Womaniser, poet, convict and Anglican priest, John Donne's life was in many ways a re-enactment of the parable of the prodigal son.
The former Dean of St Paul's Cathedral, who died on this day in 1631, began his life as a serial seducer. This was reflected in his raunchy early writings as he luridly compared sex to being bitten by a flea and the subsequent 'mingling bloods'.
But later in life, on the orders of the King, he became an Anglican priest and rose through the ranks to be Dean of London's major cathedral.
He left his former lifestyle and his desire and passion for sex was replaced in his poetry with a desire and passion for God.
His vibrant language, punchy openings and tense eloquence remained just as vivid as before his conversion but the focus of his writing changed. He retained a sense of desire in his work but the object of his craving changed.
Here are nine quotes from one of the greatest English poets.
1. 'No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own were: any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bells tolls; it tolls for thee.'
2. 'I am two fools, I know,/ For loving, and for saying so.'
3. 'Then love is sin, and let me sinful be.'
4. 'License my roving hands, and let them go/ Before, behind, between, above, below.'
5. 'More than kisses, letters mingle souls.'
6. 'Pleasure is none, if not diversified.'
7. 'Death, be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so;
For those, whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow,
Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me.'
8. 'When one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language.'
9. 'Despair is the damp of hell, as joy is the serenity of heaven.'
