John Donne: Poems

This collection of Donne's work runs the gamut of the poet's many areas of brilliance: from love songs to religious hymns, from heartfelt elegies to holy sonnets. It includes some of his best-loved poems, including "Goe, and catche a falling starre," Loves Growthe" and "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning," as well as his religious and philosophical musings.

Includes poems read in their entirety as well as unabridged extracts.

Library Journal

Donne's poems embrace Catholicism, then abandon religion, then embrace the Episcopal church. They make use of symbols and weighted images. He toys with sonnet, satire, elegy, and love poems--to list only a few recognizable forms. At times his lines seem like stream of consciousness. Philosophy overtakes subject, as in two commissioned elegies on a child's death. All told, they make for difficult reading, even harder if we're trying to get a handle on the person who wrote the poems. That's why these two tapes, mixing biography with poetry, are especially welcome. Best of all, the biography is honest. It shows us a man who risked all for love, yet constantly sought out wealthy patrons and the favor of the court. Dismissed after short terms in parliament, Donne returned to the priesthood. The narrators point to, but make no excuses for, the way all this is reflected in the poems. Byron's anthology also combines biography, comparative literature, and a poetry crash course in just over two hours. As might be expected, given these limitations, there are more fragments here than poetry lovers would prefer. Despite the biographical context, these poems are seldom in chronological order. The narrators refer to Lord Byron as the "Idol of an Age," but that's difficult to discern from the hopelessly overdramatized readings, frustrating at best. On the plus side, fragments from the favorite poems are here--cantos from "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage" and later from "Don Juan." The narration illuminates Byron's political views as expressed in the poetry. Still, this is not recommended.--Rochelle Ratner, formerly with "Soho Weekly News," New York Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

JOHN DONNE was born in 1572. He entered a diplomatic career and served as private secretary to Sir Thomas Egerton. However, when he eloped with Egerton's underage niece, Anne More, in 1601, the couple was disinherited and they lived in poverty for many years. He died in 1631 after posing for a portrait in his funeral shroud.