Donne's life
... Church of England in 1592 after entering Lincoln’s Inn. Donne later became the Dean of St Paul’s Cathedral. This is all very important because it is reflected in his poetry. The two poems I chose were 'the sunne rising' and 'batter my heart'. Samuel Johnson 1779 Samuel Johnson was the first to call the poetry of John Donne metaphysical. Criticized Donne because we find in his poems "the most heterogeneous ideas yoked by violence together". Again a criticism of the wit and the intellectualism of his poetry, but also of a philosophically and scientifically inability to focus on an idea with a consistent set of images to match this. He criticised Donne for his strong lines, and for puzzling the fair sex with nice speculations of philosophy when they should have engaged their hearts and entertained them with softness and love. T.S.Eliot 1888–1965. Credited for putting Donne's poetry back into the literacy hall of fame. Eliot praised Donne for being able to "feel an idea" and play around with it in the way a cat plays with a mouse. The fact that Donne's ...