Early 17th Century: John Donne

"John Donne (pronounced "Dun"; 1572 – March 31, 1631) was a Jacobean metaphysical poet. His works include sonnets, love poetry, religious poems, Latin translations, epigrams, elegies, songs, and sermons" (wikipedia). You should be familiar with at least the following poems by Donne: “The Flea," “The Sun Rising," “An Anatomy of the World," “Batter my heart, three-personed God.” You should know what a metaphysical conceit is and what hallmarks of Donne's work make him a metaphysical poet.

• Biography
• Essays on John Donne
• Introduction to Metaphyical Poetry
• Works
  • Poems
    • “The Flea”
    • “The Sun Rising”
      • Essay: Explication of "The Sunne Rising" - M. E. Rickey
    • "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning”
      • Essay: The Circle of Souls in John Donne's "A Valediction Forbidding Mourning" - Cynthia A. Cavanaugh
    • “An Anatomy of the World”
      • Essay: THE PLOT OF DONNE'S ANNIVERSARIES
    • “Batter my heart, three-personed God; for you”
      • Essay: Explication of Holy Sonnet 14 - Craig Payne
  • Sermons
    

• "No man is an Iland, intire of it selfe; every man is a peece of the Continent, a part of the maine; if a Clod bee washed away by the Sea, Europe is the lesse, as well as if a Promontorie were, as well as if a Mannor of thy friends or of thine own were; any mans death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankinde; And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee."
  (from "Meditation XVII" of Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions )

• Batter my heart, three-person'd God ; for you
  As yet but knock ; breathe, shine, and seek to mend ;
  That I may rise, and stand, o'erthrow me, and bend
  Your force, to break, blow, burn, and make me new. (Holy Sonnet 14)