The article tells you plenty of things about John Donne. It tells you a thing or two about his life: that he was born a Catholic and some of his family were im

The article tells you plenty of things about John Donne. It tells you a thing or two about his life: that he was born a Catholic and some of his family were imprisoned on account of their religion; that he went to sea with the Earl of Essex; that he had a lot of sex in his youth and became a religious minister later on, becoming the dean of St Paul's cathedral; that as his death approached he wore what would be his winding-sheet so that a sculptor could prepare to make a monument for him. It gives you some quotations, for a sense of the small-scale sound of his language. "License my roving hands, and let them go / Before, behind, between, above, below" (from a distinctly naughty earlyish poem). "A man may be an adulterer in his wife’s bosom, though he seek not strange women" (from a sermon). "Busy old fool, unruly sun [...] saucy pedantic wretch, go chide / Late school boys" (from a poem whose speaker is in bed with his lover and doesn't want to have to go). "For God’s sake hold your tongue, and let me love". "I run to death, and death meets me as fast". Etc. It tells you some things about (the author's opinion of) his character and writing style. "He was a splenetic satirist, all-observing, all-condemning, who was also a world-class flatterer/ingratiator. He had a slicing, dicing, predatory mind that he applied with equal force to sex, to politics, and finally to a religious vocation." His writing is intricate and difficult but with flashes of forceful clarity. (See the paragraph beginning "As for his poetry".) "Donne’s love poetry is extreme: Bodies melt, souls commingle, genders elide, death is an atom away.". "The almost Tantric lover, seeking an essence beyond the body, was also the yearning-for-eternity preacher.". The article could have confined itself more strictly to quoting Donne and commenting on his life and work, I suppose. But it seems perfectly OK to me. It's not very long. It gives you some idea of how he sounded. It gives you some information about his life and its context. It tells you what sort of poems he wrote. I'm not sure it's reasonable to demand much more.