A preface to Donne

by James Winny

Book by Winny, James

Genres: Poetry

160 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1981

Reviews

[Judith Shadford · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked it because I learned a significant amount of bio. But Winny's tone was Ye Olde Ivorie Touer and seemed to me, trying to force Donne's unfettered genius into a psychological/historical mold that both belittled Donne and (unsuccessfully) heightened Winny's seriously astute perceptions. The sections at the end comparing Donne to his near contemporaries was just to get more pages in the book, use up some class notes...whatever.

Donne, I adore. Truly.

[Dawn · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great book to give the reader insight into John Donne's life, the poetry and politics going on around him, and his unique writing. He was born into Catholicism; but in response to the culture around him, changed his religious cloak and even became part of the Anglican clergy. His poetry is described as "metaphysical" which might be described as "language interacting with science." There are illustrations and pictures throughout, discussions of the important topics during his lifetime, and a brief biography of his life, as well as paragraph biographies of people important to his life. A few of his poems are given in full, with a short discussion afterwards, as well as two or three poems written by other men which people have said are metaphysical poems like his.

[James F · Rating 3 out of 5]

As the title implies, this is about what one would expect to find in the preface or introduction to a book by Donne, perhaps somewhat expanded, giving a short account of his life and the intellectual background of his time, with some interpretation of a few of his better-known poems. This would probably be a good place to start for someone who has never read Donne before, although presumably anyone reading Donne would already be familiar with much of the background from reading background on Shakespeare (Donne's life and Shakespeare's overlapped for all but the last fifteen years of Donne's, after he had written nearly all his poetry.)

[J. Alfred · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ambivalence! On the one hand, one has to recognize an intellectual power at work when one sees it, and that is the case here, especially in the wonderfully prescient quotes that show up from time to time, and the downright masterly readings of the poems at the end of the book. However, on the other hand, the biography of Donne himself is a little scanty and psychoanalytical for my taste, there is much information about the intellectual climate of the time and the like which seems to add little to the discussion, and there is a line in here about Livy that could have been lifted almost exactly from Lewis' Lit. in the Sixteenth Century. If one loves Donne, one might want to take a look, but even then, there are probably better resources.