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Essay on John Donne

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John Donne

John Donne had a rich life full of travel, women and religion. Donne was born in 1572 on Bread Street in London. The family was Roman
Catholic which was dangerous during this time when Catholicism was being abolished and protestant was taking over. Donne’s farther was an iron monger who died in 1576. At 11 Donne and his younger brother went to university and studied there for three years then he went to
Cambridge for a further three years.

He left without any degrees because as a Catholic he could not swear the ‘Oath of Supremacy’, which made you swear an oath declaring Henry
VIII as head of the Church of England, Donne refused to swear this. In
1592 Donne joined a law practice and a legal career seemed ahead of …show more content…

When there marriage was discovered Donne was thrown into prison by Anne’s father along with several other of Donne’s friends who were involved.

John Donne lost his job and for the next few years struggled to provide for his family through his writing of poetry and practising some law and ‘tutoring’ rich women.

It was not until 1609 that Donne was reconciled with his farther-in-law who then provided John and Ann with a dowry. Later on his life Ann died in labour of his thirteenth son. He then lived his life out as a protestant and part of the new Church of England.

I shall now talk about how religion relates to Donne’s poetry. His life passed during a major change of religion in England the king wanted all control of the church so he could divorce his wife, he declared himself head of the Church of England. My first poem that relates to religion is ‘The Flea’ in this poem Donne is trying to convince a woman to sleep with him by using religion to sanctify him sleeping with her for example when he says ‘Where we almost, nay more, than married are…our marriage bed, and marriage temple is[2]’, he makes the bed seem holy and that g-d wants them to sleep together this may of reassured her as it connects g-d and the church together to make everything alright and holy . This poem proves that Donne is a
very

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