John Donne - Donne in Popular Culture

Donne in Popular Culture

• John Renbourn, on his 1966 debut album John Renbourn, sings a version of the poem, "Song: Go and Catch a Falling Star". (He alters the last line to "False, ere I count one, two, three.")
• Tarwater, in their album Salon des Refusés, have put "The Relic" to song.
• The plot of Neil Gaiman's novel Stardust is based upon the poem "Song: Go and Catch a Falling Star," with the fallen star turned into a major character.
• One of the major plotlines of Diana Wynne Jones' novel Howl's Moving Castle is based upon the poem "Song: Go and Catch a Falling Star," with each of the lines in the poem coming true or being fulfilled by the main male character.
• Bob Chilcott has arranged a choral piece to Donne's "Go and Catch a Falling Star".
• Van Morrison pays tribute to the poet in "Rave On John Donne" from his album "Poetic Champions Compose" and makes references in many other songs.
• Lost in Austen, the British mini series based on Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, has Bingley refer to Donne when he describes taking Jane to America, "John Donne, don't you know? 'License my roving hands,' and so forth."
• Las Cruces, in their album Ringmaster, used a sample of "Death be not Proud" from the movie The Exorcist III for their song "Black Waters".
• In the beginning of the movie About a Boy, the quiz show mentions 'No man is an island', asking the competitors who coined the phrase. John Donne is one of the answers and is of course, the correct answer. Hugh Grant, the main character, turns on the TV before viewers are given the answer, and he himself answers the question incorrectly.
• In the computer game The Walking Dead, one of the side characters, Chuck, uses the quote "Ask not for whom the bell tolls, for it tolls for thee" from Donne's poem 'No man is an island', before the group is overrun by walkers.