“John Donne was the Cole Porter of his day, a writer of subtle popular songs rather than just the author of cerebral poetry, according to new research,” says a Times story by Dalya Alberge. She reports that “The discovery of four musical scores by various composers of the day reveal that Donne intended some of his words to be sung rather than read.” The scores were found “among piles of unidentified manuscripts in the British Library in London and the Bodleian in Oxford.” Says Donne scholar Jonathan Holmes, “This now alters how we think of Donne. His reputation is as a poet of metaphysical, intricate poetry that you have to spend hours to get to know — but, when performed, the music is an immediate aid to understanding it.” Alberge reports that, to prove it, “The first performance in 400 years of text and music together will take place on June 9 at St Paul’s Cathedral, where Donne was Dean from 1621 until his death in 1631.”