1. John Donne

2. He was born in London in a Catholic family Oxford and Cambridge Linconln’s Inn He travelled through the Continent Cadiz and the Azores He was known at Court for his witty, cynical yet passionate love poems  Songs and Sonnets Early Life

3. In 1601 he secretly got married He was dismissed from his employment and imprisoned The Anniversary  pessimism and disillusion Poems on the decay and falling apart of the world The Dark Years

4. He renounced to the Catholic Church for the Anglican Church (1615) He became Dean of St Paul’s Cathedral in 1621 The King’s favourite preacher Sermons  deep reflections on death, sin and salvation Holy Sonnets  distressed by the thought of his past errors In 1631 he delivered a memorable sermon on death  Death’s Duel The Conversion

5. It is a collection of love elegies and love songs Donne’s love is physical as well as spiritual The poem reflects a passionately tender attitude to love and women He believes that the union of the souls is stronger than that of the bodies  lovers are compared to the connected legs of a compass Songs and Sonnets (1633)

6. Donne’s poetry is characterized by wit: a particular kind of skill with words the ability to create unusual, unexpected images and join them in complex chains of thought This style was called Metaphysical Donne’s poems put together irony serious reflections philosophical thoughts unexpected metaphors Donne’s Metaphysical Style

7. The poem starts abruptly The sun is no more the object of reverence and admiration Busy old fool, (l 1) Saucy pedantic wretch (l 5) The lover, then, can only think about his woman  he reduces the outside world to his own smaller world  centrality of the two lovers  the sun must revolve around the lovers’ bed The Sun Rising