The Christian Representation of God in Poetry

1062 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Influence of Christianity on English literature

The voice of passion and intelligent mystery is a natural mixture used when projecting an image of God by both Milton in When I consider how my light is spent and Donne in Holy Sonnet XIV. Religion plays a huge part in the sonnets and how they make the reader perceive God. The two authors’ religious practices are so important that their troubles all stem from what they believe is an inability to serve. This is why even when the writers’ immediate demands are not met they still continue to love God. The Christian image of God can be described as eminent and this may be a major reason as to why both Milton and Donne’s representations of God are so adorned. Even though God doesn’t give either author what they ask for, Donne and Milton’s dedication to serving and loving the Lord present a representation of something can only be desirable.

Even though both authors are given difficulties they do not complain about the pain they feel but rather that this challenge may not let them folly worship God. The poem When I consider how my light is spent is ultimately about John Milton’s contemplation how daily life will be like after he goes completely blind. The speaker in the sonnet has a conversation with God about what he should do about his impending loss of sight. Milton writes that the speaker asks “Doth God exact day-labor, light denied?” (Milton, line 13). This quote shows the reader his concern for pleasing God. Milton here is not writing about his worry for how blindness will affect his normal actions but rather his religious ones. To the speaker God’s opinion is very important. This is a sign of endearment which reminds the reader that of the speaker’s love for God. Similarly in John Donne’s poem Holy Sonnet XIV fear of inadequacy c...

... middle of paper ...

...s. While these sonnets may not be overly romantic they do follow a

reverent and loving background. It is obvious that both Milton and Donne projected a portrait of a dignified God who they greatly love and respect.

By not giving either speaker what they ask for God forces them to truly think about why they are asking for such things. Both Milton and Donne realize that what they really are asking for is God’s love. When they realize that God will still love them despite their faults their anger and sadness disappears. It is very clear that even though God is all powerful he gives man their freedom in the hopes that they will return to him on their own. This makes God’s representation even greater, for not only is he powerful he is also humble. The combination of these two characteristic traits that God possesses, in Donne and Milton’s sonnets, is truly desirable.

Show More
Related

  • Free Paradise Lost Essays: A Jewish Reading Of John Milton

    3144 Words  | 7 Pages

    1 Despite the temptation, Flannagan wisely avoids a strong philo-Hebraic reading here, interpreting the praise of “proto-Christian” art merely as an example of religious superiority over the Greeks and not artistic superiority (footnote 103). Milton continuously uses Greek styles in his work, even citing Aristotle as his guide in writing Samson Agonistes (see “Of that sort of Dramatic Poem which is call’d Tragedy,” a preface to Samson Agonistes, 799-800).

    Read More

  • Characteristics Of Marvel In 'Yet Do I Marvel'

    1269 Words  | 3 Pages

    God and the suffering He seems to allow is the paradoxical question posed since the start of religion. Philosophy and literature alike have long struggled with the issue, and poet Countee Cullen takes yet another crack at it in the poem “Yet Do I Marvel”. Cullen uses rhyme, classical allusion, and Shakespearean sonnet form in “Yet Do I Marvel” to exhibit God’s paradoxical nature and purpose the true marvel is in the miracles of life.

    Read More

  • The Divine Comedy vs. Paradise Lost

    3039 Words  | 7 Pages

    Great works of literature have been written throughout history. However, The Divine Comedy and Paradise Lost have the inept ability to stir the soul and cause a person to examine and re-examine their life. The brilliant descriptions, use of imagery, metaphor and simile give a person a vivid picture of the creation of man and the possibilities for life in the hereafter. This is done, as a person is able to see, full circle, from the beginning of time to the end of time, the consequences of turning away from God. The ability to see a life full circle is apparent through the examination of both of these poems. Although written many years ago, the morals and principles that they convey ring very true for people in this century as well as times yet to come.

