Biography: John Donne was an English poet of metaphysical school and cleric in the Church of England. He was born in 1572 into a recusant Roman Catholic family when practice of that religion was illegal in England and died in 1631 at the age of 59. He was the third of six children. His father died in 1576 when he was four. His mother Elizabeth Heywood was the daughter of John Heywood (the playwright) and sister of the Jasper Heywood ( a Jesuit priest and translator). A few months after her husband died, Donne's mother married Dr. John Syminges, a wealthy widower with three children of his own. Donne thus acquired a stepfather. Donne was educated privately. In 1583, at the age of 11, he began studies at Hart Hall, now Hertford College, Oxford. After three years of studies there, Donne was admitted to the University of Cambridge, where he studied for another three years. However, Donne could not obtain a degree from either institution because of his Catholicism, s...