40 Interesting Facts about John Donne That Everybody should know

Nationality – English
Lifespan –  22 January,1572 – 31 March, 1631

Place of Birth – Bread Street, London, U.K.

Father – John Donne

Mother – Elizabeth Heywood

Education – No Early Schooling, Oxford and Cambridge
Career – Poet, essayist, attorney, courtier and minister

Style of Composition- Metaphysical

• Donne was a chief exponent of Metaphysical School of poetry.
• By religion Donne was a Roman Catholic.
• The Roman Catholic religion was illegal in England at that time.
• Interestingly, John Donne shared exactly the similar name as his father.
• His father John Donne was a rich ironmonger and a well-respected person.
• His mother Elizabeth Heywood was the daughter of John Heywood, a famous playwright and a grand-daughter of Thomas More, the author of Utopia
• John had five siblings of which he was the third eldest.
• His father died when John was only four.
• His mother remarried a physician who took much care of his education.
• He was educated at home till he was 11.
• After that he was admitted to Hart Hall, Oxford and then to Cambridge for a short period.
• Strangely he returned home from both universities without taking a degree as it required the swearing of the oath of allegiance to the Protestant queen which his religion forbade.
• He began attending Thavies Inn legal school in 1591, a year later, he was admitted to one of the Inns of Court, Lincoln’s Inn as a law student.
• It was probably in 1595-96 that he went abroad, visiting Spain and Italy.
• Later he joined the expeditions of Essex to Cadiz in 1596 and the Azores in 1597.
• In 1598 he renounced the Roman Catholicism.
• He became Sir Thomas Egerton’s chief secretary. He was the Lord Keeper of the Great Seal (an officer of the English Crown). He was based at Thomas Egerton’s home in London.
• He married Anne Moore, the niece of Thomas Egerton in secret in 1601.
• He was dismissed from job and put into jail.
• The wedding was proved valid and John was released.
• Walton tells us that when Donne wrote to his wife to tell her about losing his post, he wrote after his name: John Donne, Anne Donne, (Un-done)
• It was not until 1609 that Donne was reconciled with his father-in-law and received his wife’s dowry.
• After he was released from prison, John Donne lived in a small house with his wife, Anne, in Pyrford, Surrey. The house was owned by Sir Francis Wooly who was a cousin of Anne. The couple stayed there until 1604.
• They moved to Mitcham, London where John Donne worked as a lawyer. He didn’t earn a great salary and found it a great struggle to pay for the upkeep of his family. They lived very much in poverty during these years.
• John Donne and his wife Anne were married for 16 years. During this time, they had twelve children.
• Two of the children were stillbirths and sadly, the couple couldn’t afford their burial expenses.
• The surviving children were called Constance, John, George, Francis, Lucy, Bridget, Mary, Nicholas, Margaret, and Elizabeth.
• His wife, Anne Donne, died 5 days following the birth of a stillborn baby, the couple’s 12th child on 15 th August, 1617.
• He was deeply saddened and grief stricken by his wife’s death. He ‘became crucified to the world’ as he said. He wrote of his feelings in a sonnet called the 17th Holy Sonnet: ‘Since she whom I loved hath paid her last debt. To Nature, and to hers, and my good is dead’.
• John Donne served twice as a member of parliament, the first time in 1601 and the second time in 1614. The position was unpaid.
• He was ordained into the Church of England in 1615 following King James I’s wish to take holy orders.
• He was ordained into the Church of England in 1615 following King James I’s wish to take holy orders.
• The following year, he became a Reader of Divinity at Lincoln’s Inn, he served as minister in the chapel for approximately four years.
• Very little of Donne’s verse appeared in print during his lifetime.
• His poetry is generally divided into two types- love lyrics and religious verse.
• Most of his poems for which he is best known belong to the pre-marriage days, contained in Songs and Sonnets.
• His well-known poems are: “The Good Morrow”, “The Canonization”, “Go and Catch a Falling Star”, “A Valediction Forbidding Mourning”, “Death be Not Proud”, “For Whom the Bell Tolls”, “Sunne Rising” etc.
• There appeared his Collected Poemsafter his death.
• He died on March 31, 1631 in London, England at 59 years of age. The cause of death is thought to have been stomach cancer.
• He was buried in Saint Paul’s Cathedral. A memorial statue in honor of his death can be seen on show in the present day building in London.