John Donne began life as the son of a prosperous London merchant who died when he was only four. His mother， a strong Catholic and daughter of John Heywood， a well-known writer and dramatist. As a young boy， he was an excellent student，going to Oxford University at the age of 12 and possibly Cambridge later， as well as Lincoln’s Inn， one of the law schools of the time.[1] He secretly married Lady Egerton's niece， seventeen-year-old Anne More， daughter of Sir George More. Donne dearly loved his wife， but they lived in relative poverty and difficult circumstances for a good many years. Donne wrote poetry all his life. In his 20s and 30s， he wrote some of his famous lyric poems， including the collections Satires and Songs and Sonnets. Donne is one of the most famous Metaphysical poets in the world. He came back into favor in the early twentieth century with the support of poet like T. S. Eliot and other modernists. Since then， he has maintained his position as one of the most admirable poets in British literature.[2] Donne's poetry embraces a wide range of secular and religious subjects. He wrote cynical verse about inconstancy， poems about true love，Neoplastic lyrics on the mystical union of lovers' souls and bodies and brilliant satires and hymns depicting his own spiritual struggles. In this paper，the author focus on two groups of comparisons to demonstrate her understanding. The first part is the different attitudes the laity and Donne take towards love. The second part is how the laity and Donne react when they are faced with separation.
