Religious Poetry and Prose (Living Library) [Paperback]

John Donne (Author), Henry L. Carrigan (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1999 | Series: Living Library

Combining wit, passion, and intellect, John Donne's poetry forged new paths in British literature. When, at age 38, Donne entered the Anglican priesthood, he directed his passion for women and material goods to his divine lover, Christ. The great metaphysical poet engaged theological controversies, the mysteries of theological doctrine, and a persistent fear of death with the same deep powers of intellect and wit that he had brought to his secular poetry. Readers will recognize in Donne's religious writings such well-known phrases as "No man is an island" and "Death be not proud." The poems, sermon selections, prayers, and devotions in this volume record the poet's struggle to reconcile the passions of the flesh with the demands of the spirit, as well as the poet's exalted love of Christ.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

It is always delightful to read and reread Donne, in his profane or spiritual aspect. Editor Carrigan has assembled a brief anthology of Donne's more familiar religious poems and a smattering of the religious prose of the man who was said to have been the best homilist of his time. It seems presumptuous for the editor to have "modernized" Donne by replacing "thou" forms with "you" forms or inverting his sentence order and thus blurring Donne's distinctive rhythmsAbut if this step brings more readers to the original texts of Donne's profundities, so much the better. For most collections. [Carrigan is a longtime LJ reviewer who once wrote this column.AEd.]
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

John Donne's religious writings, composed mainly in the later part of his life, are replete with paradox, irony, ambiguity, and intellectual wordplay. Challenging the traditions of Elizabethan poetry, Donne introduced what was to eventually be known as "metaphysical poetry" with its ardent appeal to both the intellect and emotion. Central themes in Donne's religious works include the Incarnation, Atonement, and Resurrection. He expounds on such topics as sickness, joy, wealth, sanctified passions, the beauty of the soul, and unconscious prayer. Donne expresses his own theological beliefs and urges the reader to "Return again and again to that mysterious person, Christ." Donne's writings are classics of Christian literature and, as edited and mildly modernized by Henry L. Carrigan Jr. for this Paraclete Press edition, once again available to introduce a new generation of readers to an innovative, inspiring, and influential Christian author and poet. -- The Midwest Book Review

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Product Details

• Paperback: 97 pages
• Publisher: Paraclete Press (MA) (September 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1557252351
• ISBN-13: 978-1557252357
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.3 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,066,713 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars modernization ruined the rhyme and meter, October 31, 2006

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Ulysses Castillo "ulyssescastillo" (Eudora, KS United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Religious Poetry and Prose (Living Library) (Paperback)

Unfortunately, the subtitle of the book, "edited and mildly modernized" is too mildly stated! It is heavily modernized. It's one thing to remove some of the thees and thous, especially from the prose sections, but it goes much further than that. In the poetry section, it restructures sentences and changes words so that poems that ought to rhyme, no longer do. For sonnets, that's horrible since the rhyme structure is critical to the sonnet form of Donne.

And there are editing mistakes. For example, on the very first poem, "The Crown", there is an entire line missing (the second to last line). And #4, "The Temple", has an extra line (lines 7 & 8 should be one line, but it's been butchered into two lines that throw off the sonnet).

Also, Donne's poems have great emotional intensity. Somehow these modernizations manage to suppress that intensity and make them pretty mellow. That's really too bad.

It's a nice attempt, but it just doesn't work.