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~ HSDue COMMENTARY General Commentary In an eighteenth...century Moravian Brethren's hymn...book (A Collection ofHymns) (1754 [1966, 19-20]), four Holy Sonnets-HSMaae, HSDue, HSSpit, and HSWhatare used, slightly altered, and combined to make up hymn number 383. Trench (1868, 403-04) prints HSDeath and HSDue in his A Household Book of English Poetry, noting of the latter that it is a "rough rugged piece of verse" and, like almost all of Donne's poetry, "imperfect in form and workmanship." But he adds that it is "the genuine cry ofone engaged in that most terrible of all struggles, wherein, as we are winners or losers, we have won or lost al1." In that, Trench observes, Donne reminds us of St. Augustine. Lightfoot (1877, 9) cites Trench's comment (1868) on HSDue and says that Donne was no doubt "sensua1." Furst (1896, 230) refers to HSDue and cites approvingly Trench's comments (1868) about it. Gardner (1952, xl) notes that the poem is "a preparatory prayer before making a meditation." Wagner (1965, 19) sees this sonnet as an expression of Donne's often paradoxi... cal attitudes towards religion, "here expressed through structure as well as content." The octave is optimistic, presenting humankind's submission to God, the sestet pessimistic, describing humanity's ties with the devi1. Grant (1974, 74-75) notes that HSDue "becomes fraught with strain and anxi... ety" (74), that it "must discover in anguish that the desire for self...resignation is a self...willed desire," and that it thus "ends by denying what it set out to affirm" (75). Sellin (1974, 191-92) argues that HSDue portrays a man who believes that he has a right to share in God's promises but who finds himself still in the power of Satan and therefore fears that he might be reprobate. The poem, he says, "captures a man in an instant of passion" and, moreover, the speaker of the poem is clearly one who, though longing to be among the elect, knows that he is not yet there, "knows that grace cannot be commanded or acquired, and that the strange ways of God carry the real possibility that from him individually grace may be deliberately withheld" (192). Brink (1977, 101) says that Donne appeals to "the procreating father as well as the Father in heaven to lift the guilt of a misspent erotic life." Low (1978, 60) echoes Gardner (1952) in asserting that HSDue is a preparatory ~ HSDue COMMENTARY General Commentary In an eighteenth-century Moravian Brethren's hymn-book (A Collection ofHymns) (1754 [I966, 19-20]), four Holy Sonnets-HSMade, HSDue, HSSpit, and HSWhatare used, slightly altered, and combined to make up hymn number 383. Trench (1868, 403-04) prints HSDeath and HSDue in his A Household Book of English Poetry, noting of the latter that it is a "rough rugged piece of verse" and, like almost all of Donne's poetry, "imperfect in form and workmanship." But he adds that it is "the genuine cry ofone engaged in that most terrible of all struggles, wherein, as we are winners or losers, we have won or lost all." In that, Trench observes, Donne reminds us of St. Augustine. Lightfoot (I 877, 9) cites Trench's comment (I 868) on HSDue and says that Donne was no doubt "sensual." Furst (1896,230) refers to HSDue and cites approvingly Trench's comments (1868) about it. Gardner (1952, xl) notes that the poem is "a preparatory prayer before making a meditation." Wagner (1965, 19) sees this sonnet as an expression of Donne's often paradoxical attitudes towards religion, "here expressed through structure as well as content." The octave is optimistic, presenting humankind's submission to God, the sestet pessimistic, describing humanity's ties with the devil. Grant (1974, 74-75) notes that HSDue "becomes fraught with strain and anxiety " (74), that it "must discover in anguish that the desire for self-resignation is a self-willed desire," and that it thus "ends by denying what it set out to affirm" (75). Sellin (1974, 191-92) argues that HSDue portrays a man who believes that he has a right to share in God's promises but who finds himself still in the power of Satan and therefore fears that he might be reprobate. The poem, he says, "captures a man in an instant of passion" and, moreover, the speaker of the poem is clearly one who, though longing to be among the elect, knows that he is not yet there, "knows...

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