John Donne: Poems Lesson Plan

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. She was also an accomplished literary woman, authoring 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, by decree of the state. Donne's family's Catholicism meant that many worldly professions and even educational pursuits were not open to them in a state where the Church of England was the only sanctioned religion. It even...