JOHN DONNE : A Selection of His Poetry. Edited by John Hayward. 182 pp. New York : Viking Press, 1986 (Reissue). ISBN 0140585184 (pbk.)

John Hayward is a noted and respected scholar who has here given us an excellent selection of much of Donne's finest poetry. The book includes a generous selection from Donne's 'Songs and Sonets,' along with representative 'Elegies,' 'Epithalamions,' 'Satyres,' 'Verse Letters,' 'Anniversaries,' 'Epicedes and Obsequies,' and 'Divine Poems.' The poems are preceded by a brief and interesting Introduction by Hayward, a Note on the Text, and a Chronological Table, and the book is rounded out with an Index of First Lines.

All in all, Hayward has given us an admirable selection in which those who are already familiar with Donne are going to find most of their favorites. As such, it can be unreservedly recommended to those who already know their Donne, and would be an excellent book, for example, to have along on a trip.

But Donne is a difficult poet, and any newcomer to Donne who takes up this book is going to have problems because of its almost complete lack of annotations. The poems are only lightly footnoted, and the extensive notes a beginner needs are absent.

Newcomers to Donne should try to find a more fully annotated edition, one that will help explain the many knotty points and obscurities that we find in the poems. One good edition that can be recommended is Theodore Redpath's 'The Songs and Sonets [sic] of John Donne' (1976), an edition designed for the general reader which gives detailed and extensive notes and full commentaries.

Donne is a marvelous poet, and it would be a pity if new readers were to be put off his poems by obscurities that can very quickly be resolved by a well-annotated edition. The present edition is more of a reader's edition for those who already know and love the poems.

John Donne's is without a doubt, the best metaphysical writer of the rennaissance and this book captures just that... his greatest works such as "a broken heart" and "the good morrow" can be found here... a great book for someone just starting out with donne...

This lovely volume beautifully designed on creamy white paper brings to the reader the love poems of John Donne (1572-1631). A comprehensive and sympathetic introduction by the editor Charles Fowkes accompanies it. Mr. Fowkes sets out to explain the background of Donne's poetry and the influence thereof on his own life. But anyone who intends to read Donne should be well prepared. Although his use of language is colloquial, it's riddled with allusions. Donne certainly had a vivid and intense imagination. Further I think that familiarity with authors from the sixteenth or seventeenth centuries would be an asset.

Expect no cozy love poetry here. Donne's attitude is defiant and aggressive. He certainly knew all of the stages and emotions of love ranging from rapture to deep despair. The young Donne's disrespect for women and his intense sexuality might perhaps put some readers off. Though the courtship and marriage to Anne More (in 1601) would bring a change. In terms of class Anne was by far Donne's superior, and her father forbade the marriage. Yet Donne had deeply fallen in love, and put his career on the line to marry Anne secretly. It cut him down in arrogance. Anne died in 1617, worn out by her yearly pregnancies (Donne had quite an appetite).

The reader can track the courtship and marriage of Anne and John Donne throughout the poems. But often Donne will address an imaginary lady. As Mr. Fowkes indicates the background of his poetry is difficult to pinpoint. And add to this the fact which we should also not forget, that Donne was a Catholic who converted to the Anglican Church and felt guilty about it.

A complicated man harbouring many selves and souls. Even though I may not agree with Donne's aggressive ways in several poems, he expresses himself with such an intensity and passion (that I cannot avoid him), which makes up for some of the most compelling and brilliant poetry ever written in the English language.

The voice of Richard Burton reciting John Donne is a magical combination. Burton has the flair that captures the feeling and intensity of this poet. Donne, known for his writing ability, his technique is known as conciet, can be dense to read. Burton opens up the words and the meanings with his rich voice and perfect inflection.

Whether you are timid about poetry or love John Donne, this is the point of no return.

John Donne's synthesis of the spiritual and the sensual makes for wonderful reading and study.

I recommend this book to anyone interested in poetry. In Five Seventeenth-Century Poets: Donne, Herbert, Crashaw, Marvell, Vaughan, the author addresses metaphysical poetry. Brijraj Singh took a subject that I have often found cryptic and explained it exquisitely. His historical background on the poets and annotated poems put this beautiful poetry into a context that was easy to comprehend. Upon finishing the book, I have a greater understanding and appreciation of 17th century poetry. Mr. Singh wrote a superlative book!

Prof. Frontain and the other illustrious editors of this book, have taken great heed of presenting us with a serious scholarly work, in which the traditionally opposed figures of the women-visiting Jack Donne and the enthusiastic preacher 'Dr John Donne' merge, the same way in which sacred and profane merge in his poems and prose. The book is highly recommended for those looking for a source of bibliographical data, and for a new perspective on John Donne's opera omnia. It is not recommended for those who think, like Dr Johnson, that Donne's aesthetics 'yoke' together inconciliably different worlds.

Fruit of over ten years of close readings of John Donne's poetry, this book presents the non-casual reader with a flowing series of essays by Theresa DiPasquale on the poets verbal research for Real Presence. Followed by a clarifying appendix on the doctrine of the Eucharistic Sacrifice, this book uses as a gauge of the poet's intentions both the contemporary doctrinal disputes on the nature of the Eucharist, and the reader-response to the confusing textual whirlpools of Donne's religious meditation. Donne is thus portrayed as a poet working with complex theological instruments, and dealing seriously with the doctrinal questions propounded by Roman Catholics, Puritans and Anglicans. The petrarchan, the erotic and the theo-philosophical overtones of Donne's poetry are all re-elaborated through the lens of the critic's theory on the intersection between literature and sacrament. A sine qua non for scholars-to-be and for seriously interested readers of John Donne's difficult poetry.

Donne is probably the most misunderstood poet. Now analyzing his works we can begin to see the depth of this man and the affects of history on his writings--and of his writings on history. This book will definitely help you understand the difficult poetry without explaining every little boring detail, since you are the one studying it, you should find out on your own.

THE SONGS AND SONETS [sic] OF JOHN DONNE. Edited by Theodore Redpath. 156 pp. London : Methuen, 1976 (1956) and Reissued.

Donne is a difficult poet, and one of the main objects of this edition of the 'Songs and Sonets' (not 'Sonnets' because we are here given the original spelling) is to try to clarify any and all points where the meaning would not be perfectly clear to a reader of reasonable intelligence.

The text is a modern recension, based largely on the text of Grierson's 1912 edition of Donne's 'Poetical Works,' and makes use of variants recorded in that edition and in manuscript material which has since come to light.

Redpath's notes are full, detailed, and extensive, and in addition offer full commentaries on every poem. He tells us that his aim was to create "an edition for the general reader, which would bring these remarkable poems to readers both in England and abroad, neither merely as a sometimes exasperatingly obscure plain text, nor as part of a bulky specialist volume or series of volumes" (p.vii).

The poems are preceeded by an interesting 35-page Introduction, and the book is rounded out with a series of Appendices, a Select Bibliography, and an Index of First Lines. At just 156-pages it's a slim book and pleasant to handle, and it's also quite easy to use as most notes run alongside the text on facing pages.

In a book of this nature the editor's problem is always that of trying to strike a balance between giving the reader too much help or too little. Although Redpath may have given some readers a bit more help than they need, on the whole he seems to have struck a nice balance, and most readers will probably find most of his notes and commentary to be both helpful and illuminating.

So for those who have discovered the beauty of Donne's poems, but who may be still scratching their head over their many difficulties and obscurities, the present book will go a good way towards resolving most problems. It will enable anyone to read these poems with far greater understanding and appreciation of their nuances, and hence with far greater enjoyment.

Redpath's is an excellent edition, and strongly recommended.

An extremely well written, wonderful treatment of its subject. I highly recommend this book to all persons interested in excellent, powerful writing on the subject of Religion. A truly amazing, creative work. A masterpiece.

I agree with all the positive things said about Donne on this page. Also, this book's great strength is its breadth, including poems, letters, sermons, and other writings of Donne. One gets all the poems and most of his available prose. The only difficulty I had is that all of the poems are presented without any effort to modernize the spelling of words. Often, this distracts from a more perfect enjoyment of Donne's wit, sentiment, conceits and emotions. For those who might find antiquated spelling a distraction, I recommend they find another edition.

In John Donne, the artist and man, we have a many-faceted gem. What moves me most about him, who in my view has no superiors among English poets, is that wherever he speaks from, the most sensually playful to the most solemnly prayerful (the two are often inseparable), he is always so openly, deeply engaged. His unsurpassed verbal ability is always so immediately in touch with his perception so that his language moves and lives with the mysterious life of perception itself. Even when he is most elaborately inventive and involved, he is never contrived or remote, he is always fully there. His art is fed and shaped by his perception and his perception is always so fresh and penetrating, so uninhibited by assumption and convention and yet wherever he travels he is somehow always so available to the sincere reader. For me this all bespeaks a sensitive, large, generous soul. It is always so self-aware, but never self-centered, and even when weak and mortally distressed it is still deep and rich, never thin, sour, bitter. A very lovable soul.
Often one finds references to T. S. Eliot when people speak or write about Donne. For me, the references are usually facile and Donne is clearly the greater figure. It says much to me that I love him dearly though I do not share his religious belief. I respect Eliot, but I find it much more difficult to love him and often even to locate him. He is too cold and artificially remote in comparison and I do not accept the validity of his 'impersonal transcendence'. I am not saying that Eliot should have tried to be more in touch with the reader, that is a silly idea and never a real concern for a genuine artist. I am saying that he should have tried to be more in touch with himself. He is in reality no more inwardly complex or many-faced than Donne, and certainly not more profound, but by comparison he seems cold, fragmented and stagnant to me and simply more inclined to wear his sweat on his sleeve. I know that some might say that Eliot had more difficult times and trials to deal with than did Donne, but I think that anyone who familiarizes himself with the wide range of Donne's work, and this volume from The Modern Library makes that possible, will see this is simply not true. Any one who is not familiar with Donne's work is unaware of some of the deepest, richest, vivifying depths that English language art has reached. It has something to do with love of which Donne knew much.

This volume is a wonderful selection of Donne's prose, and is especially useful for the various sermons included. John Donne is a brilliant poet whose skillful use of language and understanding of the paradoxes of Christianity are a delight. To have the entire range of his poetry, pre- and post-conversion, is very useful.

A great reference tool for the student of literature, and a good read (Oxford English dictionary readily accessible, of course).