Preview

Holy Sonnet 14 By John Donne And Countee Cullen

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
157 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Holy Sonnet 14 By John Donne And Countee Cullen
John Donne and Countee Cullen both talk to God about the problems that they have that only lead them to experience negative moments in their lives. Donne’s negative experience that he suffers with is his free will. In Donne’s poem “Holy Sonnet 14”, Donne asks God to take away his free will because he believes that his free will has made him weak and imperfect and the only thing wants is to be perfect in the eyes of God. Cullen’s has negative experiences as a writer because he is a black poet and he feels that God made him a black poet at the wrong time and he ask God why would he make him suffer. Donne and Cullen suffer with different conflicts because while Donne requests for God to free him with temptation which is a conflict within himself.

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Wit Play Analysis

    • 701 Words
    • 3 Pages

    John Donne is made up of various writing such as strong/sensual style, love poems, religious poems and latin translations, epigrams, elegies, songs, satires, and sermons. John was an author who was very passionate, yet had difficulty expressing and “to prove that glorified bodies in heaven are essentially identical to the bodies possessed on earth” as stated by Professor Ramie Targoff. Donne believes that the union of body and soul is what “makes up the man.” In Targoff’s writing, she is describing John as a very religious human being who aspires to go to heaven and be holy on earth and the afterlife. Ramie explains and describes Donne’s themes for his books, and what he wrote from a different aspect. As stated in the last paragraph of the book review, “Professor Targoff in this book succeeds in her tight and clear focus on a central topic, overt and implied, throughout Donne’s work. Her support for her arguments is generally quite convincing....” However, John’s work mostly consists of the bond between body and soul. He wrote a book taking the title of “Holy Sonnets” which did not consist of his usual writings. The book's content concludes of nineteen poems which were not published until two years after his death, in 1633. “The poems are characterized by innovative rhythm and imagery and constitute a forceful, immediate, personal, and passionate examination of Donne’s love for God, depicting his doubts,…

    • 701 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    JOHN Donne's view of death is not one of a cynic. He is a man who regards death not as the final battle of life, but rather in the Christian sense, of it being just a transfer of the soul from the earthly plain to its final destination. He considers death not to be an event to be held in fear, but one that is to be understood.…

    • 466 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    One’s emotional suffering can lead to a better understanding of one’s identity. In Donne’s poem “If poysonous mineralls”, the speaker of the Sonnet seems to be a man that is asking desperately for forgiveness from God, feeling that it is not fair his sins are more evil because he possesses “intent or reason”. Donne’s era was at the time of the plague, and a time when Protestants clashed with Catholics, thus, he lived in a time of great suffering and conflict. “If lecherous goats, if serpents envious cannot be damned, alas, why should I be?” This angry, frustrated tone questions God’s choice of allowing these sinners to go unpunished, and he, marked as a sinner, must suffer for his mistakes. The iambic pentameter creates a rhythm in the Sonnet that makes it sound much more like a plea of one who is suffering, rather than a conversational and questioning approach. As the poem progresses, the transformation of Donne’s identity into a Protestant mindset,…

    • 1183 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    John Donne’s Holy Sonnets were a series of metaphysical poems written during the early 17th Century while he was converting to Anglicism from Roman Catholicism. Sonnet 14, known as “Batter my heart, three person’d God”, documents how Donne desires God to exercise his mastery over him in order to banish his qualms from his mind, which are manifested in the “reason” or “enemy”. However, the language that Donne utilises suggest a desperate and non-consensual sexual relationship with God, as though the doubts must be banished with force so great that he is unable to resist. While the erotic and religious are confused, the confusion is only mildly dangerous, as the overall intent is beneficial, to make Donne a more God-fearing and moral person.…

    • 1196 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Sonnet

    • 376 Words
    • 2 Pages

    A sonnet is a form of lyric poetry with fourteen lines and a specific rhyme scheme. (Lyric poetry presents the deep feelings and emotions of the poet as opposed to poetry that tells a story or presents a witty observation.)…

    • 376 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Holy Sonnet 14

    • 419 Words
    • 2 Pages

    John Donne’s “Holy Sonnet 14,” is a poem about a man who is begging for redemption by asking God to overtake his soul. The speaker writes in a first person point-of-view that directly implies that this poem was written in the context of a prayer, which is reinforced by the title. The tone of this poem begins with praise, which progressively grows to desperation, and ends with a sense of heavy pleading. The speaker reveals through word choices, metaphors, and numerous paradoxes that he is a sinner, and realizes that the only way he can be redeemed is for God to violently imprison him from temptation.…

    • 419 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    In "Cousin Kate", Rossetti gives messages about an abuse of power. The "Lord" "lured" the narrator to his "palace home". The word "lured" is very ominous and enforces the idea that he is a figure with authority. He manages to seduce the narrator with his flattery, and then enthrals her like a predator with his prey. The Lord has a high social standing which explains how he "wore" the "cottage maiden" like a "silken knot". The narrator felt inferior to the Lord, therefore she allows him to abuse her trust and let's him degrade her until she feels as unworthy as a "glove". This highlights the way that he degrades her and shows how he doesn't appreciate the value of her love. After the "Lord" abandoned her, the "cottage maiden" was left an "unclean thing". The word "unclean" shows how dirty and tainted she felt despite the fact that she wasn't in the wrong. Rossetti implies that it wasn't just their actions that made the narrator feel soiled, it was also the way the "Lord" left her. He exploited her for sex, and then discarded her - similar to a prostitute. The narrator claims that she "might have been a dove". The word "dove" is used to symbolise the freedom that she had before the "Lord" burdened her. The "dove" is also used to represent the purity she had before her interactions with the "Lord". Rossetti might be implying that the narrator has been left with a lasting mark of some sort that distinguishes her from her fellow citizens. This mark could be her son of whom shares the "Lord's" DNA and is a reminder of their brief love. Rossetti could also be highlighting how serious these kind of occurrences would be taken in Victorian England. Men were born with a natural advantage that enables them to commit adultery purely due to their gender. The "Lord's" superior status meant that he had power over people and could "choose" the lady he wanted to "sit with him on high". As a result of his superiority, he can abuse his power and reputation like he did with the…

