You are hereThe prose and poetry of John Donne
The prose and poetry of John Donne
Lessons and projects by students and teachers on the works of John Donne.
A Valediction forbidding Mourning by John Donne
The poem along with a picture of a compass. This poem and its in class discussion usually gets one of the biggest "ah ha" moments from students. Especially when I show the over-sized chalk board compass and create a circle on the blackboard -- illustrating the last lines of the poem. As of late, the past few years, I have actually been leaving the picture of the compass off of the handout - as I like them to be as surprised at the end. I have also gone over the poem that past two years without them having read it the night before - which also leads to a different discussion. There is an audio of the class discussion available on the website.
No Man is An Island - Dr. Matthew
This is a multi-faceted assignment that combines group work, computer research, and digital imaging. The assignment begins with students working on a group work on John Donne's Meditation 17. As they work on this, a list is created in the classroom where students name people that they feel have lived and died on the earth, and have made the world a better place for having lived in it. The diverse list that has been created over the past three years has included Dr. Martin Luther King, Jim Henson, Gahndi, and over 200 other names (the list grows every year). While the students work on their cooperative assignment, the teacher googles the names he has been given and copies images of these people into a folder on the computer.
About three quarters of the way through the class period, the teacher plays a recording about Dr. Matthew Lukwiya:
John Donne's "A Valediction Forbidding Mourning," and "Song" - a personal view and discussion
These two poems are presented in a lecture/discussion. One of the interesting things here -- is that the poems couldn't be, in many ways, more opposite -- it is often hard for the students to believe that they were written by the same man. "Song" is clever but ultimately misogynistic, while "A Valediction Forbidding Mourning," is one of the most important and humanistic poems in the English language. It certainly is for me anyway -- and I believe that comes across in this recording. For the second poem you will have to imagine some props (silly putty, a giant chalk compass), but if you do -- there is I believe ample pay-off (from the poem, not from me).
An Illuminated Text of John Donne's "At the Round Earth's Imagined Corners"
My students completed their first presentations earlier this semester and are now working on their second ones. I was impressed with the way they tackled the learning curve and solved technical issues on their own. I thought that this student showed great intentionality in his choices of text animation and use of music.
Nine poems by John Donne - handout
This is not a lesson but, rather, a compilation of poems chosen for their broad representation of perspective and subject matter. The handout contains nine John Donne poems, each with a facing column space for note-taking. (Students accumulate several of these handouts, on various poets, over the course of time and keep them as study tools.) [I have since adapted Ms. Danforth's method of presenting poetry with the space for notes - for all of my own poetry handouts. JRS]
Will You Let Me Die? : An Illuminated Text of "Holy Sonnet Number 1" by John Donne
I picked this sonnet because I really like the way John Donne described his closeness to God. Althoiugh John Donne appeared to be a very religious man, he still had a fear of leaving this world and moving on to the next. This sonnet showed me that you can believe in something 100% but still have fear that something won't turn out the way you expect it too. [Great animation and great thought went into this Illuminated Text a
Four Elizabethan Poems (Donne, Marlowe, Shakespeare)
After Literary Criticism, I thought it would be a good idea to get back to looking at some poems devoid of the type of analysis that the students have been doing the past 2 weeks. Though we will probably sneak some Stephen Booth moments into our discussion, now that they know what those are. The poems are by Donne, Marlowe, and Shakespeare. The first two poems are lifted direclly from Lisa Danforth's lesson on John Donne poems (thank you!)
All Part of the same Continent - Adding your pictures to our collage of those "who have made a difference."
If there is someone that you feel has, personally, made the world a better place for having lived and died on it - we would like their picture. We are making a photocollage of those people as a way to illustrate John Donne's Meditation 117 - to paraphrase Donne, when someone dies a part of us dies as well. If you have a picture and can save it (and upload it to our website) as a jpeg (jpg), we will enter that picturein our database that and the picture will be used in our photo collage (lots of smalll pictures that are used to make up a bigger picture).
An Illuminated Text of John Donne's "Death Be Not Proud"
My students completed their first presentations earlier this semester. I was impressed with the way they tackled the learning curve and solved technical issues on their own. This student chose the challenge of using a song with lyrics and decided on an equal partnership between music, images and text. The result is a compelling, gritty feel.
Welcome to Metaphysical Poetry!
Here is a simple yet effective way to introduce metaphyiscal poetry. The lesson includes objectives, terms, and specific reading assignments on Johnne Donne. I use the McDougal Littel textbook, but any book that has the poems "A Valediction: Forbidden Morning" and "Meditation 17" will work. The objectives of the lesson include analyzingmetaphysical conceits, exploring the key idea of mortality, interpreting ideas in paradoxes.
Three poems and responses to "loss"
When studying A Valediction Forbidding Mourning by John Donne, we take a side journey and look at responses to "loss" in this poem and in two others (Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night and Dirge Without Music). The students work with partners and answer a set of questions that explore the ideas of resistance, resilience and release (the alliteration was unintentional). I recently added a section, inspired by part 3 of the Macbeth Made Easy lesson on this site, that highlights word connections in one of the poems.
An Illuminated Text of John Donne's "At the Round Earth's Imagined Corners"
My class completed their first presentations earlier this semester and are now working on their second ones. I was impressed with the way they tackled the learning curve and solved technical issues on their own. I thought that this student showed great intentionality in his choices of text animation and use of music.
