A Hymn to God the Father Analysis

Since the poem is a hymn, it probably comes as no surprise that it has a musical quality to it. But how did Donne go about crafting eighteen lines and three stanzas that replicate the feeling of li...

Most folks begin their requests to God with a formal address like "Dear Lord," but our speaker just jumps right in with his questions. He seems pretty anxious about getting to the point and getting...

The poem exists within the mind of the speaker, who is grappling with some pretty heavy questions. His headspace seems filled with "what-if" scenarios and fears, all based around the idea of sin an...

When we start talking about how the poem sounds, there's something we can't ignore: there's some major repetition going on here. Just as the speaker keeps turning back to his obsession with forgive...

By titling the poem "A Hymn to God the Father," Donne indicates that it is meant to be sung in a church, which reflects the confessional nature of the poem and the speaker's direct requests to God...

Donne isn't afraid to ask the big questions, and he isn't afraid to ask the Big Guy in the sky for answers or to make demands of His time. The Metaphysical Poets loved contemplating the cosmic beyo...

Though the "thous" and "thys" are a bit old-fashioned, and there are a few little-used words like "heretofore" and "score," the poem itself is pretty straightforward. Even the wordplay isn't too tr...

Donne was a late bloomer. His work wasn't really studied or appreciated until the late 1800s, more than 150 years after his death. (Source.) Despite his musings about man not having much free will,...

It may be a poem about sin, but it never goes into much sinful detail. "A Hymn to God the Father" is about as G-rated as it comes. For a poem meant to be sung in church, that's no surprise.

Donne references the idea of "Original Sin," which refers to the story of Adam and Eve in Genesis. Their sin of disobeying God and eating of the fruit of knowledge is said to have been the Original...