JOHN DONNE Main Points 

–             Brought up as a priest.

–             Studied in a school / church.

–             He learned rhyme and rhythm in school

–             He emerged as a skill-full poet.

–             He was an intellectual and witty person.

–             He is considered to be the leader of metaphysical school of poetry.

–             Meta means beyond, and physical mean concrete or tangible.

–             So mete-physical means beyond physical i.e., spiritual or philosophical.

–             His poetry is full of exaggeration, display of learning, far-fetched smiles, metaphors and conceits (conceit is a far fetched imagery, it is an intellectual reference and require strong knowledge to understand it)

–             He was the monarch of wit and used heterogeneous ideas together.

®    He was a mechanical poet, he writes poetry with a skill, with a formula.

®    He writes poetry from head and it appeal to head. He does not write from heart and does not touch the heart. His poetry lacks in emotions and feelings.

–             He also worked as a court poet.

–             He was very skilful in the form of poetry.

–             He never repeated his form, but changed his stanzas according to his theme.

–             His form or stanzas in the poem represents the theme and content of the poem. He used loose stanzas for flirtious poetry and fix stanzas for divine poetry about God.

–             “Donne yokes the most heterogeneous ideas by violence together.”

–             There are three parts of his poetry.

–             Amorous or Love poetry – about his beloveds

–             Serious Love poetry – about his wife and nob ladies.

–             Divine (Love) poetry – about God after the death of his wife.