Themes and Issues

Abstract

Donne inherited more than richness of language: he took and transformed themes which had been used not only by the Elizabethans but often by ancient Greek writers. Some of his originality of treatment and immediacy of impact comes from personal experience, for instance of early death (Donne’s wife and several of his children died young; see also Marvell’s ‘Picture of Little T. C.’), and of the conflict between the writer or artist creating within time the work which will outlast him.