Donne: Sacred Sonnet VDite no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay (the essay follows the poem reproduced below) I am a little world cunningly made of elements and an angelic spirit, but black sin has betrayed endless night Both sides of my world, and oh both sides must die. You who beyond that sky that was very high have found new spheres, and of new lands you can write, pour new seas into my eyes, so that I can drown my world with my sincere tears, Or wash it, if it must no longer be drowned. But oh, it must be burned; alas, the fires of lust and envy have burned him thus far and made him more disgusting; let their flames retreat and burn me, O Lord, with a burning zeal of you and your house, which in eating heals. In Donne's Holy Sonnet V, there is a clear contrast between the world that is Donne's personal sphere and the world that Donne is surrounded by and over which he has no control. He makes it clear that there is a distinction within his world when he says "Both sides of my world", but all that is known is that "both sides must die". There is an ambiguity around these lines, as Donne defines his microcosm in terms of the larger world around him. Her world is composed of "elements and an angelic sprite" but by openly stating that both parts of her world must die, Donne testifies not only to her fear of death by the physical "elements" but also perhaps what she fears more: a second death. He fears that because of his black sins, "betrayed by the infinite night", the "angelic elf" who makes up 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 poem's subsequent lines reflect the spiritual state of the speaker, but are addressed as forces of elements such as water and fire that are representative of his own emotions. Although his sphere is already in some sense destroyed, the speaker appeals to a broader sense of God, time, and life in search of some kind of salvation from 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 return to a previous state of spirituality attempting to provide his own temporal salvation by compressing time. Observing Despite the choice of words that Donne uses in this poem, it is clear that Donne is questioning the very basis that comprises the foundations of the Christian faith. Already from the first line it is stated that the speaker is an "artfully made world". There is an intonation of deception in this first line, which would place the speaker's blame for his mysterious "black sin" throughout the poem. This leads the reader to wonder what is so deceptive about this newly formed world, and why it is this deception that causes the death of "both parts of his world." In his baptism the very foundation of the speaker's spirituality is consecrated, the formation of his "sphere" and so, with his betrayal of the commitment made in baptism, his own sins have in turn betrayed him towards the infinite night that in this context it would be natural. and spiritual law. Both the elements and angelic spirits are betrayed, and time is seemingly unforgiving as the speaker is terrified of suffering the consequences even after his body is physically dead. His whole world would have to be cunning to deceive others of his sin, and according to God his fate would have been so decided from the moment he was baptized. Donne goes on to saythat in the past the speaker venerated heaven, but currently no longer does so. The Speaker assumes that his soul will be condemned for his "black sin" and therefore that he will never know heaven. Therefore Donne explicitly states that "it was" in "Heaven that which was highest", to indicate that going to heaven is no longer the main intention of the speaker, but rather a past aspiration, or a theoretical objective that he does not consider as much as possible. At this point in the poem, it is clear that Donne believes he is condemned, from the moment he was baptized, for his lack of loyalty and devotion to God and what can be inferred to be Christian doctrine. This is the unforgivable sin that makes the speaker's tone desperate and sad throughout the poem, and on a microcosmic level it is this sin that leads to the fire 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 settled, and address God directly «You», he begins, «who beyond that sky that was very high / have found new spheres, and can write about new lands². Donne addresses astronomers and explorers who have made new discoveries, as the footnote indicates, but above all Donne honors God who is generally responsible for all human success. Although his sphere is composed of elements and "spirits", he calls upon elements outside of God's direct control for help. He invites both the angels in the sky and the earthly elements to unite and help him out of his doomed fate. He wants his fellow men to “pour new seas into (his) eyes” so that he can “sincerely cry” and properly repent of his sins. Only twice does he invoke God directly, the first time and then again with "O Lord" at the end. Throughout the rest of the poem, the speaker appeals to God indirectly with his brief references to Noah's flood and Judgment Day, for example, but chooses not to openly ask God for salvation, rather continues to search for a way to save himself first. Donne is at God's mercy, but only truly turns to him at the end, when he is assured that he really can finally "get well". He finds his own method of salvation and is still reluctant to accept the absolute belief he rejected in baptism and will forever suffer the consequences, that God is an absolute power he relies on. The speaker desperately calls out for something, anything that will cleanse him of his inadequate fate: “Wash (my world) if it is to be drowned no more,” he declares. The speaker wants to be renewed by a flood, a symbolic opportunity to rebaptize himself. However, like Noah's flood, baptism can only happen once and so Donne actually has to reject the idea. Once again he is trapped by a missed opportunity, not unlike the speaker's cunning world, the foundations of which are impossible to change. Donne addresses the fire, "Alas, the fire" whose flames will "retreat and burn" both the speaker's body and soul. What Donne is describing is in fact the Day of Judgment in which, through the conflagration, his world is consumed by fire and finally purified. The irony is that only on this day will the angels addressed join their earthly spheres and therefore be better able to save the speaker's personal sphere, but by this point the speaker's world will have already been decimated . At this Donne exclaims "But oh, it must be burned!" for the appropriate "healing" to occur, and after all that is "disgusting" such as "lust and envy" are gone and only traditional Christian values remain, only then will the speaker find the..
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