Hats off, please, to Katherine Rundell, who has written a book about John Donne that can stand toe-to-toe with John Carey, something I would not have thought achievable until I read Rundell’s first page, then her second, then her third, and so compulsively on to the end.
But he is much too much the aristocrat to write a graceful pentameter line. I believe Jonson said he should be hanged for flouting the meter. His reputation only climbed when people stopped caring about the meter.
But he is much too much the aristocrat to write a graceful pentameter line. I believe Jonson said he should be hanged for flouting the meter. His reputation only climbed when people stopped caring about the meter.
Johnson was wrong!