Bodies, Politics and Transformations: John Donne's Metempsychosis

Siobhán Collins re-evaluates Metempsychosis as a high point of Donne's poetic canon, situating the poem’s somatic representations of various species within the context of early modern intellectual discourses and notions of human identity. Contesting Metempsychosis’ previous status as an anomaly within Donne's oeuvre, Collins details its thematic links with Donne's other work through its concern with the relationship between body and soul, and with processes of transformation: material and spiritual.