The "Holy Sonnets" are an example of what is called "devotional poetry," through which the poet tries to demonstrate his or her religious faith. Although the speaker asks to learn how to repent, th...
"At the round earth's imagined corners" is a fantasy of the Last Judgment. In Christian theology, the world as we know it has a definite end point: the Apocalypse. All the people who have died thro...
Donne's religious poetry frequently turns into a one-on-one grudge match versus death. In Holy Sonnet 10, he declares, "Death, thou shalt die." Well, in this poem, death dies. Everyone who has ever...
Humility? More like arrogance. Who does this speaker think he is, ordering the angels to blow their mighty trumpets, rearranging dead people, and even asking God to be his personal tutor? We still...
