Not Done with Donne

Okay, I apologize for the cheesy pun. But then again in "A Hymn to God the Father," Donne supposedly makes puns on his own name and that of wife, so I suppose a bit of it here and there can be healthy. In any case, I can't help myself after reading Donne's work; I think he is my favorite writer that we have read thus far. I really liked the nearness his earlier works had to the later ones, despite the fact that they seem shockingly contrasting at first read. The love poetry has the mirth of youth, but has the same breed of passion as the holy work. I feel like Donne is someone that I would have liked to meet to see the person behind this whirlpool of bizarre and lovely images and these bursts of frantic wit and humanity. I guess that's the one letdown of liking this cast of authors - everyone is dead.
Donne's work makes me look forward to reading his contemporaries. I already looked ahead to a couple of them and like what I see. I am also excited to see the authors in a larger scheme once I have finished this class, because I saw a continuity in the way the 16th Century played out in literature, and if Donne is an example of what is to come then I think I will have a lot of fun with it.