A book from the C17th but in a Victorian re-bind.

John Donne came from a Catholic family. He was enrolled into Oxford University to study law at the age of 11. This was because if he waited until he was 16 he would have to swear an oath of allegiance to Queen Elizabeth 1st- as head of the Church of England. This was something Catholics were not allowed to do. He later moved to Cambridge University. He wrote a lot of poetry which was circulated in manuscript and only brought together and published in a book after his death.
He was founder of the Metaphysical Poets. The loosely associated group also includes George Herbert, Richard Crashaw, Andrew Marvell, and John Cleveland. I remember when I was 15 being intrigued by the name Metaphysical poets and getting a book of Donne’s poems out of the school library and being totally bemused by it. Much as I love Opera and Songs , Poetry is meaningless to me. I guess that is why I became a scientist.

I quote directly from the internet
The Metaphysical Poets are known for their ability to startle the reader and coax new perspective through paradoxical images, subtle argument, inventive syntax, and imagery from art, philosophy, and religion using an extended metaphor known as a conceit. Donne reached beyond the rational and hierarchical structures of the seventeenth century with his exacting and ingenious conceits, advancing the exploratory spirit of his time.

I have tried to read the anonymous poems on the flyleaf and have got as far as

Beneath, two prostrate infants lie
Whose bodies, turn’d to dust,
Shall one day rise triumphantly
And shine among the just.