Holy Sonnet Essay

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Recommended: Metaphysical features in john donne's poetry

Courtney Peters
Essay 1 Rough Draft
ENG 308
2/21/14
Donne: The Imprint Left Behind
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.
Looking at Donne’s Holy Sonnet IX, you can see where parts of his self are hidden under the text, if you only know how to look and how to interpret what you find. Donne repeats “I” throughout the poem three times, and while doing so he not only reflects parts of his inner self, but changes his stand point each time. In the first instance of “I”, Donne writes, “If lecherous goats, if serpents envious/Cannot be damn’d; Alas; why should I bee?” (3-4). Here he questions God, demanding to know why he should be damned when the lecherous goats, and serpents cannot not be condemned and damned for their sins. The second instance of “I” however writes, “But whou am I, that dare dispute with thee/O God? Oh! of thine onely worthy blood,” where he shifts from angrily questioning...

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...e forgotten and he is not damned by them. The illusion and imagery emphasize the severity of his desire for God to forget his sins, the sins which he emphasizes by referring to them as “black sins” utilizing severe language in calling them thus, to further darken the already negative connotation of his sins and their evilness. The allusion speaks of the greatness of Donne’s sorrow, in that he would cry a river, his wish in the end, more than anything, for his sins to be forgotten and him undammed, and his thoughts on sins, that they are black, his darkness, his taint, his embarrassment, indebting him to God who in turn damns him.
-- Create a conclusion, short, but sums up:
What I mean by Imprint
How his imprint shines throu, aka, what we learn of him from:
His usage of I
His pattern
His allusions, imagery, and language
Should be one per paragraph for most

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