earnest young

Ms. Lazarus

English Literature 1

From the death of his father to his own, John Donne witnessed much affliction. Throughout his life, he withstood financial ruin, the destruction of his family, religious persecution, and other plagues. Yet, he became one of the greatest preachers of the 1600s and one of England's greatest love poets. But, to really understand Donne's religious poems, you must know a little bit about the religious struggles with Christianity and the church. Any good article about Donne will give you some basic information about his Christian faith. The truth is Donne's youthful response to those calamities was to reject his Catholicism and never accept the Protestantism of his family's persecutors. Instead, he walked the line between honest truth seeker and a lustful rebel living a brazenly sexual life, writing some of the most erotic English poetry ever written.

This poem starts out by describes the sonnet speaker. He says " I am a little world made cunningly / Of elements, and an angelic sprite. Essentially meaning he is including both his physical parts and soul as one (Donne 1-2). Donne proclaims that "black sin hath betrayed to endless night / My world’s both parts, and O, both parts must die” (Donne 3-4). Digging deeper than the exterior implication of death this implies that he will lose his life, but his soul will also die and they will be doomed to eternity in hell as a result of his sins. The speaker pleads that " “poured new seas in mine eyes, that so I might / Drown my world with my weeping earnestly, / Or wash it if it must be drowned no more" (Donne 7-9). Here he is repenting, even though it seems to be a tad too late. The speaker weeps over his own fate and begs for the chance to "drown" or "clean" his soul of the sins he has committed. The word "clean" parallels with the common religious theme of forgiveness or washing ones slate clean to gain entrance into heaven. Finally, the speaker proclaims that "the fire / Of lust and envy have burnt it heretofore, / And made it fouler; let their flames retire, / And burn me, O Lord, with a fiery zeal" (Donne 11-13). Lust and envy are a few of seven deadly sins in many religions and dying with these on your soul will result in your soul being tormented in hell for eternity. The references to "fire" and "burning" also associate with the image of hell as a hot, “fiery pit”. In other words holy sonnet 5 refers to the judgement that awaits everyone and if you repent, there is a possibility from an eternity in the fires of hell.

This poem starts out by saying, essentially, "I am a creature with a body ('elements') and a soul ('an angelic sprite')." It goes on to talk about human sinfulness, which has condemned the body to physical death and the soul to the spiritual death of eternal damnation. Then it uses figurative language involving water and fire to describe how the individual human being has to repent and be cleansed and purified by God in order to be saved. Water imagery in a Christian religious poem often relates to the sacrament of baptism, and Donne's fire imagery talks about his desire to burn with spiritual passion and love of God rather than with lust and envy and other vices.

HOLY SONNETS.V.

I am a little world made cunningly Of elements, and an angelic sprite ; But black sin hath betray'd to endless night My world's both parts, and, O, both parts must die. You which beyond that heaven which was most high Have found new spheres, and of new land can write, Pour new seas in mine eyes, that so I might Drown my world with my weeping earnestly, Or wash it if it must be drown'd no more. But O, it must be burnt ; alas ! the fire Of lust and envy burnt it heretofore, And made it fouler ; let their flames retire, And burn me, O Lord, with a fiery zeal Of Thee and Thy house, which doth in eating heal.