    • 1068 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Holy Sonnet

    • 692 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The poem “Holy Sonnet #10” by John Donne is one of the most respected forms of poetry, one of the most difficult to compose and one of the most inspirational to read. Donne uses personification, metaphor and rhetorical question to demonstrate the deep personal meaning of the poem. Donne writes passionately about his feelings towards death. Donne has decided to include these three literary devices in his poem to create a more dramatic effect for his readers.…

    • 692 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    WORDSWORTH SONNET 14

    • 305 Words
    • 1 Page

    The way we absorbed ourselves into the world, we put our powers of mind and soul in getting stuff and spending money. These powers are not satisfying – it is just a waste. Nature is not just a bunch of trees and water, but nature is the wilderness and the places where a human can go and replenish but we think nature is not ours and find ourselves not in touch with it. Our hearts, the center of our emotional life, we have given away instead of holding, treasuring and being connected with nature. We should not be giving away our hearts as it is not a good idea. The sea is personified as a woman as she opens her chest to the moon, showing the relationship between the two of them. The winds have been gathered to somewhere and they are sleeping like flowers lay out. We are missing the beauty of nature, the delights of the sea and the winds with its up gathered flowers. The nature, the sea and the wind don’t touch us. I'd rather be a non-Christian and raised as a child in a religion that is worn out. If I were from one of those religions, I might look out and have glimpses of something that will make me less sad, that would give me some joy. I imagine that if I were born in those religions of the past, I would see the ocean as divine, a place where I might encounter God and as a piece of God. I would look out to the sea and it would not just be a bunch of water lying there, I would also see God and other gods. It is not only the ocean that would be sacred, meaningful and important but also the nature around us.…

    • 305 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    Sonnet 66 By Katie Buckman Tired with all these, for restful death I cry, As to behold desert a beggar born, And needy nothing trimm’d in jollity, And purest faith unhappily forsworn, And gilded honour shamefully misplac’d, And maiden virtue rudely strumpeted, And right perfection wrongfully disgrac’d, And strength by limping sway disabled And art made tongue-tied by authority, And folly—doctor-like—controlling skill, And simple truth miscall’d simplicity, And captive good attending captain ill: Tir’d with all these, from these would I be gone, Save that, to die, I leave my love alone. sonnet 66 explication…

    • 958 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    “Sonnet 143” has a reputation for being one of Shakespeare’s worst sonnets, but by analyzing its themes, tone, and structure, one can detect its sophistication and artistry. Some critics deny Shakespeare authored “Sonnet 143”, which appears a mindless, silly work. However, by interpreting the linguistics according to Shakespeare’s time and the ideas contemporarily, the sonnet gains deeper meaning. “Sonnet 143” begins with a mother setting down her child to chase a fleeing barnyard creature. The sonnet becomes vivid as it concludes, with Shakespeare as the neglected lover in the midst of his mistress’s pursuit.…

    • 788 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Worth The Effort?

    • 692 Words
    • 3 Pages

    During that time, he remained in the progress of conversion from Roman Catholicism to Anglicanism. Within Donne’s sonnet, on can observe both beautiful literary devices and stylish form, engaging content and an intriguing theme. While this poem’s message could stir up these thoughts, ultimately, Christians don’t follow rules because…

    • 692 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    SONNET 29

    • 845 Words
    • 4 Pages

    outcast state (2): The poet's "outcast state" is possibly an allusion to his lack of work as an actor due to the closing of the theatres in 1592 (during an outbreak of plague). It also could be a reference to the attack on Shakespeare at the hands of Robert Greene. Please see the commentary below for more on Shakespeare and Greene.…

    • 845 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Sonnet 16 - John Milton

    • 745 Words
    • 3 Pages

    John Milton is considered to be the most significant English author after William Shakespeare. Although his chief work is “Paradise Lost”, he also wrote other wonderful poems, prose, as well as sonnets, in which he tackles a number of subjects which range from religious to political. Rarely is one piece of writing limited to one or the other of those fields.…

    • 745 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Sonnet

    • 259 Words
    • 2 Pages

    A sonnet is a form of poetry, which originated in Italy and was created by the Sicilian poet Giacomo da Lentini during the Renaissance. The term sonnet comes from the Italian word sonnetto, meaning “little song” and is a poem of fourteen lines, which can be broken down into four sections called quatrains. It follows a strict rhyme scheme, which is ABAB/CDCD/EFEF/GG. This means that the first and third lines and the second and fourth lines of each quatrain rhyme. The final quatrain consists of only two lines which both thyme. Each quatrain should have no more and no less than ten syllables.…

    • 259 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays