P.S. Wit

Speaking of John Donne [post below], I forgot to mention the wonderful play Wit, by Margaret Edson. It's about an English professor who specializes in Donne and finds her high ideals of scholarship don't help her much when she's dying of ovarian cancer.

Usually I don't like reading plays, but in this case reading the script was more intense than either the stage production I saw or the film, starring Emma Thompson (here as Joan of Arc--sorry, I couldn't track down who the photographer is, only that, according to some blogger, it was a Vanity Fair cover).
But I do recommend the movie. You don't have to like poetry or anything.