The Man Who Outlived Himself: An appreciation of John Donne: A dozen of his best poems

With introductions, commentary and five new poems derived from Donne’s elegies by Doug Beardsley and Al Purdy. In 1998, the poets Al Purdy and Doug Beardsley spent many hours in Victoria’s Waddling Dog Pub discussing the often-neglected poetry of D.H. Lawrence. The result was No One Else is Lawrence!, acclaimed by readers across the country.

This time the two turn their attention to John Donne, the Renaissance poet whose work has fascinated students and lovers of poetry for centuries. The Man Who Outlived Himself is an engaging rassle with some wonderful poems-must reading for Donne fans everywhere and an intimate look at the tastes and sensibilities of two important contemporary Canadian poets. Their commentary, lying somewhere between criticism and conversation, invites enthusiasm for the strangest English language poet. Born in London in 1572, the third of six children, Donne was both intellectual and eccentric: he slept in his own coffin, wore his own shroud, and sired eleven children in fourteen years, all while serving as Dean of St. Paul’s. The Man Who Outlived Himself includes a selection of Donne’s poems, with commentary, plus five Donne elegies, each followed by an interpretive and transformative new poem by Purdy and Beardsley. The last pages contain two poems to Ann Donne by Purdy and Beardsley.