John Donne's The Holy Sonnets
By making many references to the Bible, John Donne's Holy Sonnets reveal his want to be accepted and forgiven by God. A fear of death without God's forgiveness of sins is conveyed in these sonnets. Donne expresses extreme anxiety and fright that Satan has taken over his soul and God won't forgive him for it or his sins. A central theme of healing and forgiveness imply that John Donne, however much he wrote about God and being holy, wasn't such a holy man all of the time and tried to make up for it in his writing.
In sonnet 1, the speaker is talking to God. He tells God that his death is near. He feels that with all of the sins he has committed he is leaning towards hell instead of heaven. Satan has tempted him too much and he doesn't know if he can even go an hour without giving in to Satan's evil ways. The speaker asks God to give him wings so that he may ascend into heaven and prevent Satan from taking him to hell. There is a sense of manipulation in the speaker in the beginning of the sonnet. "Thou hast made me, and shall thy work decay?'; In other words, "You're making your own creation look bad if you don't help me to become holy again.'; This starts out the sonnet with a bitter tone, a favorable way for Donne to begin. But in the end, the speaker is pleading God to give him wings, ending the sonnet with a sense of desperation. The worried tone of the last few lines is a rather common one in the Holy Sonnets. It exhibits the r...
These details help many who may have trouble understanding his hardships, be able to relate. The use of real world examples from his life and history are very convincing and supportive of his theory on blacks lives. Coates talks about how “black blood was spilled in the North colonies, the Revolutionary War, the Civil War [...] and most of all during segregation and the time of JIm Crow Laws. [...] Why is it still being spilt today over the same reasons?” Coates use of history relates to the issues today. It represents how serious the problems were back then, and how serious they still are in the modern society. History is factual, this creates and accurate support to his claim and also allows reader to relate to the past and compare it to today 's society. The rhetorical question causes the audience to think and catches eye. Asking this question emphasizes the issue because it still is a problem that does not have a solution even still today. The author also uses statistics to support the unfair lives of black people. “60 percent of all young black people who drop out of high school will go to jail.” This claim is factual and convincing to his claim about the rigged schooling system in many black communities. The communities are shoved in corner and neglected. This problem results in the thousands of dropouts that later result in jailing. If our schooling systems were
William Penn, an English philosopher and founder of the Province of Pennsylvania, once said that, “For death is no more than a turning of us over from time to eternity.” He is saying that death is not the end of our lives, but just another stage. In the poem “Holy Sonnet 10” by John Donne, the poet talks to death itself and gives his opinion on his view of death and others’ views: it is something that cannot control anything, can be replaced by other things, and is not the end of a person’s life. Through the use of his figurative language, Petrachan form, and tone and language, Mr. Donne expresses the message that death is not to be feared because one lives in heaven. John uses many examples of figurative language in his sonnet.
Aristotle way of defining how a wife is by staying home and taking care of the kids the whole time just like Xenophon wanted. But Aristotle also said that they should take care of the husband and fulfill all of his wishes. The wife would be like the husbands slave in other words. She would have to do whatever he says and can’t really say no to it. It said in one of our worksheets that “she will serve him more assiduously than if she has been a slave brought and taken home” (Oikonomikos 1). Their rights were the same as Xenophon for the most parts, some could vote if they were a citizen and to become a citizen you had to be wealthy and had to be on the upper class and have a certain amount of property. Slaves couldn’t vote at all. Women also couldn’t vote as well but they had to listen to their husband 24/7 and listen to them and be their slaves for the rest of their lives.
Much like the adage, prevention is better than cure many African American parents hoped to prevent an incident in which their child would be disciplined by America. In this attempt the parents would make certain that their child is disciplined beforehand. The method used was physical discipline, a lower wrong than the discipline of America. While reminiscing of the first time his father disciplined him physically, Coates recalls that “Maybe that saved [him]. Maybe it didn’t” (16). As a child one cannot fully grasp the gravity and pain of a parent beating their child. It is only once Coates becomes a parent himself that he understood the complexities of being a parent of a child of color. Coates articulates, “Now I personally understood my father and the old mantra— ‘Either I can beat you or the police.’ I understood it all… Black people love their children with a kind of obsession. You are all we have and you come to us endangered” (82). Coates, now an adult understood both the love and fear in which his father had when beating him. Additionally, Coates, from his experiences in his childhood understood the growing up as an African American male in America is dangerous and unforgiving. Police brutality is the strong arm in which America uses to discipline young African American teen who fail to comply with their requests. Cooper makes note of this use of brutality by America when she discusses the death of Michael Brown at the hands of police officer Darren Wilson. Cooper
Every writer leaves his mark, his imprint, in his writing; a thumb print left behind the ink if you know how to look for it, and Donne is no exception. The problem is extracting Donne’s imprint, and essence, from the poem, and understanding what that tells us about him. In one poem in particular this stands out, his Holy Sonnet IX, where Donne’s imprint lingers, giving another story behind the text, of his belief in God, but also his inner questioning, and confliction and doubt which come out as contradictions. Behind the text, Holy Sonnet IX, as Donne speaks through his speaker and poem, we come to understand that he is a religious man, though conflicted, which leads to doubt and contradictions, as he resents God in a way, while also just craving for his absolution and for him to forget and forgive his sins and wash them away, sins which weigh on him heavily and he believes taint him.
