John Donne
John Donne was born in London in 1572 into the family of the successful and wealthy ironmonger John Donne. His mother, Elizabeth Heywood, was descended from the family of Sir Thomas More. Elizabeth was an accomplished literary woman, the author of epigrams and interludes, although she did not live long enough to teach John much about poetry or writing. Both sides of Donne's family were respected Catholics in an England in which the dominant religion had become Anglicanism.
When Donne was very...
