This session of Our Life in Poetry undertakes an examination of the use of formal conventions such as meter and conceit in the examination of the 17th century metaphysical poet John Donne. The course will be taught by Michael Braziller, the Publisher of Persea Books, an independent literary press he co-founded in 1975, which is devoted almost exclusively to educational and poetry titles. Mr. Braziller and his guest, Marie Ponsot, a poet herself known for the use of formal meter, will look closely at four classic poems by John Donne: "A Hymn to God the Father," "Good Morrow," "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning," and "The Canonization." Donne's poems remain among the most passionate, profound and spiritual in the English language. The poems under discussion will be looked at for their qualitative genius as well as their surprisingly advanced attitudes towards the role of women in Donne's world. The discussion will examine the relation of convention to the generation of imaginative form, and how preexisting poetic structures—with their attendant prescriptions and rituals—further the evolution of poetic imagination. Following the discussion, Marie Ponsot will read several of her own poems. No prior registration or fee is required. To view the poems, please click on the link below. Please bring a printed copy to the class. Copies of the poems will not be provided at the event.

Donne Poems (PDF)
Donne Poems (Word)

Marie Ponsot is a native New Yorker who has enjoyed teaching at Queens College, Beijing United University, and Columbia University. Among her awards are an NEA Creative Writing grant, the Delmore Schwartz Memorial Prize, and the Shaughnessy Medal of the Modern Language Association. Ponsot's most recent collections are The Bird Catcher, which won the national Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry in 1998, and Springing: New, and Selected Poems.

Edited Transcript

PDF Version
Word Version