John Donne

John Donne was born a Catholic, studied at both universities and the Inns of Court, sailed with Essex against Cadiz, and ruined his prospects by secretly marrying his employer’s niece, Anne More, in 1601. After years of poverty he took Anglican orders at the king’s urging in 1615 and became Dean of St Paul’s and the most famous preacher in England. The Poems, published after his death, contain the love poems of his youth, with their conceits and arguments, and the Holy Sonnets of his ministry. Johnson called the style metaphysical; Eliot’s revival of it changed the taste of the twentieth century.