OPPapers.com

How John Donne Showed His Love

How John Donne Showed his Love

John Donne’s poetry has been both ridiculed and praised. One reason
for the ridicule is due to the fact that many people believe his work is vulgar,
and his discussion of sex may seem improper to some people. Even in this
modern age some people may find it a bit offensive. You can imagine what
people thought of it in the sixteenth century. His discussion of sex in this
“disgusting” manner is more obvious and prevalent in his early work, while he
still had many female acquaintances and before he was settled down with his
wife. Donne eloped with his underage lover Anne More which in itself was a
scandalous event. Her father, Sir George More, objected to their marriage.
Her father was so irritated he had John thrown in jail for marrying a minor
without parental consent. Though the couple went through many hardships
they loved each other very deeply (Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia). The
words in Donne’s poetry after the marriage only proved that fact. After their
marriage the words in his poetry showed a more emotional side of Doone, you
could sense the feeling of true love through the words. The way he spoke
about the love he and his wife shared during this time shows it was much
more then just sexual, and the sex was much more meaningful. After the
death of his wife in 1617, Donne was devastated and although he had already
been involved in the church even becoming an ordained minister for the
Church of England (Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia). His relationship with
God became stronger almost as a replacement for his one true love Anne. At
times in his poetry it is even difficult to tell if he is talking about God or his lover.
Whether you think Donne’s poetry is perverted or not one can hardly call his
work anything but genius. He is after all considered to be the leader of the
metaphysical school of poets. As Herbert Grierson...