He calls upon every citizen to support the victims and the victims’ loved ones and to cooperate with the FBI agents who were working on the investigation. He also asked people to still participate in the economy, which would help with the upcoming war. These words to the America people were important because it showed on major theme throughout the speech: unity. Congress was most effective when it was unified. Congress may be divided by political parties and don’t agree on many laws or proposed budgets, but Congress is most effective when the Senators and Representatives work towards a common goal. When Congress does act, it makes the federal government more beneficial for the American people. In the beginning of the speech, President Bush said, “All of America was touched on the evening of the tragedy to see Republicans and Democrats joined together on the steps of this Capitol singing ‘God Bless America.’ And you did more than sing. You acted, by delivering $40 billion to rebuild our communities and meet the needs of our military,” and this was important because it shows that this Congress at that time was not the dysfunctional institution that Ezra Klein wrote of in our Taking Sides textbook. Sometimes, Congress can prove to be most effective when met with a common goal or common interest which aligns with the best interests of the
He says “The functions of our government continue without interruption. Federal agencies in Washington which had to be evacuated today are reopening for essential personnel tonight and will be open for business tomorrow. Our financial institutions remain strong, and the American economy will be open for business as well.” He uses logos to utilize these points in order prove to the audience that everything was under control and will eventually return to normal. President Bush’s also used ethos to display his responsibility in regards to the response to the attacks. In the speech he says “Immediately following the first attack, I implemented our government’s emergency response plans. Our military is powerful, and it’s prepared… Our first priority is to get help to those who have been injured, and to take every precaution to protect our citizens at home and around the world from further attacks.” The president used the works “I” and “Our” in order to establish the responsibility and actions he took on
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)
Every year many natural disasters happen around the world. In New Orleans, and several other states, a devastating hurricane struck. High speed winds and major flooding caused many people to lose their homes and even their lives. Many people have heard of hurricane Katrina, but not everybody knows what caused it and the affect it had on the United States.
After reading Between the World and Me, it is not hard to see that Ta-Nehesi Coates has gone through the rollercoaster ride of living in his black body. From growing up in the streets of Baltimore city, where fear and vulnerability was his bullet proof vest; to the fear of PG county police as a young adult. For Coates to tell his son that “the struggle is really all I have for you,” is not optimism nor pessimism, but it is the realism
John Donne uses poetry to explore his own identity, express his feelings, and most of all, he uses it to deal with the personal experiences occurring in his life. Donne's poetry is a confrontation or struggle to find a place in this world, or rather, a role to play in a society from which he often finds himself detached or withdrawn. This essay will discuss Donne's states of mind, his views on love, women, religion, his relationship with God; and finally how the use of poetic form plays a part in his exploration for an identity and salvation.
At British Petroleum our goals are based upon our needs to foster and increase positive perceptions of our organization among employees and their families. We pride ourselves on setting the industry standard for drilling safety and employee retention in a worldwide market, however there is always room for improvement. British Petroleum seeks to bridge the business and workforce aspects of our company into more of a family like community. Our competitors are aware that we operate in a global market and bring on only the best for our worldwide team. Our workforce is one of the largest in the world, this is why aspire to cultivate that family like dynamic. After the Deepwater Horizon incident, our commitment to our employees undeniably impacted
Because Donne describes the connection between the body and union with God in the form of a poem, Donne is able to evoke his readers. Unlike Augustine 's readers who just read of Augustine’s anguish and experience, those who read Donne 's poems actually experience anguish, frustration, and ultimately the unavoidable reliance one has on God, which most Christian followers eventually experience on the road to redemption. Furthermore, writing in a Petrarchan sonnet form, Donne provides an alternate meaning to Augustine’s medieval concept of the souls’ journey to unity with God. In the examination of Donne’s language, which is permeated with many emotions, Donne introduces the new idea that the journey to redemption involves not only a movement away from loving sin but a movement towards loving oneself so that one is not afraid to be loved. In other words, Donne introduces—through his diction—that the process of redemption involves self-love, which will, in turn, allow one to accept God’s already existing
In John Donne’s sonnet “Death, Be Not Proud” death is closely examined and Donne writes about his views on death and his belief that people should not live in fear of death, but embrace it. “Death, Be Not Proud” is a Shakespearean sonnet that consists of three quatrains and one concluding couplet, of which I individually analyzed each quatrain and the couplet to elucidate Donne’s arguments with death. Donne converses with death, and argues that death is not the universal destroyer of life. He elaborates on the conflict with death in each quatrain through the use of imagery, figurative language, and structure. These elements not only increase the power of Donne’s message, but also symbolize the meaning of hope of eternal life as the ultimate escape to death.
“The rose embodies only the perfect moment that intervenes between fulfillment and decay. Describing it, Shakespeare makes no attempt to speak in a biographical voice, or that of a dramatically defined persona. It is simply “we” who speak, as the voice of a consensus, and our desire for preserving the flower’s beauty is no less natural than its coming decline. Such a confluence, using “we” to unite temporarily speaker, reader, and the ordinary world, has a justification of its own” (Weiser, 3).