Donnes Worlds - Literature Essay Samples

Donne: Holy Sonnet V(essay follows poem reproduced below)I am a little world made cunninglyOf elements and an angelic sprite,But black sin hath betrayd to endless nightMy worlds both parts, and oh both parts must die.You which beyond that heaven which was most highHave found new spheres, and of new lands can write,Pour new seas in mine eyes, that so I mightDrown my world with my weeping earnestly,Or wash it, if it must be drownd no more.But oh it must be burnt; alas the fireOf lust and envy have burnt it heretofore,And made it fouler; let their flames retire,And burn me O Lord, with a fiery zealOf thee and thy house, which doth in eating heal.In Donnes Holy Sonnet V, there is a clear contrast between the world that is Donnes personal sphere and the world that Donne is surrounded by, and over which he has no control. He makes clear that there is a distinction within his own world when he says  ³My worlds both parts, ² but all that is known is that  ³both parts must die. ² Ther e is an ambiguity surrounding these lines, for Donne defines his microcosm in terms of the greater world around him. His own world is composed of  ³elements and an angelic sprite ² but by stating outright that both parts of his world must die, Donne testifies not only to his fear of death by the physical  ³elements ², but also to perhaps what he fears the most a second death. He fears that because of his black sins  ³betrayed to the endless night ² that the  ³angelic sprite ² that composes his world, his soul, will die. His sphere is doomed, and with this revelation it is now clear that the speaker is in a state of almost complete dejection. The ensuing lines of the poem reflect the speakers spiritual state, but are addressed as forces of elements like water and fire that are representative of his own emotions. Although his own sphere is already shattered in a sense, the speaker appeals to a greater sense of God, time, and life looking for some sort of salvation fro m his doomed fate. It is not just his mortality that threatens him, it is the prospect of eternal spiritual death that is even more frightening, and so we see the speaker revert to an earlier state of spirituality attempting to provide his own temporal salvation by compressing time.By observing the choice of words that Donne uses in this poem, it is clear that Donne is questioning the very basis that comprises the fundamentals of Christian belief. The very first line states that the speaker is a  ³world made cunningly ². There is an intonation of deception in this first line, which would attribute to the speakers guilt for his mysterious  ³black sin ² throughout the poem. This leads the reader to question what it is about this newly formed world that is so deceptive, and why it is this very deception that must cause the deaths of his  ³worlds both parts ². The very foundation of the speakers spirituality is consecrated in his baptism, the formation of his  ³sphere ² and so with his own betrayal of the pledge made in baptism, his own sins have in turn betrayed him to the endless night which in this context would be natural and spiritual law. Both the elements and the angelic sprites are betrayed, and time is apparently unforgiving since the speaker is terrified that he will suffer the consequences even until after his body is physically dead. His entire world would have to have been made cunning in order to deceive others of his sin, and according to God his fate would thus be fixed right from the time when he was baptized. Donne goes on to say that in the past, the speaker revered heaven, but that he no longer currently does. The Speaker is under the assumption that his soul will be condemned for his  ³black sin, ² and thus that he will never know heaven. Therefore Donne explicitly states that the  ³was ² in  ³Heaven which was most high, ² to point out that going to heaven is now not the speakers main intention, but rather a past as piration, or a theoretical objective which he no longer believes to be possible. At this point in the poem, it is clear that Donne believes himself to be condemned, right from the moment he was baptized, for his lack of loyalty and devotion to God and what can be inferred to be the Christian Doctrine. This is the unforgivable sin that renders the speakers tone to be both desperate and sad throughout the poem, and on a microcosmic level it is this sin that leads to the fires of his spiritual ruin.In the first four lines of the poem, the speaker addresses the situation he faces within his own sphere, and in the fifth line we can see Donne venture outside the personal realm in which the speaker has affixed himself, and address God directly.  ³You ² he begins,  ³which beyond that heaven which was most high / have found new spheres, and of new lands can write ². Donne addresses astronomers and explorers who have made new discoveries, as the footnote indicates, but moreover, Donne is honoring God who is in general responsible for all human success. Although his own sphere is made up of elements and  ³sprites ², he is appealing to elements outside of Gods direct control for help. He calls upon both the angels in the sky as well as earthly elements to band together and help him break out of his doomed fate. He wants his fellow beings to  ³pour new seas into (his) eyes ² so that he may  ³weep earnestly ², and properly repent for his sins. Only twice does he call upon God directly, the aforementioned time and then again with  ³O Lord ² at the end. Throughout the rest of the poem, the speaker appeals to God indirectly with his brief references to Noahs flood and the Day of Judgment for example, but he chooses not to outright ask God for salvation, rather he continues searching for a way to save himself first.Donne is at Gods mercy yet turns to him really only at the end when he has assured himself that indeed he can finally  ³heal ². He finds his own method of salvation and is still unwilling to accept the absolute belief he rejected in baptism and will forever pay the consequences of, that God is an absolute power on which he relies. The speaker desperately cries for something, anything to cleanse him of his ill fitted fate:  ³Wash (my world) if it must be drowned no more, ² he declares. The speaker wants to be renewed by a flood, the symbolic opportunity of re-baptizing himself. However, like Noahs flood, baptizing can only occur once and so in reality Donne has to reject the idea. Again he is trapped by lost opportunity, not unlike the speakers cunning world whose foundations are impossible to change. Donne turns to fire,  ³Alas, the fire ² whose flames will  ³retire and burn ² both the speakers body and soul. What Donne is describing is in fact the Day of Judgment where via conflagration his world is consumed by fire and finally purified. The irony is that only on this day will the angels to whom he has b een appealing be united with their earthly spheres and thus be more able save the speakers own personal sphere, but by this time the speakers world would already have been decimated. To this Donne exclaims  ³But oh, it must be burnt! ² in order for the appropriate  ³healing ² to result, and after all that is  ³foul ² like  ³lust and envy ² are gone and only traditional Christian values remain, only then will the speaker find salvation. The speaker will then be a recipient of Gods  ³fiery zeal ², for through the refining properties of the fire Gods love for each man will show through.The fate of the outside world is fixed, for if the speaker has one irreparable sin, then the macrocosm dictates that he will forever suffer. So knowing now that the fate of his own sphere is doomed, he can make the macrocosm better by renewing his soul and body by means of the purgative flame. The flame consumes him, and in the very last line  ³Of Thee and Thy house, which doth in eating heal ² we can infer that the speaker is allowed to take the sacrament of Holy Communion again and thus is forgiven even in the eradication of his sphere. He has lost his element and even his angelic sprite, but in doing so, he has accepted God. The speaker develops a parallel being with God, for by being accepted into his house he is able to be reborn and quite symbolically baptized in Gods house. The speaker is thus preserved both mentally and physically as the greater macrocosm that God controls but that ironically ensured the speakers own individual destruction, for just as the fires quite literally ate him, the speaker has figuratively eaten God and is no longer really recognizable as a self but rather as a part of God.