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Time and Place in Donne's Sermons

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

William Gifford*
Affiliation:
Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, N. Y

Extract

Certain of Donne's sermons can be fully appreciated only if we know a great deal more about their background than we usually do. The editors of his sermons have supplied brief descriptions, in many cases, of the circumstances in which the sermons were given but, except for certain obvious examples such as the Sermon of Valediction, did not have time to show how closely Donne's sermons, even those which are less celebrated, could be involved in the time and place in which they were delivered.The purpose of this paper is to call for a more serious in-depth approach to the backgrounds of many sermons by showing that such an approach can be of real value. Donne was a world made cunningly of elements in the sermons as well as the poems, and a large part of that world was his interest in the people and events around him. Often he succeeded in bringing those people and events into his art of preaching, and until his manner of doing so is examined his art goes unrecognized and one side of his complex mind will be unappreciated.

Information

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1967

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