At the age of 43, John Donne abandoned the youthful concerns of his poetry, took Anglican orders, and sought a life of spiritual devotion, bringing his poetic gift to the examination of universal truths. Eight years later, in 1623, battered by fever and tremendous loss, he composed Devotions upon Emergent Occasions. There is both trauma and great drama in this extended meditation on the meaning of mortality, the possibility of salvation, and the passage to eternal life. With a preface by poet and biographer Andrew Motion, Donne’s work, one of the most revered books of Christian devotion, speaks to us again of the higher aspirations of man.
This edition also contains Donne’s last sermon, Death’s Duel, and the colorful, short biography of him written by his contemporary Izaak Walton.
In the annals of spirituality, certain books stand out both for their historical importance and for their continued relevance. The Vintage Spiritual Classics series offers the greatest of these works in authoritative new editions, with specially commissioned essays by noted contemporary commentators. Filled with eloquence and fresh insight, encouragement and solace, Vintage Spiritual Classics are incomparable resources for all readers who seek a more substantive understanding of mankind’s relation to the divine.
John Donne was born into a Catholic family in 1572. After a conventional education at Hart Hall, Oxford, and Lincoln's Inn, he took part in the Earl of Essex's expedition to the Azores in 1597. He secretly married Anne More in December 1601 and was imprisoned by her father, Sir George More, in the Fleet two months later. He was ordained as a priest in January 1615 and took a doctorate of divinity at Cambridge the same year. He was made dean of St. Paul's Cathedral in London in 1621, a position he held until his death in 1631. He is famous for the sermons he preached in his later years as well as for his poems.
View titles by John Donne
At the age of 43, John Donne abandoned the youthful concerns of his poetry, took Anglican orders, and sought a life of spiritual devotion, bringing his poetic gift to the examination of universal truths. Eight years later, in 1623, battered by fever and tremendous loss, he composed Devotions upon Emergent Occasions. There is both trauma and great drama in this extended meditation on the meaning of mortality, the possibility of salvation, and the passage to eternal life. With a preface by poet and biographer Andrew Motion, Donne’s work, one of the most revered books of Christian devotion, speaks to us again of the higher aspirations of man.
This edition also contains Donne’s last sermon, Death’s Duel, and the colorful, short biography of him written by his contemporary Izaak Walton.
In the annals of spirituality, certain books stand out both for their historical importance and for their continued relevance. The Vintage Spiritual Classics series offers the greatest of these works in authoritative new editions, with specially commissioned essays by noted contemporary commentators. Filled with eloquence and fresh insight, encouragement and solace, Vintage Spiritual Classics are incomparable resources for all readers who seek a more substantive understanding of mankind’s relation to the divine.
Author
John Donne was born into a Catholic family in 1572. After a conventional education at Hart Hall, Oxford, and Lincoln's Inn, he took part in the Earl of Essex's expedition to the Azores in 1597. He secretly married Anne More in December 1601 and was imprisoned by her father, Sir George More, in the Fleet two months later. He was ordained as a priest in January 1615 and took a doctorate of divinity at Cambridge the same year. He was made dean of St. Paul's Cathedral in London in 1621, a position he held until his death in 1631. He is famous for the sermons he preached in his later years as well as for his poems.
View titles by John Donne
