Canonization title

canonization refers to the process by which a holy figure becomes elevated by religious officials to the formal position of
saint.The speaker of "The Canonization" is not going to let a little thing like death get in his way, not when he has the power
of fantasy in his hands. The fourth and fifth stanzas construct an elaborate, metaphorical scenario by which the speaker and
his lover a) die, b) become immortalized in poetry, c) are made saints by those who read these poems, and then d) receive
prayers from the poor schlubs left back on Earth who aren't capable of loving anywhere near as well as they are.

Donne is actually describing lovers who become saints not for doing good deeds or being especially pious, but for being
good at loving each other. On one hand, this seems like a pretty smug and self-serving fantasy. Who likes to hear a couple
brag about how great they are at being a couple? On the other hand, though, this is a pretty profound dig at organized
religion.

Most religions tend to talk about love as it relates to either a love of God or a conventional love between man and wife in a
nuclear, baby-producing family. That's not what the speaker's describing in this poem, though. This is the kind of wild,
romantic love where you seem to melt into the other person and lose yourself totally in the experience. It's not exactly the
stuff of Sunday sermons.

And yet, maybe it should be. At least, that's one way to read both this poem's title and its central conceit. Why can't romantic
love be equally as redeeming for humanity as religious piety? Why shouldn't we be canonizing remarkable lovers, just as we
canonize those who express their love for the fellow human beings in non-romantic ways?

These provocative questions are at the heart of "The Canonization." Regardless of how you might answer them, there's no
denying that Donne's poem is a celebration of romance, and a shot across the bow of religious convention.

Setting

The Canonization" offers up settings within settings.

The first setting is really just a conversation between the speaker and, well, someone. We never learn to whom he's talking,
only that this person must be annoying because the speaker starts off in an exasperated tone: "For God's sake hold your
tongue" (1). This setting also has the added effect of allowing the speaker to address us as the readers, just aadded effect of
allowing the speaker to address us as the readers, just as he's addressing this other person.

Things would all be pretty straightforward if the speaker stopped there, but he doesn't. He moves on to describe several
settings for his relationship with his lover. In stanza 2, for example, he describes the earthly setting, in which nobody around
him is (or should be) particularly troubled by the couple's love—do-blah-dee, life goes on. In the third stanza, we move into
a more abstract, more metaphorical setting, as the speaker likens himself and his lover to a series of symbolic birds.
When we get to stanza 4, though, the speaker gets even more abstract. Now he's discussing his relationship in terms of a
literary setting, as the couple will be remembered in poems ("sonnets") that, when people read them, will somehow obtain a
religious significance and be seen as "hymns" (35). The fifth and final stanza, then, puts forth the setting of heaven. Heaven
is where the speaker and his lover have ascended to become lover-saints, who now look down at all of us back here on Earth
—who could really use some advice on how to love properly.

Five stanzas, five settings—it's a pretty neat trick, right? At the same time, it also suggests a kind of progression, from
interpersonal to earthly to metaphorical to literary to heavenly. In that way, as many critics have pointed out, the progression
of these settings is similar to the progression somebody goes through in order to become an actual saint. Our speaker and his
lover start on Earth, then ascend into heaven by the end of the poem. They start low and end high—like any saint should do.

Speaker

We have to admit that we're kind of on the fence when it comes to the speaker of "The Canonization." In the beginning of
the poem, we're sympathetic to him. After all, when someone says "For God's sake hold your tongue, and let me love," we're
inclined to defend him.

But then the speaker goes on to describe his love. He lets us know, in no uncertain terms, that his experience with his lover is
unique, mysterious, transcendent—in other words, more special than the sort of love the rest of us experience. Heck, he even
imagines that he and his lover will be sainted for being so good at loving one another. And when they are, we'll all look up to
them and ask them for love advice.
By this point, we're starting to sympathize with the unnamed person whom the speaker is addressing. If someone is so
wrapped up in their relationship that they think they'll be sainted for it, we can see how that would be irritating.

And yet, when you leave aside all of the religious particulars, isn't a saint just someone who loves really well, whether that's
loving God or humanity? Why should romantic love be excluded from the equation? By posing those kind of radical and
provocative questions (see "What's Up With the Title?" for more on them), we think that the speaker is kind of admirable.
He's standing up for love, saying that it's worthy of our highest forms of respect. For that reason, we have to give him his
props—even if he is a bit annoying.

