John Donne and British Literature

John Donne was a very remarkable and well known author throughout British Literature. He led a very interesting life from his career as a preacher and author even to his personal life. Donne faced a life of hardship, tragedy, and secrets. Although through all his endeavors he managed to write famous manuscripts, sermons, and poems. At the time he wrote these works, John Donne’s fames didn’t really occur significantly until after his death. From a young age he was a very well educated man, and excelled onto college, obtained a job, and established a variety of careers. Though many people know Donne for his literary works, his personal life is quite one to gossip about. Many people do not know about his dirty past, scandalous marriage, and him fathering twelve children. There was a lot more to John Donne than what appears of his famous writings; it is the in between the lines that really makes Donne such an interesting man during his time period.

John was born into an affluent, Roman Catholic family in London around December 1572. Donne’s father died a few years after he was born, but his mother quickly remarried to a wealthy man. By the age of 11, Donne was already very educated and he was attending Hart Hall (Hertford College), and three years later he was accepted to the University of Cambridge. After John graduated college he had quite an inheritance from his father. John took this money and spent it on worthless, dirty things. There was a few years gap between Johns college years and his first job. During these years, Donne chose to spend all of his inheritance on womanizing and travel. John had the talent, potential, and money he needed in order to start a great life for himself, but even a well-educated man like John Donne,...

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... hardships, scandals, romance, and success. Although his personal life was full of many shocking details, he managed to use his personal life to bring about a passion in all of his successful literary works.

Works Cited

Lein, Clayton D. "John Donne." British Prose Writers of the Early Seventeenth Century. Ed. Clayton D. Lein. Detroit: Gale Research, 1995. Dictionary of Literary Biography Vol. 151. Literature Resource Center. Web. 25 Mar. 2014.

Reeder, Robert W. "Before the beginning: John Donne on creation, birth, and calling." Renascence: Essays on Values in Literature 65.1 (2012): 25+. Literature Resource Center. Web. 24 Mar. 2014.

Smith, A. J. "John Donne." Seventeenth-Century British Nondramatic Poets: First Series. Ed. M. Thomas Hester. Detroit: Gale Research, 1992. Dictionary of Literary Biography Vol. 121. Literature Resource Center. Web. 25 Mar. 2014.