimate intensity of the Holy Sonnets, Donne brought startling new energy to English verse by drawing his metaphors from the living world around him. Regarded by many as the greatest of the Metaphysical poets, his work remains among the most passionate, profound, and spiritually searching in the language.
Bell’s introduction explores Donne’s life, faith, and lasting influence, and the edition is further supported by detailed notes and a reading list for those wishing to explore further. If you enjoyed Donne’s Selected Poems, you might also enjoy John Milton’s Paradise Lost, available in Penguin Classics.
ISBN 13: 9780140424409
Author: John Donne
