The Relationship Between Donne's Religious and Secular Verse.
Donne's love poetry and his religious verse have an extremely close relationship and this manifests itself in the presence of religious imagery and reference in his love poems, the presence of imagery in his religious poems that is more akin to that from courtly love, and in his style and technique. It is this sense of Donne's individuality that creates two types of poetry that, for all their differences, are strikingly similar.
The holy sonnets refer to the old love poet characteristics of Donne, such as in I am little world' when he remembers the fire of lust', or his words to his profane mistress' in what if this present'. However now he regrets and repents' his tears wasted on his past idolatries of women, as he now feels such sensual love is far inferior to his present love for God, and even feels that such a past was ,'my sin' (Oh might these sighs'). But Donne does not render his previous courtly love completely devoid of significance, as in Since she whom I lov'd', a sonnet about his devotion to God now his wife has died, he claims that his amorous' soul was led to divine love by his experiences in secular, earthly love; admiring her my mind did whet to seek thee God'. In what if this present' , Donne's former persona and present one merge when his imagined picture of Christ in his heart that signifies his divine love, which reminds him of his sensual love, which used to remind him of divine love.
In Oh to vex me' Donne states that this connection is far from beneficial as even though he may change in vows, and in devotion' he feels it has led him to have an inappropriate attitude towards God, he courts' him one day and therefore lives in fear of his rod' the next. Donne's secular poetry sometimes presented him as suffering an
The holy sonnets refer to the old love poet characteristics of Donne, such as in I am little world' when he remembers the fire of lust', or his words to his profane mistress' in what if this present'. However now he regrets and repents' his tears wasted on his past idolatries of women, as he now feels such sensual love is far inferior to his present love for God, and even feels that such a past was ,'my sin' (Oh might these sighs'). But Donne does not render his previous courtly love completely devoid of significance, as in Since she whom I lov'd', a sonnet about his devotion to God now his wife has died, he claims that his amorous' soul was led to divine love by his experiences in secular, earthly love; admiring her my mind did whet to seek thee God'. In what if this present' , Donne's former persona and present one merge when his imagined picture of Christ in his heart that signifies his divine love, which reminds him of his sensual love, which used to remind him of divine love.
In Oh to vex me' Donne states that this connection is far from beneficial as even though he may change in vows, and in devotion' he feels it has led him to have an inappropriate attitude towards God, he courts' him one day and therefore lives in fear of his rod' the next. Donne's secular poetry sometimes presented him as suffering an
Bibliography: Arnold Stein, John Donne 's Lyrics: the Eloquence of Action (Oxford, 1962) Wilbur Sanders, John Donne 's Poetry (Cambridge, 1971) George Parfitt, John Donne: A Literary Life (Basingstoke, 1989) John Carey, John Donne: Life, Mind, and Art (1981)