ST PAULS CATHEDRAL AND JOHN DONNE: The Essence of England (4)

[This is the fourth of a series of articles giving a brief description of each of the 26 ancient Anglican cathedrals coupled with a sketch of a person, activity or institution connected to the area]

St Pauls is the most famous church in England and an unmissable sight for any visitor to London. Built between 1675 and 1711 in the Baroque style it is the masterpiece of Sir Christopher Wren and his talented assistant Nicholas Hawksmoor. It replaced timber-roofed Old St Paul’s, gutted in the Great Fire of London of 1666.

The West Front of St Pauls

 Although the Cathedral is a working church for the City of London, it is more than that. It is a processional church, a place for great state occasions; famous personalities like Nelson are buried here and, within our generation’s memory, Churchill’s funeral, the glamorous but ultimately ill-fated wedding of Charles and Diana and the warm Diamond Jubilee Thanksgiving took place at St Pauls.

The interior of the cathedral is magnificent, although some critics complain that it is cold and Protestant. True, in a Catholic country, there would be more painting and stucco saintly figures, but England is happy with Tijou’s lovely metalwork altar gates, Grinling Gibbon’s wood-carving, Holman Hunt’s Light of the World and Wren’s clean lines. The Whispering Gallery underneath the dome at the crossing is another spectacular attraction.

                       

Holman Hunt; The Light of the World

Interior of St Pauls

The external aspects of St Pauls are equally impressive. Lovely stone carvings in floral swags, the twin towers with their Corinthian columns and pineapple tops but most of all, the complex, beautiful Dome, not just an echo of St Peter’s in Rome, but also a symbol of Britain’s courage and perseverance when she defied the Blitz.

St Pauls defying the Blitz in 1940

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The poet John Donne (1572- 1631) was Dean of St Pauls from 1621 to 1631. He was a leading light among the so-called “Metaphysical Poets”, including Marvell, Cowley and Herbert who reacted against the conventional themes and easy rhymes of 17^th century poetry.

John Donne

 Donne was brought up a Catholic, left Oxford without a degree due to his religion, lived riotously, became a lawyer, contracted a disapproved marriage, found a patron, entered Parliament, took up diplomacy and changed his faith. At the insistence of James I, he took Anglican orders and in due course rose to the eminent office of Dean of St Pauls. His poetry is very original, often relishing erotic love, employing surprising metaphors and fractured introductions, but clearly the work of a learned and sophisticated intellect.

Thus a lover in bed complains of the sun’s interruption:

If her eyes have not blinded thine,
        Look, and to-morrow late tell me,
    Whether both th' Indias of spice and mine
    Be where thou left'st them, or lie here with me.
Ask for those kings whom thou saw'st yesterday,
And thou shalt hear, "All here in one bed lay."

The famous “conceit” of the twin compasses/two lovers is neatly put in “A Valediction; forbidding Mourning”

And though it in the centre sit,

Yet when the other far doth roam,
It leans, and hearkens after it,
And grows erect, as that comes home.

Donne wrote a wide variety of lyric poetry. More than a century later, Dr Johnson was a fierce critic of the metaphysical style, but nevertheless expressed some admiration too:

“Yet great labour, directed by great abilities, is never wholly lost; if they frequently threw away their wit upon false conceits, they, likewise, sometimes struck out unexpected truth; if their conceits were far-fetched, they were often worth the carriage. To write on their plan it was, at least, necessary to read and think. No man could be born a metaphysical poet, nor assume the dignity of a writer, by descriptions copied from descriptions, by imitations borrowed from imitations, by traditional imagery, and hereditary similes, by readiness of rhyme, and volubility of syllables”.

Critical opinion changed in the early 1920s with Donne being championed by his fellow poet TS Eliot and the critic Herbert Grierson.

Donne coined several famous phrases like “No man is an island, entire of itself” and “Any mans death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankind; And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee”

To my mind however, Donne’s greatness is best demonstrated in his sermons, most notably by his sermon on God’s Mercies delivered in St Pauls in 1624. I believe this lays claim to be the most eloquently phrased religious oration in the English language.

“If some King of the earth have so large an extent of Dominion, in North and South, as that he hath Winter and Summer together in his Dominions, so large an extent East and West, as that he hath day and night together in his Dominions, much more hath God mercy and judgement together: He brought light out of darkness, not out of a lesser light; he can bring thy Summer out of Winter, though thou have no Spring; though in the ways of fortune, or understanding, or conscience, thou have been benighted till now, wintered and frozen, clouded and eclipsed, damped and benumbed, smothered and stupefied till now, now God comes to thee, not as in the dawning of the day, not as in the bud of the spring, but as the Sun at noon to illustrate all shadows, as the sheaves in harvest, to fill all penuries, all occasions invite his mercies, and all times are his seasons.”

SMD

22.10.12

Text Copyright: © Sidney Donald 2012