Meditation 17

John Donne was born in 1572 in London, England to a prosperous Catholic ironmonger and his wife, a member of Thomas More’s extended family. As this was the Elizabethan Age, those aspects that appear advantageous were, in fact, socially detrimental. No matter how prosperous, a merchant was still not a gentleman (a crucial element of social acceptance at the time); moreover, affiliation with the Protestant church (specifically Anglican, the Church of England) was paramount to good social standing in England, and being related (even distantly) to a Roman Catholic martyr was not just a social stigma but a reason for severe discrimination. Donne’s brother, Henry, was imprisoned for the felony of harboring a Catholic priest. He died of the plague within days of being incarcerated in Newgate Prison. Historians consider Henry’s death to be one of several determiners in John’s conversion to Anglicanism; Henry was a cautionary tale for those who showed sympathy for Catholicism, let alone practiced it. Despite Donne’s extensive education, military experience with the Earl of Essex and Sir Walter Raleigh, and well-documented personal charm, he could not obtain social advancement. This also may have driven his conversion.

Scholars generally divide Donne’s life into two phases, and they base this division on his writing. His early life (the “Jack Donne” years) is markedly hedonistic. Donne was clever and personable, and he was welcomed into exclusive court circles, serving as a private secretary to Sir Thomas Egerton, an important government official. With a distinctive Metaphysical flair, Donne’s poems of this time typically presented a speaker (the “narrator” of a poem) who intended to either seduce or traduce women. His secret (and therefore illegal) marriage to Ann More, the young niece of his employer, once again turned the tide of his fortunes: After a brief imprisonment, Donne and his wife were reduced to 17 years of poverty and estrangement from court and society. Donne is said to have written the phrase “John Donne—Ann Donne—Undone” in reflection on their decision to marry. Although this anecdote is a part of literary folklore, there is no consensus on where or how he wrote these words: in ink at the end of a letter, in chalk on the back of a door, or etched into a window of their home. Nonetheless, the phrase captures the consequences of their choice. The years that followed their marriage were paradoxically marked with great joy and great despair. After having 12 children in 16 years, Ann Donne died in 1617, shortly after giving birth to their last child who was stillborn. Ann’s death was a tumultuous event that Donne captured in his “Holy Sonnet 17.” Uncommon for the time, Donne swore never to remarry, a pledge he kept.

The second phase of Donne’s life is devoted to his religious faith and marked with a return to his good fortune. In 1615, Donne was ordained as a priest of the Anglican church, and he became the Royal Chaplain to James I. On the king’s orders, he was granted an honorary Divinity degree by Cambridge University, thus becoming Dr. Donne. His return to popularity and influence was meteoric, and in 1621 Donne was made Dean of St. Paul’s Cathedral, the most important church in London. During this time, Donne wrote meditations and sermons that were highly regarded. He was even the most popular preacher in England of the Jacobean Age. People were drawn to the intelligence, empathy, and passion of his religious works, the same qualities that, in fact, dominated his earlier love poetry.

Devotions upon Emergent Occasions comprises 23 reflections that correspond to each day of Donne’s nearly fatal illness in 1623. Published in 1624, the collection contains many influential sermons, including “Meditation 17.” The remaining years of his life were marked with illness. In 1631, Donne preached “Death’s Duell,” which is commonly considered his own funeral sermon. He shortly after died of cancer.