    Read More

  • Paradise Lost

    2843 Words  | 6 Pages

    The seat of faith resides in the will of the individual and not in the leaning to our own reasoning, for reasoning is the freedom of choosing what one accepts as one’s will. In considering the will was created and one cannot accuse the potter or the clay, Milton writes to this reasoning, as “thir own revolt,” whereas the clay of humankind is sufficient and justly pliable for use as a vessel of obedience or disobedience (3.117). The difficulty of this acceptance of obedience or disobedience is inherent in the natural unwillingness in acknowledging that we are at the disposal of another being, even God. One theme of Paradise Lost is humankind’s disobedience to a Creator, a Creator that claims control over its creation. When a single living thing which God has made escapes beyond the Creator’s control this is in essence an eradicating of the Creator God. A Creator who would create a creature who the Creator would or could not control its creation is not a sovereign God. For who would not hold someone responsible for manufacturing something that could not be controlled and consider it immoral to do so? To think that God created a universe that he has somehow abdicated to its own devices is to accredit immorality to the Creator. Since the nucleus of Milton’s epic poem is to “justifie the wayes of God” to his creation, these ‘arguments’ are set in theological Miltonesque terms in his words (1. 26). Milton’s terms and words in Paradise Lost relate the view of God to man and Milton’s view to the reader. Views viewed in theological terms that have blazed many wandering paths through the centuries to knot up imperfect men to explain perfect God.

    Read More

  • Professor Vivian Bearing vs John Donne in the Play Wit by Margaret Edson

    1918 Words  | 4 Pages

    Donne, John. “Holy Sonnet 5, Holy Sonnet 6, Holy Sonnet 10.” John Donne’s Poetry: A Norton Critical Edition.
Ed. Donald R. Dickson. W.W. Norton & Company. New York, London. 2004. (Handout)

    Read More

  • John Donne Holy Sonnets

    569 Words  | 2 Pages

    Death is a very complicated subject that people view very differently in different situations. In John Donne’s Holy Sonnets, he writes about death in Meditations X and XVII. Both meditations use many similar rhetorical devices and appeals, but the tones of the meditations are very disparate. Donne’s different messages in Meditations X and XVII convey tones of defiance and acquiescence towards death, respectively. His apparent change of attitude towards death could be accounted for by his differing life situations while he was writing the meditations: mid-life, and near-death.

    Read More

  • The Power of Milton’s Paradise Lost

    2224 Words  | 5 Pages

    Paradise Lost is an epic poem portraying John Milton’s theological standpoints. The theme is knowledge and the fall of man. Milton uses his poem to state some of his theological beliefs and his personal reflections. Milton wrote Paradise Lost in the 17th century but uses influence from classic poets. Milton’s epic is an extremely important piece of literature. The excerpt used in this commentary takes on the subjects of sin and the punishment with regards to the atonement from God’s point of view. Milton’s states many of his own theological opinions but wants the reader to know that God is justified in everything that he does, and also wants them to know that man has free will.

    Read More

  • Lycidas: Poetry and Death

    3790 Words  | 8 Pages

    Living in a period of important religious and cultural flux, John Milton's poetry reflects the many influences he found both in history and in the contemporary world. With a vast knowledge of literature from the classical world of Greek and Roman culture, Milton often looked back to more ancient times as a means of enriching his works. At other times, however, he relies on his strong Christian beliefs for creating spiritually compelling themes and deeply religious imagery. Despite the seemingly conflicting nature of these two polarized sources of inspiration, Milton somehow found a way of bridging the gap between a pagan and a Christian world, often weaving them together into one overpowering story. The pastoral elegy Lycidas, written after the death of a fellow student at Cambridge, exemplifies this mastery over ancient and contemporary traditions in its transition from a pagan to a Christian context. Opening the poem in a setting rich with mythological figures and scenery, then deliberately moving into a distinctly Christian setting, Milton touches upon two personally relevant issues: poetry and Christian redemption. In this way, Lycidas both addresses the subject of being a poet in a life doomed by death and at the same time shows the triumphant glory of a Christian life, one in which even the demise of the poet himself holds brighter promises of eternal heavenly joy.

    Read More

  • Batter My Heart (Holy Sonnet XIV), by John Donne

    1520 Words  | 4 Pages

    John Donne an English metaphysical poet and 16th century preacher made his name through his poems on love and his technique of creating opposing imagery through allegory and language (Ribes, 2007). Once Donne renounced his catholic faith and made a commitment to the Church of England in 1615, he wrote a series of religious poems, hymns, and sermons (Hodgson, 1999). The most well-known of his religious poetry is a series of nineteen Holy Sonnets spanning over the early 16th century, the most famous of these is Holy Sonnet XIV also known as ‘Batter My Heart’. Holy Sonnet XIV’s prominence in modern literature is due to the debate surrounding the intended meaning of the poem and the parallel the writer draws between the act of religious enlightenment and the pleasure derived from sexual activity. The Cambridge Companion to John Donne describes the poem as “best known literary text in English that figures spiritual redemption as a purifying sexual act” (Gibbory, 2006). This essay will link in to the description given by The Cambridge Companion and will apply a feminist reading by drawing on the writing of Judith Butler, Helene Cixous, and Sigmund Freud the theorised reading will be achieved by firstly examining the dominant or received reading of the for-mentioned poem.

