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...
