John Donne

John Donne (1573-1631) was an English poet and divine, born in London. He was a man of good degree and brought up in the Catholic faith. After weighing the claims of the Romish and Anglican communions, he joined the latter. Donne married a young lady of sixteen without consent of her father, which involved him in trouble for a time. He was later induced to take holy orders by King James. He was made his chaplain, and finally became Dean of St. Paul's. He wrote sermons, some 200 letters and essays, as well as poems, the latter, amid many defects, revealing a soul instinct with true poetic fire. See "Professor Saintsbury on Donne."

Wisdom & Quoted

• Come live with me, and be my love,

And we will some new pleasures prove,
Of golden sands, and crystal brooks,
With silken lines, and silver hooks.
- The Bait

• Death be not proud, though some have called thee

Mighty and dreadful, for, thou art not so,
For, those, whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow,
Die not, poor death, nor yet can'st thou kill me.
- Death be not proud

• I neglect God and his Angels for the noise of a fly,

for the rattling of a coach, for the whining of a door.
- sermon, December 12, 1626

• Love, all alike, no season knows, nor clime,

Nor hours, days, months, which are the rags of time.
- The Sun Rising

• Love's mysterious in souls do grow,

But yet the body is his book.
- The Ecstasy

• No man is an island entire of itself; every man is a part of the continent, a part of the main.

- Devotions XVII

• License my roving hands, and let them go,

Before, behind, between, above, below.
- To His Mistress Going to Bed

• Men have conceived a twofold use of sleep: that it is a refreshing of the body in this life; that it is a preparing of the soul for the next.

- Meditation XV

Ben Jonson