John Donne's Holy Sonnets #9
January 25th 2009 17:01
If poisonous minerals, and if that tree,
Whose fruit threw death on (else immortal) us,
If lecherous goats, if serpents envious
Cannot be damn'd, alas ! why should I be?
Why should intent or reason, born in me,
Make sins, else equal, in me more heinous?
And, mercy being easy, and glorious
But who am I, that dare dispute with Thee?
O God, O! of Thine only worthy blood,
And my tears, make a heavenly Lethean flood,
And drown in it my sin's black memory.
That Thou remember them, some claim as debt;
I think it mercy if Thou wilt forget.
John Donne was famous for his metaphysical poems, the Holy Sonnets. This one, Sonnet #9, is a little different from the other ones. Usually, his sonnets were all about him wanting to be cleansed and for God to punish him for his sins and show him humility, etc. But here we see him thinking pretty much like everyone else would have. "God, I know I've done bad things, but why should I be punished for these things when so many other bad things in the world go unpunished? How about we just forget this ever happened, okay?"
The "Lethean flood" image refers to the river Lethe in classical mythology, which marked the border to the underworld. Supposedly having the water touch you would wipe your memory, or something like that.
Donne led an extremely difficult life, having to live through the Black Death (bubonic plague) that claimed thousands of lives daily, and living in poverty and in the midst of religious strife (Catholics vs. Protestants) and coping with the untimely death of his wife, and the deaths of many of his children. In his Holy Sonnets he pours out his heart and soul, arguing with God using sometimes shocking images and metaphors such as rape and abuse.
Donne's sonnets aren't the purest in form, but they are pure in emotion and power. I think the reason they're still so popular today is because of the raw intensity of the emotions and ideas that pour from these poems. Here you really get a glimpse into his psyche, his torment. This poem is not as intense as some of his others, like Sonnet 14, but it is just different because of its more melancholy nature. It feels like he's just ready to give up, pleading with God to just forget all the bad stuff, and make himself forget, also.
The rhythm in this poem, as in a lot of his other poems, is irregular. But this was intentional on his part; he was smart enough to know how to make it be clean and proper, but he broke the rules on purpose. The irregular rhythm and meter seem to fit well with the emotional tones of his poem. The rhyme scheme is different, too: abbaabbaaccadd. It seems like a mixture of the Petrarchan (Italian) form and the Spenserian's interlocking rhyme scheme. It works well for the poem, though; it sounds nice, but it's not overpowering, nor does it call attention to itself.
Next Sunday I'll look at one of Shakespeare's most famous sonnet, and go through it analytically to see what makes it so good. Have a nice day, everyone!
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