17th Century Poets

Widowed young, Behn was a spy and did a stint in debtor’s prison, then became, according to Vita Sackville-West, the first English woman to earn her living by writing. Luminarium has a good biography and a large collection of her work.

Aphra Behn is the protagonist in Molly Brown’s well-researched historical novel, Invitation to a Funeral and the Web tour of Restoration London inspired by it.

Best known of the English Metaphysical poets, Donne wrote the oft-quoted Devotion, “For whom the bell tolls... No man is an island.” Luminarium has links to many of his songs and sonnets, elegies, epigrams, satires and meditations, often with RealAudio readings, as well as essays on Donne to spark your thoughts.

John Donne Online is a rich reference site at Global Language Resources (formerly Oxford University), with e-texts of Donne’s works and an audio archive including a selected Poem of the Month.

Donne’s poems can also be found online at Incompetech’s British Author Series and at Representative Poetry Online at the University of Toronto.

If you wish to pursue a deeper scholarly interest in Donne, visit the John Donne Society, founded by the editors of The Variorum Edition of the Poetry of John Donne & sponsor of The John Donne Journal.

According to Bowling Green State University’s Restoration Drama page (since disappeared from the Web), “little is known about John Dryden except what is contained in his works.” Some poems and his essay “Of Dramatic Poesie” are at the University of Toronto’s Representative Poetry Online, and the Poetry Foundation has a Dryden collection as well. He was also an admirer and translator of Chaucer.

With Donne and Marvell, Herbert is one of the primary Metaphysicals, a religious and ecclesiastical poet who nonetheless appeals to today’s secular readers. A good number of his poems are at the University of Toronto’s Representative Poetry On-line, and Luminarium has links to his works elsewhere on the Net.

This site offers Herbert’s poems arranged for Christian devotion: “40 Days Through the Church Porch,” poems from The Temple indexed by title/subject/motif and “One-a-Day Thoughts.”

Best known as a dramatist (his first play had Shakespeare in its cast), Jonson was also a gifted lyric poet and author of the still-familiar “Song To Cecilia”: “Drink to me only with thine eyes...”

Anniina Jokinen’s labor of love is a beautiful multimedia collection of photos, introductory essays, texts and critical resources covering Donne, Jonson, Herbert, Herrick, Marvell, Milton and more. The very best place to start your study of 17th Century poetry on the Net.

Known in his own century as a politician, pamphleteer and assistant to the blind John Milton, Marvell is remembered today for his lyric poems, like “On a Drop of Dew” and “To His Coy Mistress.”

The Milton-L home page is the most comprehensive source of etexts and information on the author of Paradise Lost—including a big collection of audio texts and the archives of the Milton-L discussion list.

The Milton Reading Room at Dartmouth has everything from Il Penseroso to Lycidas to Samson Agonistes—but be warned, its server can be excruciatingly slow.

Mark Ynys-Môn has created a Web shrine to the notoriously naughty 17th century poet of love and rude satire.