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John Edward Urdiales

Sigma Tau Delta 2015 Convention: Albuquerque Submission
Introduction:
In my research, I specifically explore the relationship between two of John Donnes Holy
Sonnets to the themes of pain, agony, fear, and devotion. Donne relates his relationship with God
in rather unconventional ways, but has an underlying meaning which I believe worthy of
research and explication. The title of my paper is
Finding God through Agony and Devotion:
An Examination of John Donnes Holy Sonnets
John Donnea metaphysical poet of the 17th centurywas a devoted child of God. This
is best exemplified in his Holy Sonnets, which are love poems addressed to God. Donnes Holy
Sonnets are full of metaphysical conceitsa combination of paradox, imagery drawn from
arcane sources, and an original and usually complex comparison between two highly dissimilar
things (Murfin 299). His usage of this device brings unique images of God in the poetic world.
Renaissance scholar Stephen Greenblatt says that Donnes poetry abound[s] with startling
images [of God], some of them exalting and others grotesque (Greenblatt 1370). Greenblatt
hints at Donnes rather unorthodoxyet fearsomely tangibleinterpretation of God. The Holy
Sonnets exist as a wellspring of ecstatic, yet vastly disquieting, illustrations of God as a force not
to be reckoned with, while confessing that God is always forgiving and ever-loving. The
majority of Donnes Holy Sonnets are inspiring imaginations of a God who is a loving, yet stern,
Father who accepts His children often after subjecting them to trials of pain and agony. However,
Donne is often led astray by the paradoxical nature of fear and despair in his pursuit to fully give
himself over to God.

The essence of Holy Sonnet X consists of understanding Death and how to receive him at
the end of life. For Donne, death is not a force to be feared; it is the force and almighty power of
God which should be feared, while at the same time whole-heartedly adored. Donne explicates
this idea in telling Death to be not proud (X.1). He openly mocks Death, revealing him to hide
behind the veils of rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be (X.5). Death uses these tricks to
deceive man in order to gain power through fear. Donne compares such trickery to the effects of
opium, or charms [which] can make us sleep as well / And better than [Deaths] stroke (X.1112). Opium relieves the senses and offers an ephemeral mental freedom from the world; however,
Death acts similarly, with the exception of wholly taking one from the earthly life. In this way,
Death is no more powerful than the effects of drugs. To close his argument, Donne names
Deaths power as [o]ne short sleep (X.13), only to await an eternal awakening in Heaven when
death shall be no more (X.14). In Greenblatts footnotes, he links this sonnet to 1 Corinthians
15:26, where St. Paul the apostle tells the faithful, the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death
(Greenblatt 1412). This sentiment offers hope to the despairing. It suggests that the end of
Deathis death. Donne wholly embraces this idea in the couplet: Death, thou shalt die (X.14).
Normally, a sonnet is an admirers love plea, or a little song, to a female lover. Donne takes an
entirely different approach, one which no other sonneteer has taken. In this way, Donne
challenges Death, but artfully and zealously, for his love for God surpasses any fear of corporal
death and decay.
Death, in Holy Sonnet X, is a force of solace and paradox, rather than fear. In Death, be
not proud, there is a struggle to conquer fear and despair over the power of death. James Berg
calls it a struggle over the limited powers of death resulting from a concession of intellectual
control (Berg 152). But Donne does not utilize this poem as an escape from death. Rather, it

