User:Teeste123/sandbox

=Holy Sonnet XIX=

John Donne
John Donne was an English Poet, born 22 January 1572.

To find out more about John Donne please click here.

Holy Sonnet XIX
Oh, to vex me, contraries meet in one:

Inconstancy unnaturally hath begot

A constant habit; that when I would not

I change in vows, and in devotion.

As humorous is my contrition

As my profane love, and as soon forgot:

As riddlingly distempered, cold and hot,

As praying, as mute; as infinite, as none.

I durst not view heaven yesterday; and today

In prayers and flattering speeches I court God:

Tomorrow I quake with true fear of his rod.

So my devout fits come and go away

Like a fantastic ague; save that here

Those are my best days, when I shake with feare.

Interpretations
By my reading of the poem, I am going to share with you some of the interpretations I have pulled from the text.

There seems to be an inconsistency to what the speaker is saying because in the text he notes that he had 'change in vows and in devotion', which may mean that he cannot decide if he is religious or not. He seems to sway both ways but I also think that he is trying to tell us that there is not just one path; it cannot be as simple as that. Maybe he means that depending on what is currently going on in a person's life decides what path a person decides to take. Religious love can be as changeable as earthly love.

This links to the part of the text where the speaker says 'I durst not view heaven yesterday; and today/In prayers and flattering speeches I court God', which can mean that yesterday he would not have even thought about God but today something has changed within the speaker and now they are, once again, trying to be religious. Today not only is he trying to be religious but they are also trying to please God in order for him not to be punished. The speaker says that 'Tomorrow I quake with true fear of his rod', meaning that he knows he should be punished for his sins in that period of time he went through the phase of not being religious.

The ending of this text intrigues me, mostly becuase of the way the speaker says: 'Those are my best days, when I shake with feare'. Here, the speaker is telling us they are fearful of God, but this is a good thing because when they are fearful they do good and do not commit any sins. Without this fear it can be interpreted that if they were left to their own devices they would be tempted into sinning, so the fear submits the speaker to God.