Tag Archives: John Donne

Poetry Needed to Understand Trinity

By Robin Bates | Published: June 2, 2013

John Kennedy advocated poetry to avoid arrogance, which is good advice when it comes to understanding the Trinity.

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Jesus Lies Enclosed but Fills All Place

By Robin Bates | Published: December 30, 2012

John Donne’s poem on the Nativity shows us a way out of our imprisoned existence.

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Art Goes Where Humans Can’t

By Robin Bates | Published: May 8, 2012

A dying professor in Gail Godwin’s novel “The Good Husband” turns to John Donne’s “Second Anniversary” to comfort her.

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Using Donne to Defend Same Sex Marriage

By Robin Bates | Published: March 28, 2012

John Donne’s impatience in “The Canonization” could be that of same sex couples who want to get married and wonder about all the fuss.

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A Spurned Lover’s Revenge Fantasy

By Robin Bates | Published: November 7, 2011

A recent Kinsey study reporting that men prefer cuddling and women prefer sex got me thinking about John Donne’s strange “you’ll be sorry” poem “The Apparition.”

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Wilt Thou Forgive My Sin of Fear?

By Robin Bates | Published: November 6, 2011

Donne’s last question is whether God will forgive Donne’s lack of complete faith in Him.

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No Man Is an Island (Not Even Revis)

By Robin Bates | Published: October 19, 2011

New York Jet Darrelle Revis may be single man island who can shut down any receiver who comes near, but ultimately he must acknowledge, like John Donne, that no man is an island.

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Should Death Be Proud or Not?

By Robin Bates | Published: February 26, 2010

John Donne               Last December, in writing on Margaret Edson’s play W;t, I noted that I didn’t think John Donne’s famous sonnet “Death Be Not Proud” would be very useful in helping someone handle death.  (The dying Donne scholar in W;t doesn’t turn to it.)  Since then, a friend pointed out that John Gunther’s 1949 book […]

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Donne as an Aid to Teenage Angst

By Robin Bates | Published: January 21, 2010

Well, the semester is underway.  Yesterday I began teaching one of my favorite classes, the early British Literature survey (Literature in History I).  Along with Beowulf, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the Wife of Bath, Doctor Faustus, Twelfth Night, King Lear, and Paradise Lost, I will be teaching the poetry of John Donne.  I […]

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