National Poetry Month: Song by John Donne

I was really disappointed when we did John Donne at uni, because I didn’t like his poetry at all. This specific poem, though, I’d read years ago and loved. This is partly because of where I read it: it was used as a curse in a book I loved, Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones. It was such a clever use of a poem, and of course reading it now I like the poem itself but also its rush of associations with a cast of characters I love – although mysteriously, the blond, sarcastic, insecure love interest who’s horribly bossy and a Casanova and much braver and better than he admits is not a particular favourite of mine.

( Song by John Donne )