    Read More

  • Donnes Persuasion of Love

    1276 Words  | 3 Pages

    Donne as poet, uses his experience to write poems such as the “Canonization” to show how he was able to adapt from Catholicism to Anglicanism and often reflects in poetry themes such as love and religion and approaches them in a transcendent manner. In order to further explain how John Donne was able to adapt this into his work the “Canonization, a journal called John Donne and the Art of Adaptation says “He did so by blending old habits and new into his own way of being (Cothran 91). This gives readers a better understanding on how Donne blends his life experience into his poem the “Canonization”, Canonization itself means idyllic saints, given devotion by the Roman Catholic Church in particular to give glory. In the poem Donne, compares the social reputation surrounding an ov...

    Read More

  • Theme Of Eternal Providence And Free Will In Paradise Lost

    1181 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the opening lines of Paradise Lost, Milton wastes no time conveying to his readers what his purpose in writing the epic is. He writes in the beginning that he intends to “assert Eternal Providence, / and justifie the wayes of God to men” (I. 25-26). What exactly does this mean though? In order to be able to clearly judge and evaluate what these lines imply, it is important that one understands what exactly Milton’s thoughts we regarding “Eternal Providence” and the “wayes of God”. Stemming from this idea, it is important to also realize how the idea of free will intertwines with the omniscience of God. For Milton, God’s omniscient did not constrain the free will of Adam and Eve. However, this idea presents the reader with a paradoxical situation that Milton as an author was fully aware of. Paradise Lost presents the reader with eternal providence and free will as being part and parcel of each other, neither constrains the other, and it is these two aspects, along with that of knowledge that lay the groundwork in understanding Paradise Lost.

    Read More

  • John Miltons's Paradise Lost: Is Satan a Villain or Hero?

    2016 Words  | 5 Pages

    Milton: Modern Essays in Criticism. Ed. Arthur E. Barker, b. 1875. New York: Oxford University Press, 1965. 205-217.

    Read More

  • Contexualist Perception in Death Be Not Proud

    1641 Words  | 4 Pages

    No poem of John Donne's is more widely read or more directly associated with Donne than the tenth of the Holy Sonnets,"Death, be not proud." Donne's reputation as a morbid preacher was well-known. He had a portrait of himself made while posed in a winding-sheet so that he could contemplate a personalized memento of death. Donne draws upon a popular subject in medieval and Renaissance art, Le roi mort or King Death. His fascination with death reaches another plateau with this poem. He almost welcomes it and denounces the process as being neither horrifying nor the "end-all be-all." In a contextual point of view, he works to rupture habitual thinking and bring attention to the intensity and depth of a situation by creating doubt or offering a new aspect of his subject. Donne takes this poem and pours forth an array of visions that directly connects to the contextualist in a look at death, the pa...

    Read More

  • Critical Analysis of Jonh Milton's Sonnet 8

    1304 Words  | 3 Pages

    Milton returned to England about 1641 when the political and religious affairs were very disturbing to many. He started to apply his work in practice for that one great work like Paradise Lost when penning the Sonnets. Not every sonnet is identical but they can be difficult in interpretation, styles, word use, and so forth. The purpose of this paper is to analyze Milton’s Sonnet 8 (ca 1642), “Captain or Colonel.” This will be done by explaining the type of theme and then separating the sonnet into three sections: lines 1-4, 5-8, and 9-14 for a better understanding of how Milton used the development of ongoing events to present problems with a mystical resolution.

    Read More

  • John Milton's Paradise Lost as Christian Epic

    1144 Words  | 3 Pages

    Throughout Paradise Lost, Milton uses various tools of the epic to convey a traditional and very popular Biblical story. He adds his own touches to make it more of an epic and to set forth new insights into God's ways and the temptations we all face. Through his uses of love, war, heroism, and allusion, Milton crafted an epic; through his references to the Bible and his selection of Christ as the hero, he set forth a beautifully religious Renaissance work. He masterfully combined these two techniques to create a beautiful story capable of withstanding the test of time and touching its readers for centuries.

    Read More

More about The Christian Representation of God in Poetry

Open Document