Ben Jonson

TCC 1303- 4th
24 April 2013
Ben Jonson & John Donne Throughout life we forced to deal with the emotions and conflicts of religion and death. Many times people tend to express their feelings by turning their emotions and thoughts into great literature or poems. Ben Jonson and John Donne are two great examples of “seventeenth century poets” who have successfully managed turning their feelings into classic well known poems (Greenbelt & Abrams). Both these poets were good friends who came from different backgrounds. However each of them had different overall themes in their writing. Ben Jonson lived a “tough and turbulent” life, dealing with killing in combat and duel, being imprisoned, and the death of his children (Greenbelt & Abrams). Those dramatic events tend to caused Jonson to write most of his themes about farewells. His poems “On My First Daughter” and “On My First Son” deal with the emotional death and farewell of his children. Jonson’s poem “To John Donne” is also a farewell to his good friend and poet John Donne. In the other hand John Donne was known as an “outsider” throughout his lifetime (Greenbelt & Abram). His writing often dealt with the theme of love. He “emerged reinvigorated and radically transformed” the clichés of love poetry (Greenbelt & Abram). John’s poems “The Flea,” and “The Relic” both deal with romance for his lady. Both these authors were great friends whose writing’s had different themes. The purpose of this essay is to write about the thematic study of Ben Jonson and John Donne shown throughout their poetry.