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Article: Donne's "dialogue of one".(Donne: The Reformed Soul)(Book review)
- Article from:
- New Criterion
- Article date:
- January 1, 2007
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2007 Foundation for Cultural Review. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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On a huge hill,
Cragged and steep, Truth stands, and he that
will
Reach her, about must, and about must go,
And what the hill's suddenness resists, win so.
These lines from the third of John Donne's satires, written sometime in the 1590s, express and enact rhythmically the individual's effort to discover a spiritual home. For Donne this was a process of strenuous grappling which lasted all his life (1572-1631). Born a Catholic, related on his mother's side to Sir Thomas More, he saw his uncle Jasper, a Jesuit, flee into exile and his younger brother Henry die in prison on a charge of harboring a ...