As I was reading some poems by an author named John Donne. I was really interested in what other poems and what other work he has done. As I learned more about him this is what I came across.
John Donne was ranked with Milton as one of the greatest English poets. He was born in Bread Street, London between January 4 and June 19 1572 to a wealthy Roman Catholic family. His father was John Donne and his mother was Elizabeth, the daughter of John Heywood. John's father died shortly after he was born in 1576. John's brother Henry died in 1593 of a fever caught in Newgate Prison, where he was incarcerated for harboring a Roman Catholic priest. .
When John was 11 years of age he was entered at Hart Hall, University of Oxford, where he studied for 3 years. The next 3 years he spent at the University of Cambridge, but he didn"t get a degree at either university because he didn"t want to take the Oath of Supremacy which was required at graduation. After that, he studied law at Lincoln's Inn from 1592-1594. His first book of poems, Satires, was written in the 1590's during this period of residence in London. It was considered on of his most important literary efforts. His love poems, Songs and Sonnets, were written around the same time as the satires.
Donne had his place in Queen Elizabeth's last Parliament, for Brackley. In 1601 he secretly married Lady Egerton's niece. She was 17 years old and was named Anne More. He was soon dismissed from his place and temporarily imprisoned, and for about a decade he and his increasing family were greatly dependent on relatives and patrons. Donne and Anne had 12 children, 5 of which had died. .
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In about 1606 Thomas Morton offered Donne a benefice if he would take Anglican orders. Donne didn"t jump to that idea. It wasn"t until 1615, after his long religious and practical hesitations, that he was ordained a priest. That same year he received a doctor of divinity degree from Cambridge.
