Just So Much Honor

Not since T. Spencer's A Garland for John Donne was published in the early part of this century has there been a collection of new essays on the poet and his works by some of the world's most perceptive and exemplary scholars. Some of the essays treat Donne's personal life and reputation. Others, dealing with texts and influences, cover the broad spectrum of Donne's works. The remaining essays deal specifically with individual works: the Anniversary Poems, "The Good-Morrow," "The Extasie," and "Aire and Angels." This variety of topics, chosen by the contributors themselves, gives the inquiring scholar a microscopic, yet compounded way to investigate a complex poet. The program of the volume which is deliberately eclectic, suggests the wide range of Donne's own work and interests; the discrete and individual parts presented here give way to a large and comprehensive view of a great poet.