Anniversaries (John Donne Poems)

The Anniversaries are two long poems by John Donne written in 1611 and 1612. The poems are elegies written for Elizabeth Drury, the 14-year-old daughter of Donne's wealthy patron Sir Robert Drury, whose death was reported on 13 December 1610.

The first of the two poems, commonly referred to as The First Anniversary: An Anatomy of the World, was published in 1611 and the second, known as The Second Anniversary: Of the Progress of the Soul, was published in spring 1612. Occasionally, the Anniversaries are described in the academic literature as a trio of poems due to Donne's poem A Funeral Elegy being included in the original print of An Anatomy of the World. An Anatomy of the World was Donne's first poem to be published in print, although many of his poems had been circulated in manuscripts before this.