Other pointers

There are three elements that identify a John Donne poem: God, love, and, well, being clever. Most of his poetry has at least
two of these aspects, though many, like "The Canonization," have all three. The religious and romantic aspects of his work
are pretty easy to spot, but his cleverness takes a keener eye. It also frequently takes the form of a poetic technique called a
conceit, which is an extended metaphor that brings together seemingly-unrelated elements, like a saints' eyes, the entire
world, and a pair of mirrors. For more examples of Donne's favorite topics and techniques, check out "The Flea," "The
Computation," and "Death, be not proud."

Bird imagery

There are a few birds flitting through this poem, generally in the form of metaphors which the speaker uses to describe
himself and his lover. These aren't just any old pigeons, though. Each of the birds used in the poem holds a specific symbolic
importance, allowing Donne's ideas about love and gender to take flight.

Line 20: Now, don't get all National Geographic on us. We know that a fly is not a bird, but it does provide a kind of lowly
baseline against which the speaker can compare himself and his beloved. "Call us nasty bugs if you want," he's saying here,
"but we're really much more than that.

Line 20: Now, don't get all National Geographic on us. We know that a fly is not a bird, but it does provide a kind of
lowly baseline against which the speaker can compare himself and his beloved. "Call us nasty bugs if you want,"
he's saying here, "but we're really much more than that."

Line 22: We have both the eagle and the dove in this poem, both of which are powerful symbols. And, significantly,
the speaker notes that "we in us find" elements of both these birds. In other words, both the (presumably male)
speaker and his female lover both contain elements of the powerful eagle (typically associated with masculinity) and
the peaceful dove (typically associated with femininity)

That's pretty progressive when you think about it. On one hand, the lovers are so intertwined that they possess
element of both the male and female gender. On another level, though, the speaker seems to be saying that being
totally in love means moving past stereotypes of gender difference. Moments like this are why a lot of feminist
literary critics have been interested in Donne.

Lines 23-27: The phoenix is a mythical bird that was associated with immortality. The saying goes that, when an old
phoenix died, a new one would rise right out of its body. (Some versions of the tale have the old bird bursting into
flame and a new one rising from its ashes.) In this poem, though, Donne brings in the phoenix to symbolize two
other things.

The first—much like with the eagle and dove—is again the radical idea of moving past gender differences as the
male and female lover merge into each other: "to one neutral thing both sexes fit" (25). The typical considerations of
masculine and feminine are trumped by their love. And if that sounds mysterious to you, then good. The speaker
also notes that the couple is made "Mysterious by this love" (27). Just like the magical powers of the immortal
phoenix, being in love (at least the way that the speaker is with his lover) is something that mere mortals just don't
understand

There's a lot of looking going on "The Canonization." People are told to watch other people or representations of
people, the lover-saints look back at us poor mortals here on Earth, and we for our part look up to them. As a result,
we have a lot of modeling and mirroring—both of ideal love and the run-down reality of the world. Once you start
to look for it, really, this poem is loaded with looking imagery.
 Lines 6-7: The speaker has a lot of helpful suggestions about how to pass the time. He offers these to the person he's
addressing as alternatives to nagging the speaker about his relationship. For example, he can go watch a judge ("his
Honour") or a member of the royal family ("his Grace"). Now, the speaker's not advocating that the addressed goes
out and stalks these people.Watching here (the word used is "Observe") means to study, as in trying to become like
these folks. The speaker also invites the addressed to observe the king, either in real life or in his likeness as it's
stamped on a coin. In that last request, the speaker uses a figurative expression to mean money, as in "Go study how
to make some and leave me alone, pal."

Lines 40-45: This portion of the poem is admittedly tough sledding, but it's all about looking and being seen. At this
point, the speaker and his lover have been (according to his fantasy) elevated as saints. In doing so, they "did the
whole world's soul contract, and drove/ Into the glasses of [their] eyes;" (40-41). That sounds painful, but what it
really means is that now these lover-saints can take in the "soul" of the world and reflect it in their eyes ("glasses"
here means mirrors, not those things you sport on your face). The lovers' eyes are both "mirrors" and "spies," or
observers (42), and they don't miss a beat:They did all to you epitomize" (43). Far below them, back on Earth, folks
look up to these lovers and "beg from above/ A pattern of [their] love" (44-45). In other words, the rest of the world
is literally looking up to these lovers, asking them for advice on how to love properly. The upshot to this conceit,
then, is that the lover-saints are folks who see (and know) everything, and so are people to be admired, looked up to,
and asked for advice.

Special Conciets

"We're tapers too, and at our own cost die." While this would barely rate a blip on today's sex radar, seventeenth-
century readers would know that a nickname for an orgasm was "the little death." So, these two candles are doing a
little bit more than just dying—if you catch Donne's drift.

Allusion

Mythological references

The Phoenix (23)

Themes....

Love
Love is the star of the show in many of Donne's poems, and "The Canonization" is no exception. It's such a big deal to the
speaker, in fact, that someone (we never find out who) has been harassing him about it. It's true that there's a case to be made
here that harassment is a deserved reaction to a guy who's clearly too full of his own relationship for his own good. Though,
it's also worth asking: have we really gotten to the point where being in love is something to hold against someone? More
pointedly, love in this poem allows the speaker to put forward a pretty radical proposal—namely, that romantic love is just
as deserving of sainthood as love of God or fellow human beings. "Where's the love for the lovers?" he seems to be asking in
this poem.
Questions About Love

1. What about his relationship, according to the speaker, makes it so special?

2. Are you annoyed by the speaker's love or jealous of it? What parts of the poem influence your reaction to him?

3. Why do you think love is "rage" (39) for the lovers once they get to heaven?

4. Why don't we ever hear from the speaker's lover in this poem? What do you think she might have to say?

Chew on This

The speaker going on and on…and on about his love is actually an indication of his deep insecurity in the relationship.

Love is worth celebrating in all its forms. This poem is trying to convince all those cynics and the haters out there to more
fully appreciate the power of love.
For God's sake hold your tongue, and let me love;
[…]
Contemplate; what you will, approve,
So you will let me love. (1-9)

The speaker just wants to be left alone to love—is that so wrong? He starts off as a pretty sympathetic character in the fist
stanza, but then he pushes his luck by bragging so much about what an awesome relationship he has.
Alas! alas! who's injured by my love? (10)
Here the speaker reminds us that love never hurt anybody—at least not his love. We're left wondering at this point why he
has to so vigorously defend being in love. Then he goes on explains it to us by being a little too cocky about how great his
relationship is.

Call's what you will, we are made such by love; (19)

Here the speaker is placing all the blame for offending folks (like the person to whom this poem's addressed) squarely on
love. Could his non-stop bragging have something to do wit it, or is he just so in love that he can't help but sing love's
praises?

We die and rise the same, and prove

Mysterious by this love. (26-27)

"You just wouldn't understand, man." This is the upshot of what the speaker's saying here. Sure, we understand that every
relationship is unique. By saying this, though, the speaker seems to be making the claim that his relationship with his lover is
uniquely special and beyond everyone else's understanding. Maybe that's why these two end up looking down at the rest of
us from heaven.

We can die by it, if not live by love, (29)

Well, that escalated quickly. Fantasizing about death, though, allows the speaker to move into a realm where he posits
himself and his lover as saints. It's traditionally hard to be canonized, after all, if you're still kicking around above ground.

"You, to whom love was peace, that now is rage;

[…]
Countries, towns, courts beg from above
A pattern of your love."

To "beg […] a pattern" means to ask for guidance. Here, the mortals of Earth are looking up (praying, really) to the lover-
saints for help in how to love properly. We've already seen that this perfect couple now looks down at the rest of us with
rage, presumably since we're not loving in the best way possible. Should we feel bad about that? Or resentful? Or is this
maybe an invitation for us to consider how we all might improve our romantic relationships?

Religion
With a title like "The Canonization," you know that you're going to be in for some religion. (If that last sentence confused
you, then head on over to "What's Up With the Title?".) What makes this poem so fascinating is that it's got a pretty
progressive—some would even say radical—take on religion, and sainthood in particular. "Why can't lovers become saints?"
is essentially the question it's asking. When you think about it, saints are beatified for loving God and for loving humanity. It
seems like romantic love, though, is out of the equation. When you consider that this poem was written, oh, 400 years ago,
the questions Donne's asking and the ideas he's putting forth are all the more challenging to the religious status quo.

Questions About Religion

1. In what ways does the poem equate romantic love with religious piety?

2. How might this poem be a critique of conventional religion?

3. What might a love of God have in common with romantic love? How would the speaker answer that question?
 4. What reasons does the speaker give for his and his lover's canonization?

Chew on This

This poem is just using love to advance a radical critique of religious doctrine. It wants to expand our understanding of the
value of love from the traditional values held by the church.

Not quite—the speaker's claim on sainthood is just another way for him to brag about his relationship.

Religious take on poem.

For God's sake hold your tongue, and let me love; (1)
God is the second word in this poem. In this first line, in fact, we have the speaker's argument in a nutshell: his love is
actually for God's sake. It brings him up to heaven.

And by these hymns all shall approve

Us canonized for love; (35-36)
The switch from poems to "hymns" is quick, subtle, and significant. One minute the couple are being celebrated in non-
religious writing (like sonnets), and the next they are being held up in religious songs. This pivot allows Donne's speaker to
project himself and his lover into sainthood in the poem's concluding stanza.

And thus invoke us, "You, whom reverend love

Made one another's hermitage; (37-38)
A hermitage is a religious retreat, one that religious figures (a.k.a. hermits) would go to in order to be alone and contemplate
God. Here, though, love is the foundation for that kind of spiritual experience. The lovers get the same experience by being
in love. This seems like almost a blasphemous idea, but if God is love, then maybe this is just the logical extension of that
concept.

Who did the whole world's soul contract, and drove

Into the glasses of your eyes; (40-41)
Being a saint comes with super-powers, apparently. The lover-saints are able to distill "the whole world's soul" and reflect it
in their eyes. In other words, they're taking it all in—and by "all," we mean the entire world.

"Countries, towns, courts beg from above

A pattern of your love." (44-45)
In the poem's conclusion, the lover-saints are being prayed to directly. It looks like the rest of us stuck down here on Earth
sure could use some advice on how to properly love. Does this strike you as patronizing? After all, how do these lovers
know that we're all doing it wrong? What makes them so special? At the same time, who hasn't been in love and felt that the
experience was something so unique that, yes, it did make them special?.

Literature and Writing

Logistics are something to pay attention to in "The Canonization." How did these lovers actually make it into heaven? After
all, most saints have to go through a pretty rigorous process in order to qualify (it's a lot harder than getting in to Harvard). In
the case of our lovers, literature and writing are key. The speaker imagines that they'll be celebrated in verses and sonnets,
which, in turn, will eventually be treated like hymns—holy songs. It's a bit of a stretch, but the speaker seems like he's on a
roll and we don't want to burst his bubble. The main point here for our lovers is that literature is a major rung on the ladder to
immortality.

We can die by it, if not live by love,

And if unfit for tomb or hearse
Our legend be, it will be fit for verse; (28-30)

The speaker seems to be settling here. If the lovers can't be immortalized by a tomb or in a hearse, then they'll opt for poetry
("verse"). We'd like to humbly suggest that literature is actually a whole lot more durable than some concrete block that can
come tumbling down at any minute.

And if no piece of chronicle we prove,

We'll build in sonnets pretty rooms;
 As well a well-wrought urn becomes

The greatest ashes, as half-acre tombs, (31-34) Once again, poetry (in this case "sonnets") seems like a back-up plan. If the
lovers can't make it into the history books ("chronicle"), then they'll be happy to settle for a few poems. Now, we love
history as much as anyone, but is it really so much better off to be commemorated as a historical figure than a poetic one?

And by these hymns all shall approve

Us canonized for love; (35-36)

These last lines of stanza 4 are the set-up for the lovers' ascent into heaven, which takes place in stanza 5. Literature is like a
launching pad for sainthood here, with the poems becoming "hymns" and taking on a religious significance. It begs the
question: where would our lovers be without poetry? And don't forget that we're actually, you know, reading this in a poem
about these two. It seems that Donne was well aware of poetry's importance in granting immortality.

SOME ASPECTS OF THE POEM INTERTWINED WITH SPEAKER’S OWN LIFE OR VIEWS

Lovers as Microcosms

Donne incorporates the Renaissance notion of the human body as a microcosm into his love poetry. During the Renaissance,

many people believed that the microcosmic human body mirrored the macrocosmic physical world. According to this belief,

the intellect governs the body, much like a king or queen governs the land. Many of Donne’s poems—most notably “The

Sun Rising” (1633), “The Good-Morrow” (1633), and “A Valediction: Of Weeping” (1633)—envision a lover or pair of

lovers as being entire worlds unto themselves. But rather than use the analogy to imply that the whole world can be

compressed into a small space, Donne uses it to show how lovers become so enraptured with each other that they believe

they are the only beings in existence. The lovers are so in love that nothing else matters. For example, in “The Sun Rising,”

the speaker concludes the poem by telling the sun to shine exclusively on himself and his beloved. By doing so, he says, the

sun will be shining on the entire world.

The Neoplatonic Conception of Love

Donne draws on the Neoplatonic conception of physical love and religious love as being two manifestations of the same

impulse. In the Symposium (ca. third or fourth century b.c.e.), Plato describes physical love as the lowest rung of a ladder.

According to the Platonic formulation, we are attracted first to a single beautiful person, then to beautiful people generally,

then to beautiful minds, then to beautiful ideas, and, ultimately, to beauty itself, the highest rung of the ladder. Centuries

later, Christian Neoplatonists adapted this idea such that the progression of love culminates in a love of God, or spiritual

beauty. Naturally, Donne used his religious poetry to idealize the Christian love for God, but the Neoplatonic conception of

love also appears in his love poetry, albeit slightly tweaked. For instance, in the bawdy “Elegy 19. To His Mistress Going to

Bed” (1669), the speaker claims that his love for a naked woman surpasses pictorial representations of biblical scenes. Many

love poems assert the superiority of the speakers’ love to quotidian, ordinary love by presenting the speakers’ love as a

manifestation of purer, Neoplatonic feeling, which resembles the sentiment felt for the divine.

Religious Enlightenment as Sexual Ecstasy

Throughout his poetry, Donne imagines religious enlightenment as a form of sexual ecstasy. He parallels the sense of

fulfillment to be derived from religious worship to the pleasure derived from sexual activity—a shocking, revolutionary

comparison, for his time. In Holy Sonnet 14 (1633), for example, the speaker asks God to rape him, thereby freeing the

speaker from worldly concerns. Through the act of rape, paradoxically, the speaker will be rendered chaste. In Holy Sonnet

18 (1899), the speaker draws an analogy between entering the one true church and entering a woman during intercourse.

Here, the speaker explains that Christ will be pleased if the speaker sleeps with Christ’s wife, who is “embraced and open to

most men” (14). Although these poems seem profane, their religious fervor saves them from sacrilege or scandal. Filled with

religious passion, people have the potential to be as pleasurably sated as they are after sexual activity.

The Search for the One True Religion

Donne’s speakers frequently wonder which religion to choose when confronted with so many churches that claim to be the

one true religion. In 1517, an Augustinian monk in Germany named Martin Luther set off a number of debates that

eventually led to the founding of Protestantism, which, at the time, was considered to be a reformed version of Catholicism.

England developed Anglicanism in 1534, another reformed version of Catholicism. This period was thus dubbed the

Reformation. Because so many sects and churches developed from these religions, theologians and laypeople began to

wonder which religion was true or right. Written while Donne was abandoning Catholicism for Anglicanism, “Satire 3”

reflects these concerns. Here, the speaker wonders how one might discover the right church when so many churches make

the same claim. The speaker of Holy Sonnet 18 asks Christ to explain which bride, or church, belongs to Christ. Neither

poem forthrightly proposes one church as representing the true religion, but nor does either poem reject outright the notion

of one true church or religion.

Spheres

Donne’s fascination with spheres rests partly on the perfection of these shapes and partly on the near-infinite associations

that can be drawn from them. Like other metaphysical poets, Donne used conceits to extend analogies and to make thematic

connections between otherwise dissimilar objects. For instance, in “The Good-Morrow,” the speaker, through brilliant

metaphorical leaps, uses the motif of spheres to move from a description of the world to a description of globes to a

description of his beloved’s eyes to a description of their perfect love. Rather than simply praise his beloved, the speaker

compares her to a faultless shape, the sphere, which contains neither corners nor edges. The comparison to a sphere also

emphasizes the way in which his beloved’s face has become the world, as far as the speaker is concerned. In “A Valediction:

Of Weeping,” the speaker uses the spherical shape of tears to draw out associations with pregnancy, globes, the world, and

the moon. As the speaker cries, each tear contains a miniature reflection of the beloved, yet another instance in which the

sphere demonstrates the idealized personality and physicality of the person being addressed.

Discovery and Conquest

Particularly in Donne’s love poetry, voyages of discovery and conquest illustrate the mystery and magnificence of the

speakers’ love affairs. European explorers began arriving in the Americas in the fifteenth century, returning to England and

the Continent with previously unimagined treasures and stories. By Donne’s lifetime, colonies had been established in North

and South America, and the riches that flowed back to England dramatically transformed English society. In “The Good-

Morrow” and “The Sun Rising,” the speakers express indifference toward recent voyages of discovery and conquest,
preferring to seek adventure in bed with their beloveds. This comparison demonstrates the way in which the beloved’s body

and personality prove endlessly fascinating to a person falling in love. The speaker of “Elegy 19. To His Mistress Going to

Bed” calls his beloved’s body “my America! my new-found land” (27), thereby linking the conquest of exploration to the

conquest of seduction. To convince his beloved to make love, he compares the sexual act to a voyage of discovery. The

comparison also serves as the speaker’s attempt to convince his beloved of both the naturalness and the inevitability of sex.

Like the Americas, the speaker explains, she too will eventually be discovered and conquered.

Reflections

Throughout his love poetry, Donne makes reference to the reflections that appear in eyes and tears. With this motif, Donne

emphasizes the way in which beloveds and their perfect love might contain one another, forming complete, whole worlds.

“A Valediction: Of Weeping” portrays the process of leave-taking occurring between the two lovers. As the speaker cries, he

knows that the image of his beloved is reflected in his tears. And as the tear falls away, so too will the speaker move farther

away from his beloved until they are separated at last. The reflections in their eyes indicate the strong bond between the

lovers in “The Good-Morrow” and “The Ecstasy” (1633). The lovers in these poems look into one another’s eyes and see

themselves contained there, whole and perfect and present. The act of staring into each other’s eyes leads to a profound

mingling of souls in “The Ecstasy,” as if reflections alone provided the gateway into a person’s innermost being.

Angels

Angels symbolize the almost-divine status attained by beloveds in Donne’s love poetry. As divine messengers, angels

mediate between God and humans, helping humans become closer to the divine. The speaker compares his beloved to an

angel in “Elegy 19. To His Mistress Going to Bed.” Here, the beloved, as well as his love for her, brings the speaker closer

to God because with her, he attains paradise on earth. According to Ptolemaic astronomy, angels governed the spheres,

which rotated around the earth, or the center of the universe. In “Air and Angels” (1633), the speaker draws on Ptolemaic

concepts to compare his beloved to the aerial form assumed by angels when they appear to humans. Her love governs him,

much as angels govern spheres. At the end of the poem, the speaker notes that a slight difference exists between the love a

woman feels and the love a man feels, a difference comparable to that between ordinary air and the airy aerial form assumed

by angels.

The Compass

Perhaps the most famous conceit in all of metaphysical poetry, the compass symbolizes the relationship between lovers: two

separate but joined bodies. The symbol of the compass is another instance of Donne’s using the language of voyage and

conquest to describe relationships between and feelings of those in love. Compasses help sailors navigate the sea, and,

metaphorically, they help lovers stay linked across physical distances or absences. In “A Valediction: Forbidding

Mourning,” the speaker compares his soul and the soul of his beloved to a so-called twin compass. Also known as a

draftsman’s compass, a twin compass has two legs, one that stays fixed and one that moves. In the poem, the speaker

becomes the movable leg, while his beloved becomes the fixed leg. According to the poem, the jointure between them, and

the steadiness of the beloved, allows the speaker to trace a perfect circle while he is apart from her. Although the speaker can
only trace this circle when the two legs of the compass are separated, the compass can eventually be closed up, and the two

legs pressed together again, after the circle has been traced.

Blood

Generally blood symbolizes life, and Donne uses blood to symbolize different experiences in life, from erotic passion to

religious devotion. In “The Flea” (1633), a flea crawls over a pair of would-be lovers, biting and drawing blood from both.

As the speaker imagines it, the blood of the pair has become intermingled, and thus the two should become sexually

involved, since they are already married in the body of the flea. Throughout the Holy Sonnets, blood symbolizes passionate

dedication to God and Christ. According to Christian belief, Christ lost blood on the cross and died so that humankind might

be pardoned and saved. Begging for guidance, the speaker in Holy Sonnet 7 (1633) asks Christ to teach him to be penitent,

such that he will be made worthy of Christ’s blood. Donne’s religious poetry also underscores the Christian relationship

between violence, or bloodshed, and purity. For instance, the speaker of Holy Sonnet 9 (1633) pleads that Christ’s blood

might wash away the memory of his sin and render him pure again.

JOHN DONNE AND METAPHYSICAL POETRY

John Donne, whose poetic reputation languished before he was rediscovered in the early part of the twentieth century, is

remembered today as the leading exponent of a style of verse known as “metaphysical poetry,” which flourished in the late

sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. (Other great metaphysical poets include Andrew Marvell, Robert Herrick, and

George Herbert.) Metaphysical poetry typically employs unusual verse forms, complex figures of speech applied to elaborate

and surprising metaphorical conceits, and learned themes discussed according to eccentric and unexpected chains of

reasoning. Donne’s poetry exhibits each of these characteristics. His jarring, unusual meters; his proclivity for abstract puns

and double entendres; his often bizarre metaphors (in one poem he compares love to a carnivorous fish; in another he pleads

with God to make him pure by raping him); and his process of oblique reasoning are all characteristic traits of the

metaphysicals, unified in Donne as in no other poet.

Donne is valuable not simply as a representative writer but also as a highly unique one. He was a man of contradictions: As a

minister in the Anglican Church, Donne possessed a deep spirituality that informed his writing throughout his life; but as a

man, Donne possessed a carnal lust for life, sensation, and experience. He is both a great religious poet and a great erotic

poet, and perhaps no other writer (with the possible exception of Herbert) strove as hard to unify and express such

incongruous, mutually discordant passions. In his best poems, Donne mixes the discourses of the physical and the spiritual;

over the course of his career, Donne gave sublime expression to both realms.

His conflicting proclivities often cause Donne to contradict himself. (For example, in one poem he writes, “Death be not

proud, though some have called thee / Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so.” Yet in another, he writes, “Death I recant,

and say, unsaid by me / Whate’er hath slipped, that might diminish thee.”) However, his contradictions are representative of

the powerful contrary forces at work in his poetry and in his soul, rather than of sloppy thinking or inconsistency. Donne,

who lived a generation after Shakespeare, took advantage of his divided nature to become the greatest metaphysical poet of

the seventeenth century; among the poets of inner conflict, he is one of the greatest of all time.
Tone and Mood of the poet in most love poems.

John Donne revolted against the Petrarchan tradition in love poetry, with its lovers in flower gardens; its smooth lawns

(grass) and gentle and murmuring streams; its goddesses of mythological and pastoral imagery; and its conventions of

chivalry. From the time to Wyatt, Surrey, and their contemporaries, English lyrical and amatory poetry had been flowing

continuously in the Petrarchan channel. Now, instead, we have a violent assertion of sexual realism. Donne is neither

Platonic nor ascetic, but frankly and honestly sensuous. His interest is in his experience of love, and his endeavor (attempt) is

to understand it, not to deny or suppress it, and still less to present it untruthfully.

Donne’s reputation as a love poet rest on his fifty-five lyrics written at different periods of his life, but were published for the

time in 1633 in one volume called Songs and Sonnets. Donne’s love poem cover a wide range of feeling from extreme

physical passion to spiritual love, and express varied moods ranging from a mood of cynicism and contempt to one of faith

and acceptance. His love experiences were wide and varied and so is the emotions range of his love poetry. He had love

affairs with a number of women, some of them lasting and permanent, others only of a short duration. It would seem that

Donne has given as exhaustive an analysis of the psychology of love as he possibly could. He insists that love is properly

fulfilled only when it embraces both body and soul. He images the future canonization of himself and his mistress as saints

of a new religion of love.

Donne’s treatment of love is both sensuous and realistic. He does not completely reject the pleasure of the body even in

poems where love is treated as the highest spiritual passion. This emphasis on the claims of the body is another feature which

distinguish Donne from the poets both Petrarchan and Platonic schools. Donne claims that love, merely of the body, is not

love but lust. But he is realistic enough to realize that it cannot also be of the soul alone; it must partake both of the soul and

the body. It is the body which brings the souls together, and so the claims of the body must not be ignored. The beloved must

not hesitate to give herself body and soul to her lover even though they have not got married yet. In The Canonization, the

lovers unite body and soul to form a ‘neutral sex’. The Valediction: Forbidding Mourning, the poet does not consider

physical contact as necessary for the continuation of spiritual love. Thus Grierson rightly points out, “neither sensual

passion, nor gay and cynical wit, nor scorn and anger, is the dominant note in Donne’s love poetry.”The last stanza of the

Canonization admirably sumps up Donne’s sexual metaphysic; that the really valid and complete relationship between man

and woman fuses their soul into a complete whole, and they become a microcosm of the loving world. This very attitude is

expressed in a number of his other poems. For true lovers the entire world is contracted into the eyes of each other and this

world is better because it is not subject to decay and dissolution.The dominant note in Donne’s love poetry is neither sensual

passion, nor gay and cynical wit, nor scorn and anger. The finest note here is the note of joy, the joy of mutual and contented

passion. His heart might be subtle to torment itself, but its capacity for joy is even more obvious. It is only in the songs of

Burns that we shall find the sheer (pure) joy of loving and being loved finding expression in the same direct and simple

language as in some of Donne’s songs, and only in Browning that we shall find the same simplicity of feeling combined with

a similar swift and subtle dialectic: “For God’s sake hold your tongue, and let me love” (The Canonization).Donne’s

contribution to love-poetry may then be summed up thus: He introduced a new realism in love-poetry, revolting against the

Petrarchan tradition. His poems are an attempt to deal exhaustively with the psychology of love. That accounts for the

variety of mood and tone in his love poetry. Some of his love poems cynical (pessimistic) and he mocks at women and at
love. Some poems sing of the joy of love and contented mutual passion. He also introduced colloquial language in love-

poetry.

Origin of the poem

The Canonization, poem by John Donne, written in the 1590s and originally published in 1633 in the first edition of Songs

and Sonnets. The poem’s speaker uses religious terms to attempt to prove that his love affair is an elevated bond that

approaches saintliness. In the poem, Donne makes able use of paradox, ambiguity, and wordplay.

John Donne Employment

A legal training was seen as a good way into politics and the court. Donne was ambitious and in 1598 he was appointed
Secretary to Sir Thomas Egerton, the Lord Keeper of the Great Seal, an influential post. He had previously sailed with the
Earl of Essex's expedition against the Spanish at Cadiz, which wiped out a treasure fleet and burned the town. It may have
been the connections made then that got him this desirable job.

John Donne in love

Egerton's household included a pretty young niece, Ann Moore. Donne and she fell in love. She was under age, and there
seemed little prospect of Donne being allowed to marry her, had he asked her uncle's permission. So in 1601 they married
secretly. This sounds very romantic, but it lost Donne his job when her father, the Keeper of the Tower of London, heard
about it, and even had him put in prison for a while.

John Donne, Ann Donne, ‘Undone’

In the end, the matter of Donne’s marriage went to court. Fortunately, the court found them to be legally married, but from
then on, for much of the marriage, Donne's career was on the rocks. Famously, he wrote:

John Donne, Ann Donne, undone

They had little money of their own, until eventually Ann's father gave Donne her dowry. For two years they lived at Loseley,
near Guildford, where relatives gave them a house; then at Mitcham, a small village south of London.

John Donne - A family to support

What made John and Ann Donne’s financial state worse was their growing family. Ann had a child nearly every year. Donne
had to find what jobs he could. Clearly the two were devoted to each other, but there were considerable strains on them both
and Ann was frequently ill. Donne had a room off the Strand in London, both to stay in touch with the world and also to
study in quiet. He still wrote a little poetry privately.