John Donne, Anne Donne, Un-donne - This is one of the most famous comments on marriage, from the husband of the pair himself. Donne wasn't referring to his wife, but instead, referring to the cost of the marriage, for he and Anne married without permission, resultling in a brief imprisonment and povetry. John Donne's marriage was such a scandel that his first real biographer,
Izaak Waltonsaw it as a huge error and glossed over both it and Donne's love poetry as if in shame. Even today, when Donne's love poetry is more accepted, most people still know Donne for his Holy Sonnets. His love poetry, beautiful and powerful, gets treated totally seperately with the suggestion, unspoken, in some classes that it was written by a different person or, worse, critics try to shoehorn it into devotional poetry. To disregard, downplay, or slight Donne's marriage does a disservice to both the couple and the whole opus of Donne's work. Donne's marriage cost both him and his wife much. Much is made of his frustrated ambitions that occured in the years following his marriage, but she to must have suffered, constantly in childbirth, including one horrific still birth that occured when her husband was a way. Yet Donne wrote love poetry to his wife, including some, like "The Cannonization" that must have been written after his marriage.
It is important to know this about Donne when reading his holy work such as his sonnets or his book. The reason why this holy work stands the test of time, how it has contributed so many quotes to the world is because Donne is the most human of holy writers. One reads
Saint Augustine and is seperated but a vast difference in time and culture. One reads Donne and that difference seems so slight for in many ways Donne was ahead of his time. For instance, he says in
Devotions If man had been left alone in this world at first, shall I think that he would not have fallen? If there had been no woman, would not man have served to have been his own tempter?"There is no hubris in Donne, just questing that tells the reader that even holy man suffer the same up and downs, the same feelings and fears as everyone.
