Abstract
This thesis argues that the poetry of John Donne was propelled by the poet’s deeply held philosophical propositions, among which the existence and triunity of God are chief. Donne understood the unity of one God in three persons to be the basis for his persistent longing for unity in all things, but especially the union of rational beings. The desire to be one with another person through love dominates much of his poetry, as does his hatred of being alone. Unity’s antithesis, division, is a central preoccupation in Donne’s collected works as well, particularly the divisions in his being and between people. Other expressions of a desire for unity crop up in Donne’s verse, however, including the focus of his own mind through writing, the proclivity to evoke concentrated feelings of intensity, the joining enacted by the poetic imagination, the harmony of poetic structure and the cohesion of the universe. Although this thesis primarily analyses the amorous and divine poetry, it draws from numerous poetic works in an attempt to depict the most crucial aspect of Donne’s life and art, hitherto little examined, and thereby paint a fuller picture of the celebrated English poet.