Customer Reviews

The Songs and Sonnets of John Donne

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THE SONGS AND SONETS [sic] OF JOHN DONNE. Edited by Theodore Redpath. 156 pp. London : Methuen, 1976 (1956) and Reissued.

Donne is a difficult poet, and one of the main objects of this edition of the 'Songs and Sonets' (not 'Sonnets' because we are here given the original spelling) is to try to clarify any and all points where the meaning would not be perfectly clear to a reader of reasonable intelligence.

The text is a modern recension, based largely on the text of Grierson's 1912 edition of Donne's 'Poetical Works,' and makes use of variants recorded in that edition and in manuscript material which has since come to light.

Redpath's notes are full, detailed, and extensive, and in addition offer full commentaries on every poem. He tells us that his aim was to create "an edition for the general reader, which would bring these remarkable poems to readers both in England and abroad, neither merely as a sometimes exasperatingly obscure plain text, nor as part of a bulky specialist volume or series of volumes" (p.vii).

The poems are preceeded by an interesting 35-page Introduction, and the book is rounded out with a series of Appendices, a Select Bibliography, and an Index of First Lines. At just 156-pages it's a slim book and pleasant to handle, and it's also quite easy to use as most notes run alongside the text on facing pages.

In a book of this nature the editor's problem is always that of trying to strike a balance between giving the reader too much help or too little. Although Redpath may have given some readers a bit more help than they need, on the whole he seems to have struck a nice balance, and most readers will probably find most of his notes and commentary to be both helpful and illuminating.

So for those who have discovered the beauty of Donne's poems, but who may be still scratching their head over their many difficulties and obscurities, the present book will go a good way towards resolving most problems. It will enable anyone to read these poems with far greater understanding and appreciation of their nuances, and hence with far greater enjoyment.

Redpath's is an excellent edition, and strongly recommended.