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"Looking back upon my life past, I now plainly see it was God's hand that
prevented me from all temporal employment, that it was his will that I should never settle nor thrive till I entered into the
ministry..." This quote comes from a funeral sermon preached by seventeenth century poet John Donne. This fact seems
mundane enough, until one considers that he was preaching his own funeral sermon (Bald, 1932). He died a few short
weeks later.
Born in 1572 into a Roman Catholic family in Elizabethan England, during a period when feelings toward the Catholic church were growing more and more hostile, Donne remained alienated for much of his young life. This notwithstanding, he studied voraciously in the fields of Law, Medicine, Divinity, and the Classics. Eventually, he renounced Catholicism as his personal belief system, but was hesitant to become involved with the Anglican church (Adams and Logan et. al., 1996).
Donne's life took an uphill turn when, in 1598, Sir Thomas Egerton, a high official in Queen Elizabeth's court, made Donne his
private secretary. At one point, he even sat on the Queen's last Parliament. For all intents and purposes, he was an
upward-bound young gentleman becoming acquainted with a courtly lifestyle. However, when in 1601 he secretly married Ann More,
the seventeen-year-old neice of Egerton's wife, he also destroyed any further chances for success he might have had. Ann's father, Sir George More, saw to it that Donne lost his position as Egerton's secretary and had him
imprisoned. For at least ten years after this ordeal, despite a happy marriage to Ann, he struggled to make a living
(Adams and Logan, 1996).
King James, believing that Donne was best suited to the clergy, refused any other type of job to Donne. Therefore, he reluctantly became an Anglican priest in 1615, finally surrendering his misgivings. Apparently the King knew what he was talking about; Donne in fact was a great preacher, and 160 of his sermons are still in circulation today (Adams and Logan, 1996).
Donne was one of the most influential metaphysical poets of his time, inspiring many of his young contemporaries such as George Herbert, Richard Crashaw, Henry Vaughn, and Andrew Marvell (Adams and Logan, 1996). Religious poetry flourished in England during the seventeenth century. Donne's poetry had two central concepts: consciousness of sin and the hope of redemption (of which it seems Donne was never quite sure). His religious themes were often focused on himself, indicating his constant self-doubt and preoccupation with his own soul's salvation (Bald, 1932).
Donne indeed was preoccupied with death, and how he could find assurance of victory over it
(Bald, 1932). Much of his poetry reflects this obsession. One of his many Holy Sonnets, Holy Sonnet 10, speaks of
the soul's eventual victory over death through eternal life in Christ. In addition, Holy Sonnet 23 evokes the
same basic message. Finally, Donne's famous sermon For Whom the Bell Tolls teaches
that each of us is affected by what happens to another; when one individual is afflicted or dies,
it affects an entire community. Donne sees affliction as a means to draw closer to God and nearer to Heaven.
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Holy Sonnet 10
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