John Donne's Holy Sonnets
by John Donne
John Donne's Holy Sonnets: Overview1. John Donne's Holy Sonnets: John Donne Biography2. John Donne's Holy Sonnets: Setting and Character3. John Donne's Holy Sonnets: Themes4. John Donne's Holy Sonnets: Four Sonnets Analyzied Sonnet 10: Death, Be Not Proud⦠Sonnet 11: Spit in My Face⦠Sonnet 14: Batter My Heart⦠Sonnet 17: Since She Whom I Loved⦠5. John Donne's Holy Sonnets: Critical Overview6. John Donne's Holy Sonnets: Bibliography7. John Donne's Holy Sonnets: Overview
John Donne's religious poetry is collectively known as the Divine Poems; among these, the largest group is the nineteen Holy Sonnets. Donne began writing his love poetry in the 1590s, while still single, and did not turn to religious poetry until 1609, eight years after he had married Anne More, which resulted in his banishment from the royal court. During this time he had begun to renounce his Roman Catholic faith but had not yet converted to the Church of England, which he did in 1615.
He became a minister two years later. The dramatic character of the Holy Sonnets suggests that Donne probably read them aloud to his friends, enhancing their argumentative tone, years before he began circulating them in manuscript form. Although not necessarily biographical in nature, the sonnets do reflect Donne's meditation on his religious convictions and address the themes of divine judgment, divine love, and humble penance. However, just as the persona of Donne's love poems speaks with passion, wit, and tenderness in seducing or praising his beloved, so the speaker in these sonnets turns to God in a very personal way, with a love passionate, forceful, and assertive yet fearful, too. Although the sonnets are predominantly Petrarchan, consisting of two quatrains and a sestet, this form is...