provides solace from facing fear in the company of the friendship and love of Christ. Donne
confounds the logic of death with a directness owed to any being subject to humiliation, doing so
through the paradoxical shame of Deaths incapacity to kill: poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill
me (X.4). Death lacks power and is vulnerable as any human being. When Donne takes away
the implicit dread of death in the octave of the sonnet, he suggests that Death keeps evil
company as a slave to men of higher power in the sestet (Berg 152). In doing so, he makes the
humanity of death apparent. Finally, Donne lacerates Death through the multiplicity of paradox.
In the first quatrain, Death seems [like] a criminal condemned to death (Berg 152). He is told
to forego his own death, because Donne reveals that Death is not so mighty and dreadful (X.2).
To conclude the sonnet, the couplet reveals One short sleep past, we wake eternally, / And
death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die (X.13-14; emphasis added). Death becomes
paradoxical. Berg says it best: if Death is dead, then there is no death, and death cannot be dead
(Berg 152). If the paradox of the first quatrain regarding whether or not Death has dominion over
Donnes life is viewed as the question, then the answer is found in the couplet: Donne
deliberately decries Deaths immortality and concludes that the reality of Death is death itself.
On the subject of fear, Mary Ruefle comments, Dying is the act, most often painful, that leads
to death, while death itself is as painless as the feeling you had before [birth]no feeling at all
(Ruefle 124). Taking this into consideration, dying becomes frail and susceptible to Deaths only
forceful action: the ending of life. Likewise, pain has no direct correlation to deathit is the
process of dying which takes precedence. Ultimately, Donne knows that death is the end of
mortality and pain, and the next step to eternal happiness and peace waits in heaven.
Batter my heart, three-personed God, Donnes most brutally depicted love prayer,
abounds with intimate imagery. In his despair, he weeps for righteous punishment, depicting God

as an overwhelmingly violent conqueror. He pleads: Batter my heartthat I may rise and stand
against sin (XIV.1-3). This battering is a thrashing force of agony against his heart, strengthening
it from the temptations of sin; but his plea does not end there. Donne asks to be ousted by means
of break[ing], blow[ing], [and] burn[ing], so that he will be made a new disciple of Christ,
rather than mended (XIV.4). He seeks the pain and successive agony that can free him from the
entanglements of sin. In despair, he likens himself to that of an usurped town, or a maiden who
has been promised to another: Satan (XIV.5). Held as a captive bride and reduced to feeble
weakness and fear, he begs to be cut off. He says, Divorce me [and] untie or break that knot of
conjugal sin (XIV.11). As a seized town, he is held a prisoner and subjected to the temptations of
Satan. He concludes that he will never be able to escape Satans briberies unless God enslaves
him, Nor ever chaste unless God rapes him (XIV.14). The fate of Donnes chastity is
determined through a raping by God and subsequent enslavement. Donne is willing to give up
his free will so that he may enjoy the beauty and the grace of God: this is a most humble form of
conforming to the uniformity of Gods Will. Although grotesque, Donne makes his intentions
clear: to be ravished by God is to abandon fear and despair and to accept the goodness He has to
offer.
Holy Sonnet XIV is inherently paradoxical in nature. Donne equips sexual violence to
disprove his doubts and fears which become the lingering plagues of his sinfulness. Robert
Blanch believes that it is [indeed] through his imagery that we recognize that the poet has
achieved a high degree of spiritual intimacy with God (Blanch 481). From the octave to the
sestet, Donne again undergoes an advanced conversion from spiritual renewal to imagery of a
newfound sexual intimacy with God. Again, Blanch tells us that Donne invokes a form of
general physical violence (Blanch 481) from the three-personed Godthe Holy Trinity

(XIV.1). Because the Trinity can be viewed as an ultra-powerful force of three, the battering
must be fearsomeso much so that it destroys despair. Then, in the later portion of the octave,
the spread of violence continues. Donne, compared to a maiden village besieged by a barbarous
satanic force, is left without reinforcements. He petitions God to engage all of His power to
swiftly rescue his spiritual self. In the sestet, his relationship with God takes an intimate turn in
the theme of violence. Blanch puts it: [he] solicits spiritual rape in order that he may achieve
spiritual perfection from God in shocking imagery of a sexual implication (Blanch 482). In
order to be freed from the snares of sin, the poet requires a defiling of his body by Godthe
thought of which is innately evil, even so far as blasphemous. But Donnes mysticism intrigues
readers. Lora Geriguis elucidates that, Donnes contradictory conceits of enthralled freedom
and ravished chastity moves the reader in such a way as to stir similar emotions in the
community of the faithful (Geriguis 156). To be liberated from his agonizing betrothal to Satan,
Donne necessitates enslavement and an implied sexual rape from God in the concluding couplet.
Yet again textually understood, another paradox is revealed, as John Parish illustrates, through
the dual-meaning of his sought after chastening: to castigate and to purify (Parish 301).
Simultaneously, he seeks a verbal reprimand and a spiritual purification from sin in the context
of physical rape. Donnes God is omnipotent and yet symbiotic, as shown in Batter my heart,
and this is realized through the contradictory nature of his cry for sexual intimacy coupled with a
likening to the harmony found within the Holy Trinity.
Further clarifying the characteristic paradox of Holy Sonnet XIV, Donne makes an initial
parallelism which is vital to recognize. John Parish makes the argument that the opening quatrain
establishes an extended metaphor:
Batter my heart, three-personed God; for you

As yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend;

That I may rise and stand, oerthrow me, and bend
Your force to break, blow, burn, and make me new. (XIV.1-4)
Found within the context of a united Being made distinct in three ways, Donne fashions three
ways in which to attain his salvation. First, God the Father is entreated to break, rather than to
knock; the Holy Spirit to blow, as opposed to breathe in him; and the Son of God to burn
sooner than to butshine on his heart (XIV.2-4). These three (or six) painfully destructive
actions contradict each other in that, through the second plea, Donne seeks to be made new,
and thus needs to first be destroyed, rather than a simple mending of his heart. The force he
requests from God is powerfulso powerful that only one united Being of three-parts may
inflict the change he seeks. Lastly, Parish tells us that Donne implies the Fathers omnipotence
to batter the heart, the Saviour, Christ, to utilize Reason rectified through love, and the
Spirits characteristic enlightenment through the imagery of interpenetration (Parish 299). The
unity of a God in three-parts creates a sense of paradoxical empowerment in Donne to repent and
seek a merciful pain and forgiveness from the Lord.
John Donne despairs for his Lord to overpower him in ways that are seen by humanity as
tyrannical and nihilistic. This is due to his lack of strength to be pure through his own will. In his
mind, the only way to be lovingly accepted into the eternity of heaven is to be scourged by God.
One must abandon fear and despair, rather than hope. The sufferings of life must be painful and
agonizing because they have no place in the eternal goodness of heaven. Saint Andr Bessette,
C.S.C. once said, If we knew the value of suffering, we would ask for it (Ruefle 124).
Suffering is complicated, like Donnes paradoxical devotions. Through an array of paradox,
Donne challenges the reader to decipher his reasons for fear and despair. In this way, one

unlocks the door, discovering the tools for the eternal and spiritual life. Furthermore, if the goal
at the end of life becomes to enter heaven, then mankind should endeavour to emulate the torture
of Christ on His way to Cavalry. In other words, suffering becomes the gateway to salvation, the
key to true living. Although at times Donne paints obscene metaphors while dealing with fleeting
hope, growing despair, or persistent fear, his heart remains full of a burning, fiery zeal for God.
Donnes poetry sheds a light of hope on the darkness of the world, leaving his readers with the
courage to strive for the banquet of the Almighty God.

Works Cited
Berg, James E. "John Donne's Holy Sonnets." British Writers Classics 1 (2002): 141-59. Print.
Blanch, Robert J. "Fear and Despair in Donne's Holy Sonnets." The American Benedictine
Review 25 (1974): 476-84. Print.
Geriguis, Lora. "John Donne's Holy Sonnet 10 (sic)." The Explicator 68.3 (2010): 155-58. Print.
Greenblatt, Stephen, and M. H. Abrams. "John Donne, From Holy Sonnets." The Norton
Anthology of English Literature. 9th ed. Vol. B. New York: W.W. Norton, 2012. 1370415. Print.
Murfin, Ross C., and Supryia M. Ray. "Metaphysical Conceit." The Bedford Glossary of Critical
and Literary Terms. 3rd ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2009. Print.
Parish, John E. "No. 14 of Donne's Holy Sonnets." College English January 24.4 (1963): 299302. Print.
Ruefle, Mary. "On Fear." Madness, Rack, and Honey: Collected Lectures. Seattle: Wave, 2012.
103-25. Print.