The critical essays range in time from Donne's contemporaries to our own (one piece being newly commissioned for this edition) and represent a variety of viewpoints. They are grouped by kind into four sections. The first, "Donne and Metaphysical Poetry," offers seven-teenth-century views of Donne and his distinctive style; sections from Izaak Walton's 1639 biography that present a view of his struggle over his religious vocation; followed by essays from Dennis Flynn and John Carey on the significance of Donne's Roman Catholic upbringing and his apostasy from it. The second section offers insights on Donne's frequently overlooked early poems and on the social and literary milieu from whence they emerged.

This new Norton Critical Edition presents a comprehensive collection of Donne's poetry.. The texts are divided into four sections: "Satires,""Elegies," "Verse Letters to Several Personages," "Songs and Sonnets,"and "Divine Poems." They have been scrupulously edited and are from the Westmoreland. manuscript where possible--collated against the best exemplars from the most important families of Donne manuscripts: the Cambridge Balam, the Dublin Trinity; the O'Flahertie--and compared with all seven of the seventeenth-century printed editions of the poems as well as with the major twentieth-century editions. Annotations to the texts of the poems define uncommon terms and locate historical references.

"Criticism" is divided into four sections. "Donne and Metaphysical Poetry" includes seventeenth-century views on Donne and his style by Ben Jonson, Thomas Carew, lzaak Walton, John Dryden, Samuel Johnson, Dennis Flynn, and John Carey. "Satires, Elegies, and Verse Letters"offers insights into Donne's frequently overlooked early poems and their social and literary backgrounds. Collected here are selections by Arthur F. Marotti, M. Thomas Hester, Alan Armstrong, Achsah Guibbory, Margaret Maurer, Heather Dubrow, and Gary A. Stringer. Pieces on Donne the love poet are included in "Songs and Sonnets," by Donald L. Guss,Patrick Cruttwell, John A. Clair, M. Thomas Hester, Theresa M.DiPasquale, and Camille Wells Slights. "Holy Sonnets/Divine Poems"includes essays that discuss Donne's struggles as a Christian, by R. V.Young, Louis L. Martz, David M. Sullivan, and Donald R. Dickson.

A Chronology, Selected Bibliography, Index of Titles, and index of First Lines are also included.

Preface

The Texts of John Donne's Poetry

SATIRES

  Satire 1.

  Satire 2.

  Satire 3.

  Satire 4.

  Satire 5.

ELEGIES

  Elegy 1. The Bracelet.

  Elegy 2. The Comparison.

  Elegy 3. The Perfume.

  Elegy 4. Jealousy.

  Elegy 5.

  Elegy 6.

  Elegy 7. Love's War.

  Elegy 8. To His Mistress Going to Bed.

  Elegy 9.

  Elegy 10. The Anagram.

  Elegy 1 1. On His Mistress.

  Elegy 12. On His Picture.

  Elegy 14. Love's Progress.

  Elegy. Sappho to Phil·enis.

EPITHALAMION MADE AT LINCOLN'S INN.

VERSE LETTERS TO SEVERAL PERSONAGES

  The Storm. To Mr. Christopher Brooke.

  The Calm.

  To Sir Henry Wotton. ["Here's no more news"]

  To Sir Henry Wotton. ["Sir, more than kisses"]

  To Mr. R[owland]. W[oodward]. ["Like one who' in her third widowhood"[

  To Mr. T[homas]. W[oodward]. ["Haste thee harsh verse"]

  To Mr. T[homas]. W[oodward]. ["Pregnant again"[

  To Mr. E[verard]. G[uilpin]. ["Even as lame things"[

  To Mr. S. 13. ["O thou which to search"[

  To Mr. B. B. ["Is not thy sacred hunger of science"]

  To Sir Henry Wotton at His Going Ambassador to Venice.

  To the Countess of Bedford. ["Madam, Reason is our soul's left hand"]

  To the Countess of Bedford. ["Madam, You have

  refin'd me"]

SONGS AND SONNETS

The Message.

The Bait.

The Apparition.

The Broken Heart.

A Lecture upon the Shadow.

A Valediction Forbidding Mourning.

The Good Morrow.

Song ["Go and catch a falling star"]

Woman's Constancy.

The Sun Rising.

The Indifferent.

Love's Usury.

The Canonization.

The Triple Fool.

Lovers' Infiniteness.

Song ["Sweetest love, I do not go"]

The Legacy.

A Fever.

Air and Angels.

Break of Day.

The Prohibition.

The Anniversary.

A Valediction of My Name in the Window.

Twicknam Garden.

A Valediction of the Book.

Community.

Love's Growth.

Love's Exchange.

