John Donne's Holy Sonnet XIV

Decent Essays
The notation of someone begging to be put in misery in order to rise up stronger, is berserk. Any mentally stable person would not wish for harm upon themselves, but in the case of the speaker in John Donne's “Holy Sonnet XIV”, it is different. The speaker approaches God with several demands. The normal way to approach God when wanting something is with respect and humility, but the speaker has a different relationship with God. The relationship the speaker has is best described as having a war. The first eight lines of the sonnet represent an imagery of a siege. The sonnet then changes directions from war to love. John Donne's sonnet showcases that the speaker is not feeling loved enough by God, and the only way to prove the speaker wrong

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Poetry is generally used to tell a story whether it be about love or an epic adventure. Sonnets specifically tend to deal with complications that come with love. Billy Collins however decided to go a different route in his poem “Sonnet.” His poem is a lesson about the sonnet and how he believes the form needs to change. He does this by explaining the different forms of a sonnet, by adding in characters to support his claims, and by using figurative language to emphasize the changes he believes need to be made.…

    • 1016 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Donne’s Holy Sonnet # 2 commences with an acquiescent tone. Donne appears to be compliant when he verbalizes “As due by many titles I resign/ Myself to thee, Oh God” (1-2). He then acknowledges that he was first made by God and for God (2-3); Thus, acknowledging that Jesus’ blood bought-or preserved - him. After Donne establishes that both he and God has a relationship and that his body was “...a temple of thy Spirit divine” (8), he commences to question why the devil is so active in his life.…

    • 382 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The strictness of the form could be the prison that the speaker is holding Chaos in. The author is also trying to show that the sonnet is a very orderly written type of literature that has a certain pattern to it while comparing it to other types such as free verse ones that have no rules at all and thus the poem can be very messy and disorganized. The author could also allude to the first primeval god that was born and whose name literally means “the gap” or “the chasm” but was later became known for its definition of…

    • 538 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the sonnet, “Sonnet,” by Billy Collins, the author writes about his regret for what he has done in the past; while describing the destructive nature of his love. He supports this by using strong imagery by describing the Bunsen burners naked lilac flame that the handles play in; second by using descriptive syntax to explain the appearance of the burn marks on her fingers; and finally he uses symbolism to describe how she's been permanently marked , like wedding bands .the sonnet describes his regretful memories open event would be inflicted harms towards someone in chemistry class, the incident is described in detail, and by the end the speaker establishes his true feelings about the incident. The speaker causes another person to be…

    • 164 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Milton Sonnet 7

    • 1602 Words
    • 7 Pages

    The old saying “wiser beyond their years” is shown in Milton’s Sonnet 7, as he proves both his point, and this deep-rooted saying true. Milton, in lines 5-6, embodies this saying by writing: “Perhaps my semblance might deceive the truth / That I to manhood am arriv’d so near;” (410). These two lines show the reader that time can change your intelligence, but your body will not move with it as progressively, and vice-versa. The speaker laments that his inner self is much older than his physical body would make him appear, which is another ravage time has had on his mental state. Although he has lived 23 years of life, he has not had enough time or experience to accomplish anything magnificent, which he craves.…

    • 1602 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    John Donne Drunk Analysis

    • 851 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The C lines are the warning or core of all notions of love Donne hopes to deconstruct. Furthermore, the rhymed stanza simultaneously creates a sense of drunken repetition. In the first stanza, there is an emphasis on the crushing weight of love and how “life is shrunk.” The poem successfully does this with the tongue heavy end rhyme words of sunk, drunk, and shrunk. It also leaves no room for interpretation by turning each line into a proclamation or, rather, a list of undisputable facts through the utilization of “is” and “hath”.…

    • 851 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Love can be expressed in numerous ways. From the earliest times, poetry has been used to express one’s love. Such is the case in these two poems to be discussed here: “Sonnet 130” by William Shakespeare and “The Flea” by John Donne. Donne is known for his dense erotic poems and Shakespeare is greatly appreciated for his rich and numerous sonnets and plays of varied interests throughout literature history. Therefore, here the plot, tone, expression and meaning of the poems by Shakespeare and Donne reflect the love theme in their own way.…

