The Variorum Edition of the Poetry of John Donne, Volume 7, Part 1: The Holy Sonnets

HSWhat

~ HSWhat COMMENTARY General Commentary In an eighteenth...century Moravian Brethren's hymn...book (A Collection ofHymns) (1754 [1966, 19-20]), four Holy Sonnets-HSMade, HSDue, HSSpit, and HSWhatare used, slightly altered, and combined to make up hymn number 383. Gosse (1899, 2:109) cites HSWhat as "[o]ne of the most remarkable" of the Holy Sonnets and finds in it a "memorable instance" of Donne's "clairvoyance" in reviewing his "profane past" after his conversion. To Gosse, Donne's reference to his earlier erotic poetry is "singularly characteristic" and "helps to explain why he preserved so carefully, to the very last, though he never would publish, the evidences of his early enslavement to the flesh." Gosse identifies the sonnet as Donne's "dialogue with his souL" French (1970, I 12-13), recalling Empson (193o-see HSWhat: Themes), says that there is in HSWhat a fallacy, for "a person who is being executed by slow torture is not really very beautiful" (I 12). The Christ presented in the poem is not a "beaute... ous forme," he maintains, but "something more like a 'horrid shape.'" Possibly, French continues, there is "an element of bargaining in Donne's logic"-that is, he may be saying, "I've given the reader every opportunity to conclude that You are a wicked spirit, so You can only prove Your beauty by not adjudging me to hell" (113). Donne is making Christ appear wicked so that he has to prove his beauty by not adjudging Donne to hell (113). Altizer (1973,85) suggests that HSWhat presents clearly the split between Christ as Judge and Christ as suffering, all...merciful Redeemer. The poem's central ques... tion, she contends, is "can the Christ who agonized on the cross and yet forgave his murderers condemn someone who loves Him 'unto hell?'" The answer is presented in a conceit based on paradox, she notes, but since the terms of the conceit are drawn from secular love poetry, the concluding paradox of God's mercy seems "some... what contrived and banal." Bellette (1975,339) argues that in HSWhat "no possibility of divine indifference" is expressed. This sonnet, according to Bellette, is "carefully controlled" and "dem... onstrates a like congruence between thought and form." Raspa (1983,91) associates HSWhat with a "meditation directly on the self," not... ing that it is intended "to separate the poet from the world and force him to consider it correctly in terms of the spiritual universe." Donne accomplishes this, in Raspa's view, by portraying the darkness of the world in order "to bring into relief the inher... ~ HSWhat COMMENTARY General Commentary In an eighteenth-century Moravian Brethren's hymn-book (A Collection ofHymns) (1754 [1966, 19-20]), four Holy Sonnets-HSMade, HSDue, HSSpit, and HSWhatare used, slightly altered, and combined to make up hymn number 383. Gosse (1899, 2:109) cites HSWhat as "[olne of the most remarkable" of the Holy Sonnets and finds in it a "memorable instance" of Donne's "clairvoyance" in reviewing his "profane past" after his conversion. To Gosse, Donne's reference to his earlier erotic poetry is "singularly characteristic" and "helps to explain why he preserved so carefully, to the very last, though he never would publish, the evidences of his early enslavement to the flesh." Gosse identifies the sonnet as Donne's "dialogue with his soul." French (1970, II2-I3), recalling Empson (193o-see HSWhat: Themes), says that there is in HSWhat a fallacy, for "a person who is being executed by slow torture is not really very beautiful" (112). The Christ presented in the poem is not a "beauteous forme," he maintains, but "something more like a 'horrid shape.'" Possibly, French continues, there is "an element of bargaining in Donne's logic"-that is, he may be saying, "I've given the reader every opportunity to conclude that You are a wicked spirit, so You can only prove Your beauty by not adjudging me to hell" (II3). Donne is making Christ appear wicked so that he has to prove his beauty by not adjudging Donne to hell (II3). Altizer (1973, 85) suggests that HSWhat presents clearly the split between Christ as Judge and Christ as suffering, all-merciful Redeemer. The poem's central question , she contends, is "can the Christ who agonized on the cross and yet forgave his murderers condemn someone who loves Him 'unto hell?'" The answer is presented in a conceit based on paradox, she notes, but since the terms of the conceit are drawn...