A Selection of Divine Poems
John Donne
Read by Nathan
John Donne was an English Jacobean preacher, sometime lawyer, later in life a Member of Parliament and Royal Chaplain. Marrying for love against the wishes of his influential father-in-law; Donne's career was cast into shadow: forcing him to support his wife, Anne, as best he might under a specter of unforgiving penury.
Despite such hardships - perhaps because of them - Donne's writings demonstrate a mastery of poetry layered with metaphysical meaning and mystery: which continues to delight and challenge modern-day readers. Donne's "divine poems" - the focus of this collection - present profound theological insights using absorbing allegories and beautiful imagery.
At the end of Donne's life - as his health deteriorated under illnesses of increasing severity - his poetry served him as: distraction, consolation, and even "public confession". With them, Donne cheerfully but soberly faces the limits of his own mortality: and contemplates the mysteries that lie beyond the grave.
(Introduction by Godsend) (0 hr 48 min)
Chapters
| Corona, La (The Cycle of 'The Crown') | 6:56 | Read by Nathan |
| Holy Sonnets I to XIX (aka 'The Divine Meditations') | 17:57 | Read by Nathan |
| Cross, The | 4:14 | Read by Nathan |
| 4 - Resurrection, Imperfect (or incomplete) | 1:52 | Read by Nathan |
| Litany, The | 17:34 | Read by Nathan |