POETRY GROUP

Our group exists to appreciate and understand poetry in all its varieties. This page is designed to give you an idea of what we get up to.

John Donne

John Donne was born in 1572, eight years after Shakespeare, yet the two seem to inhabit very different emotional and literary atmospheres. Donne appears to us as a figure very much of the 17th century where scientific discoveries and philosophical rigour were prominent. He was born into a Roman Catholic family at a time when Catholics were severely restricted and often persecuted in the excercise of their faith. His mother was related to Sir Thomas More. He attended both Oxford and Cambridge universities and like most ambitious young men of that age needed aristocratic patrons to further his career. Eventually he was commended to James I who insisted that Donne should enter the church, which he reluctantly did. Donne's last position for 10 years was Dean of St.Paul's in London where he preached with passion and eloquence. He died in 1631. It is only in recent years that Donne's poetry has become more widely read. T.S.Eliot thought that Donne's writing was daring and had celebral qualities with rugged direction.

THE GOOD-MORROW

I wonder by my troth, what thou, and I
Did, till we lov'd? were we not wean'd till then?
But suck'd on countrey pleasures, childishly?
Or snorted we in the seven sleepers den?
T'was so; But this, all pleasures fancies bee.
If ever any beauty I did see,
Which I desir'd, and got, t'was but a dreame of thee.

And now good morrow to our waking soules,
Which watch not one another our of feare;
For love, all love of other sight controules,
And makes one little roome, an every where.
Let sea-discoverers to new worlds have gone,
Let maps to other, worlds on worlds have showne,
Let us possesse one world, each hath one, and is one.

My face in thine eye, thine in mine appeares,
And true plain hearts doe in the faces rest,
Where can we finde two better hemispheares
Without sharpe North, without declining West?
What ever dyes, was not mix equally;
If our two loves be one, or, thou and I
Love so alike, that none doe slacken, none can die.