The history of Donne’s reputation is the most remarkable of any major writer in English no other body of great poetry has fallen so far from favor for so long. After a resurgence in his popularity in the early 20th century, Donne’s standing as a great English poet, and one of the greatest writers of English prose, is now assured. Donne often employs conceits, or extended metaphors, to yoke together “heterogenous ideas,” in the words of Samuel Johnson, thus generating the powerful ambiguity for which his work is famous.
His work is distinguished by its emotional and sonic intensity and its capacity to plumb the paradoxes of faith, human and divine love, and the possibility of salvation. He was born in 1572 to Roman Catholic parents, when practicing that religion was illegal in England. The English writer and Anglican cleric John Donne is considered now to be the preeminent metaphysical poet of his time.