    • 1277 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    John Donne's Holy Sonnets

    • 772 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Analysis of Holy Sonnets 7 The Holy Sonnets,7 by John Donne is a Petrarchan Sonnet, which is also an iambic pentameter. It’s end-rhyme scheme is abba abba cdcd ee, with variations in several lines. The poem consists of an octave and a sextet with a turn after line eight. After the basic information of this poem, I will illustrate several terms with examples found in it.…

    • 772 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    We envision a tall strong man being taken to war, but the end of the sonnet produces an image of war enticing her lover away. Now that her lover is dead, she has to cope and find her…

    • 540 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Shakespeare’s sonnet 110 describes the importance of true love, from a perspective of a person who lost love. The poem is written with iambic pentameter with regretful, yet repentant tone. Along with the shift of the focus, Shakespeare uses melancholic diction, juxtaposition, and connotation to effectively emphasize the regret of letting go of the true love, although it is too late. In the first quatrain, Shakespeare carefully picks words with negative connotation to create the remorseful tone such as: “made myself a motley” (110.2), as he lists out his wrongdoings in the past by calling himself motley, or foolish.…

    • 872 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Good evening and welcome to today’s seminar, my name is Jemma and I’ll be talking about two of Shakespeare’s poem, both representing the theme of love. The two poems that will be explored today are Sonnet 18 and Sonnet 130. Although both of these poems represent the theme of love, they do so in different ways.…

    • 894 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    An overall theme within Shakespearean sonnets is love (Mabillard 2009). “Sonnet 29” addresses the conflict between love and self representation within a young man. In the first eight lines, the octave, the young man portrays himself as an “outcast” (Clauson 2009). The young man’s portrayal of himself, as an outcast, is emphasized throughout the octave through the man’s envy of what other men possess. The octave is then followed by the setset, in which the young man decides to change his “state” and is joyous over the remembrance of his “sweet love”(Clauson 2009).…

    • 833 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    These sonnets show a variety of topics that made you think about life, love, and death. Sonnets are 14 lined poems with a number of rhyme schemes to intrigue the audience. The sonnets we have discussed are Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 18” and “Sonnet 116,” “When I Have Fears,” “God’s Grandeur,” and Frost’s “Acquainted with the Night.” The one I felt connected to the most was Keats’ “When I Have Fears” because it shows a true fear everyone must be ready for. That fear is the obvious death of us all.…

    • 720 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    As one of the most prominent literary figures of the early seventeenth century, John Donne has engendered widely differing views regarding the merits of his work. His reputation stands on two distinct accomplishments: the witty, sensual love poetry of his early career and the serious, devout religious writing of his later career as the Dean of St. Paul 's. Donne 's poetry was influential enough to be considered the basis of the metaphysical school of poetry, as characterized by later writers such as Richard Crashaw, Abraham Cowley, and George Herbert. Although religious study and spiritual seeking were significant parts of Donne 's writing life, his best-known works are his love poems. The poems classified as Songs and Sonets in particular…

    • 2169 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Sonnet 130 Analysis Essay

    • 761 Words
    • 4 Pages

    An Explication of Love: “Sonnet 130” Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 130” is a powerful poem that describes love as something based off of more than mere beauty. The poem depicts the speaker pointing out the many imperfections of his mistress. This is a far cry from the ideal women many poets depict. An English or Shakespearean sonnet consists of fourteen lines “composed of three quatrains and a terminal couplet in iambic pentameter with the rhyme pattern abab cdcd efef gg” (“Shakespearean sonnet”). In “Sonnet 130,” Shakespeare establishes a shifting tone through the quatrain structure, words that target the senses, and a repetition of words and poem structure that can be related to many aspects of love.…

    • 761 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays