preview

John Donne Research Paper

Decent Essays
Open Document

To this day John Donne is still considered to be one of the greatest love poets from England. He was born to a Elizabeth Heywood and John Donne, some time between January 24th and June 19th in 1572. His mother Elizabeth Heywood was the youngest of her siblings and the grand-niece to the Catholic Martyr Thomas More. His father John Donne was a prosperous London merchant, but his actual father died when Donne was only four and was believed to be a descendant from an ancient family in Wales. The family was Roman Catholic and this was a very anti-catholic period in England and this would greatly affect Donne in many ways throughout his life. When Donne was around 11 years old he attended Oxford University and later on Cambridge. He was never …show more content…

During the 1590s he focused a lot of his time on books, traveling, and love interests. It is believed that this is around the time that he wrote most of his famous love poems. During this time he travelled to Spain and Italy where he began to study law. He studied at Thavies Inn in 1592 and Lincoln Inn from 1592 to 1594. Donne had a brother named Henry who was convicted of Catholic Sympathies in 1593 and died in prison. When he was 25 he began to work as a secretary for Sir Thomas Egerton, who was the Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England. He worked for Egerton for several years and over time they became close friends. It was also around this time the Donne betrayed his Catholic religion and converted to Anglicanism. In the December of 1601 he married Anne More, who was 16 years old at the time. Anne was the daughter of George More and the niece of Sir Thomas Egerton. These two men supported their marriage greatly and went to extreme lengths

Get Access