Spirituality and Religion

Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions & Death's Duel (Annotated)

Enriched Edition. Holy Rites and Sermons on Death and RebirthBy John Donne

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Length7h 44m

About this audiobook

Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions & Death's Duel brings together John Donne's most searching prose on sickness, mortality, and salvation. Composed during a grave illness in 1623, the Devotions arrange bodily crisis into meditations, expostulations, and prayers, transforming fever into spiritual inquiry. Their style is characteristically metaphysical: learned, dramatic, paradoxical, and intensely self-scrutinizing. Death's Duel, Donne's final sermon, extends this meditation with grave eloquence, placing personal extinction within the Christian drama of resurrection. Donne's life uniquely prepared him for such writing. Born into a recusant Catholic family, he became a daring love poet, a lawyer, courtier, Anglican convert, and eventually Dean of St Paul's Cathedral. His career was marked by ambition, bereavement, religious controversy, and bodily suffering. These pressures shaped a mind alert to sin, grace, human interdependence, and the fragile boundary between flesh and spirit. This volume is recommended to readers interested in devotional literature, seventeenth-century prose, and the intellectual power of Christian meditation. It rewards close reading, not only for its famous insights—"No man is an island"—but for its profound confrontation with vulnerability, community, and hope. This enriched edition has been carefully crafted to add value to your reading experience. - A comprehensive Introduction outlines these selected works' unifying features, themes, or stylistic evolutions. - The Author Biography highlights personal milestones and literary influences that shape the entire body of writing. - A Historical Context section situates the works in their broader era—social currents, cultural trends, and key events that underpin their creation. - A concise Synopsis (Selection) offers an accessible overview of the included texts, helping readers navigate plotlines and main ideas without revealing critical twists. - A unified Analysis examines recurring motifs and stylistic hallmarks across the collection, tying the stories together while spotlighting the different work's strengths. - Reflection questions inspire deeper contemplation of the author's overarching message, inviting readers to draw connections among different texts and relate them to modern contexts. - Lastly, our hand‐picked Memorable Quotes distill pivotal lines and turning points, serving as touchstones for the collection's central themes.

Gods & Mortals Redemption Grief Psychological Healing Survival Poetic Journey

Audiobook details

GenreSpirituality and Religion

Length7 hrs 44 mins

Narrated byListen with 1,000+ voices

FormateBook with Audio

Publish dateJun 21, 2023

LanguageEnglish

1Introduction

64They apply pigeons, to draw the vapours from the head.

2Introduction

65XII. MEDITATION.

3Synopsis

66XII. EXPOSTULATION.

4Historical Context

67XII. PRAYER.

5Author Biography

68XIII. Ingeniumque malum, numeroso stigmate, fassus Pellitur ad pectus, morbique suburbia, morbus.

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6Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions &amp; Death&#x27;s Duel

69The sickness declares the infection and malignity thereof by spots.

7Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions and seuerall steps in my Sicknes.

70XIII. MEDITATION.

8I Insultus morbi primus.

71XIII. EXPOSTULATION.

9The first Alteration, the first Grudging, of the Sickness.

72XIII. PRAYER.

10I. MEDITATION.

73XIV. Idque notant criticis medici evenisse diebus.

11I. EXPOSTULATION.

74The physicians observe these accidents to have fallen upon the critical days.

12I. PRAYER.

75XIV. MEDITATION.

13II. Post actio læsa.

76XIV. EXPOSTULATION.

14The Strength and the function of the senses, and other faculties, change and fail.

77XIV. PRAYER.

15II. MEDITATION.

78XV. Interea insomnes noctes ego duco, diesque.

16II. EXPOSTULATION.

79I sleep not day nor night.

17II. PRAYER.

80XV. MEDITATION.

18III. Decubitus sequitur tandem.

81XV. EXPOSTULATION.

19The patient takes his bed.

82XV. PRAYER.

20III. MEDITATION.

83XVI. Et properare meum clamant, e turre propinqua, Obstreperæ campanæ aliorum in funere, funus.

21III. EXPOSTULATION.

84From the bells of the church adjoining, I am daily remembered of my burial in the funerals of others.

22III. PRAYER.

85XVI. MEDITATION.

23IV. Medicusque vocatur.

86XVI. EXPOSTULATION.

24The physician is sent for.

87XVI. PRAYER.

25IV. MEDITATION.

88XVII. Nunc lento sonitu dicunt, morieris.

26IV. EXPOSTULATION.

89Now, this bell tolling softly for another, says to me: Thou must die.

27IV. PRAYER.

90XVII. MEDITATION.

28V. Solus adest.

91XVII. EXPOSTULATION.

29The physician comes

92XVII. PRAYER.

30V. MEDITATION.

93XVIII. ———————————— At inde Mortuus es, sonitu celeri, pulsuque agitato.

31V. EXPOSTULATION.

94The bell rings out, and tells me in him, that I am dead.

32V. PRAYER.

95XVIII. MEDITATION.

33VI. Metuit.

96XVIII. EXPOSTULATION.

34The physician is afraid.

97XVIII. PRAYER.

35VI. MEDITATION.

98XIX. Oceano tandem emenso, aspicienda resurgit Terra; vident, justis, medici, jam cocta mederi Se posse, indiciis.

36VI. EXPOSTULATION.

99At last the physicians, after a long and stormy voyage, see land: they have so good signs of the concoction of the disease, as that they may safely proceed to purge.

37VI. PRAYER.

100XIX. MEDITATION.

38VII. Socios sibi jungier instat.

101XIX. EXPOSTULATION.

39The physician desires to have others joined with him.

102XIX. PRAYER.

40VII. MEDITATION.

103XX. Id agunt.

41VII. EXPOSTULATION.

104Upon these indications of digested matter, they proceed to purge.

42VII. PRAYER.

105XX. MEDITATION.