John Donne: Poems Lesson Plan

Critics describe Donne as "anti-Catholic" in his later poetry and in his sermons as an Anglican priest. Have students do some research into the differences between Catholicism and Anglicanism in Donne's time. What elements of Donne's poetry or worldview seem still "Catholic"? What priorities or views does he have in his poetry and sermons that are against Catholicism?

This is a complicated question, but students should understand Donne not just as a generic Christian poet (as most white English poets we study were), but a former Catholic in a turbulent religious time.

In his sermons, Donne argues against transubstantiation, for example, the idea that the wafer and wine a...