book: The Folio Poets: JOHN DONNE [Folio Society 2005]

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	• The Folio Poets: JOHN DONNE [Folio Society 2005] John Donne Folio Society, 2005 - 438 pages view larger image
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Beautiful book in attractive rigid sleeve! The vigour and immediacy of the 17th-century school of 'metaphysical poetry' found its finest exponent in the complex figure of John Donne (1572-1631). Born and educated in the Catholic faith, he adopted Protestantism, but scandalised Jacobean society and ruined his prospects with a secret marriage. He recovered to forge a successful career in the Church of England, becoming one of the leading preachers of the age. What makes Donne so fascinating as a poet and as a man is how he balanced an unashamed lust for life with a profound religious sensibility. It is in his love poetry that Donne speaks most vividly to modern readers. In 'To His Mistress Going to Bed' and 'The Sun Rising' he tells us more about the nature of all-consuming passion than almost any other poet before or since - 'Busy old fool, unruly sun,/Why dost thou thus,/Through windows, and through curtains call on us?' - while the compasses in 'Valediction: Forbidding Mourning', the quintessentially metaphysical conceit, perfectly illustrate the spiritual connection between two separated lovers. The fact that Donne never intended these 'secular' verses to be published - many were written simply as an element in the act of courtship itself - explains their candour, but not their rich invention. For Donne the joining together of two souls in love was akin to a religious experience, and there is something very worldly - and very human - about the 'divine' poems, such as 'Good Friday, 1613. Riding Westward' and 'A Hymn to God the Father', that mark his later years. All the vast resources of Donne's wit and intellect are mined to tackle issues of faith, mortality and redemption. This definitive edition of Donne's complete English poems follows the traditional distinction of 'Songs and Sonnets', 'Satires and Elegies' and 'Divine Poems', and includes a newly commissioned introduction by the Poet Laureate, Andrew Motion.

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