The enigmatic narrator

Although John Donne enjoyed a reputation as a "visitor of ladies" during his lifetime, the poetry that he left in manuscript can lead modern readers to doubt that the objects of his affection were always women. In early verse letters, Donne very explicitly penned loving sentiments to another man.

In later poems that have traditionally been read as heterosexual expressions of love, readers can find themselves lost in a welter of pronouns that, often insufficiently determinate of gender, can fit convincingly in a homoerotic context.