Day 5

John Donne: Poems Lesson Plan

Reading Assignment, Questions, Vocabulary

Today's poems focus on Donne's use of the Catholic liturgical tradition, and the ways in which his contemporaries and poetic descendants used it differently.

-"A Litany" - This is a long poem. Students should read the first six stanzas and sample a few others. Comments should focus on how the poem is structured in comparison to the parallel liturgical texts.

-"The Storm" paired with "The Calm": These two poems synthesize many areas that are important when studying Donne: metaphysical imagery, religion, English history, and Donne's feeling pressured to show that he's a patriot. This pressure came in part from his family's Catholic religious background and his brother's imprisonment and...

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