The Intellectual and Imaginative Concept of the Angels in Certain Works of John Donne
Graduation Date
Summer 1943
Document Type
Master's Thesis
Document Form
Degree Name
Master of Arts
Degree Granting Institution
Catholic University of America
Program Name
Humanities
Abstract
Even a cursory reading of seventeenth century literature reveals the strong religious tone of much of the writing. One recalls Herbert, Vaughan, Traherne or Crashaw, Milton, Thomas Heywood, Jeremy Taylor and Launcelot Andrews, among others. Among these writers John Donne stands in a most interesting position. He was a lyric poet of talent: vigorous, versatile, popular; he was also a deeply religious man, a student of theological thought and the greatest Anglican preacher of his day. The purpose of this paper is to consider Donne's thought and expression in regard to the angels in six of his sermons and two of his poems in order to determine his intellectual and imaginative concept of the angels and his purpose in and method of utilizing his abstract ideas in concrete expression. The angel. were selected as the subject of this inquiry because they furnish a clear and definite body of material bv which to study Donne's application and transfer from the abstract conception to the concrete figure, and because they avoid certain controversial difficulties presented by such topics as grace, the redemption, devotion to the saints and to Our Lady, all subjects pleasing to Donne and of which he wrote both in prose and in verse.