No More Learning

Of the younger John Donne, D. C. L. , whose life was dissolute and
poetry indecent, perhaps the most pleasing relic is the following poem
addressed to his father. It is found in _O'F_ and has been printed by
Mr. Warwick Bond:

A LETTER.

No want of duty did my mind possesse,
I through a dearth of words could not expresse
That w^{ch} I feare I doe too soone pursue
W^{ch} is to pay my duty due to you.
For, through the weaknesse of my witt, this way
I shall diminish what I hope to pay.
And this consider, T'was the sonne of May
And not Apollo that did rule the day.
Had it bin hee then somthing would have rose;
In gratefull verse or else in thankfull prose
I would have told you (father) by my hand
That I yo^r sonne am prouder of yo^r band
Then others of theyr freedome, And to pay
Thinke it good service to kneele downe and pray.

Yo^r obedient sonne
JO. DONNE.

PAGES =5, 6=. The three poems by Jonson were printed in the sheets
hastily added by the younger Donne in 1650 to the edition of Donne's
poems prepared for the press in 1649. See _Text and Canon, &c.
_
They were taken from Jonson's _Epigrams_ (1616), where they are Nos.
xxiii. , xciv. , and xcvi. Of Donne as a poet Jonson uttered three
memorable criticisms in his _Conversations with Drummond_ (ed. Laing,
Shakespeare Society, 1842):

'He esteemeth John Done the first poet in the world for some things. '

'That Done for not keeping of accent deserved hanging. '

'That Done himself, for not being understood, would perish. '




SONGS AND SONETS.

Of all Donne's poems these are the most difficult to date with any
definiteness. Jonson, Drummond notes, 'affirmeth Done to have written
all his best pieces ere he was twenty-five years old,' that would be
before 1598, the year in which Donne became secretary to Sir Thomas
Egerton. This harmonizes fairly well with such indications of date as
are discoverable in the _Elegies_, poems similar in theme and tone
to the _Songs and Sonets_. Mr. Chambers pushes the more daring and
cynical of these poems in both these groups further back. He says,
'All Donne's Love-poems . .