Confined Love.

The Dream.

A Valediction of Weeping.

Love's Mchemy.

The Flea.

The Curse.

The Ecstasy.

The Undertaking.

Love's Deity.

Love's Diet.

The Will.

The Funeral.

The Blossom.

The Primrose.

The Relic.

The Damp.

The Dissolution.

A Jet Ring Sent.

Negative Love.

The Computation.

The Expiration.

The Paradox.

A Nocturnal Upon St. Lucy's Day, Being the Shortest Day.

Witchcraft by a Picture.

Farewell to Love.

Self-Love.

Image of Her Whom I Love.

THE FIRST ANNIVERSARY: AN ANATOMY OF THE WORLD

DIVINE POEMS

 La Corona Sonnets

 Holy Sonnet 1 ["As due by many titles"[

 Holy Sonnet 2 ["O my black soul"[

 Holy Sonnet 3 ["This is my play's last scene"]

 Holy Sonnet 4 ["At the round earth's imagin'd corners"]

 Holy Sonnet 5 ["If poisonous minerals"]

 Holy Sonnet 6 ["Death, be not proud"]

 Holy Sonnet 7 ["Spit in my face"]

 Holy Sonnet 8 ["Why are we by all creatures"]

 Holy Sonnet 9 ["What if this present"]

 Holy Sonnet 10 ["Batter my heart"]

 Holy Sonnet 1 1 ["Wilt thou love God"]

 Holy Sonnet 12 ["Father, part of his double interest"]

 Holy Sonnet 13 ["Thou hast made me"]

 Holy Sonnet 14 ["Oh might those sighs"]

 Holy Sonnet 15 ["l am a little world"]

 Holy Sonnet 16 ["If faithful souls"]

 Holy Sonnet 17 ["Since she whom I loved"[

  Holy Sonnet 18 ["Show me, dear Christ"]

  Holy Sonnet 19 ["Oh, to vex me"]

  The Cross.

  Resurrection, imperfect.

  Upon the Annunciation and Passion Falling Upon One Day.

  Good-Friday, 1613. Riding Westward.

  Upon The Translation of the Psalms by Sir Philip Sidney, and the Countess of Pembroke, His Sister.

  To Mr. Tilman After He Had Taken Orders.

  A Hymn to Christ, at the Author's Last Going into Germany.

  Hymn to God, My God, in My Sickness.

  To Christ.

  A Hymn to God the Father.

  A Note on the Texts of Donne's Poems

  Textual Notes

Criticism

DONNE AND METAPHYSICAL POETRY

  Ben Jonson · [Conversations about Donne]

  Thomas Carew · An Elegy upon the Death of the Dean of Paul's, Dr. John Donne

  Izaak Walton · From The Life of Dr. John Donne

  John Dryden · [Donne Affects the Metaphysics]

  Samuel Johnson · [The Metaphysical Poets]

  Dennis Flynn · Portrait of a Swordsman

  John Carey · Donne's Apostasy

SATIRES· ELEGIES· AND VERSE LETFERS

  Arthur F. Marotti · Donne as an Inns-of-Court Author

  M. Thomas Hester · "Ask thy father": ReReading

    Donne's Satyre Ill

  Alan Armstrong · The Apprenticeship of John Donne:

    Ovid and the Elegies.

  Achsah Guibbory · "Oh, Let Mee Not Serve So": The

    Politics of Love in Donne's Elegies

  Margaret Maurer · John Donne's Verse Letters

  Heather Dubrow · Resident Alien: John Donne

  GaryA. Stringer · Some of Donne's Revisions (And How to Recognize Them)

SONGS AND SONNETS

  Donald L. Guss · Donne's Petrarchism

  Patrick Cruttwell · The Love Poetry of John Donne:

    Pedantique Weedes or Fresh Invention?

  John A. Clair · John Donne's "The Canonization"

  M. Thomas Hester · "this cannot be said": A Preface to

    the Reader of Donne's Lyrics

  Theresa M. DiPasquale · Receiving a Sexual Sacrament:

    "The Flea" as Profane Eucharist

  Camille Wells Slights · A Pattern of Love:

    Representations of Anne Donne

HOLY SONNETS/DIVINE POEMS

  R. V. Young · Donne's Holy Sonnets and the Theology

    of Grace

  Louis L. Martz · [Donne's Holy Sonnets and "Good

    Friday, 1613"]

  David M. Sullivan · Riders to the West: "Goodfriday,

    1613"

  Donald R. Dickson · The Complexities of Biblical

    Typology in the Seventeenth Century

John Donne: A Chronology

Selected Bibliography

Index of Titles

Index of First Lines