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

HSMin

jf HSMin COMMENTARY General Commentary Potter (1934, 18-19) writes about Donne's "search for himself" that pointed him eventually towards religion. Noting that Donne's religious writings reveal his con... tinuing quest and show that "he was not always satisfied to wait patiently till death should open wide the gates and let him in" (18), Potter cites HSMin as a poem that results from "such impatience," adding that few churchmen went as far as Donne does in this poem "in questioning the justice of God's ways to man" (18-19). Ansari (1974, 143) writes that there is "a sharp and strong protest against the inscrutable cosmic order" in HSMin. Roston (1974, 58-59) argues that in HSMin Donne achieves an "inversion of the familiar" by placing the "hyperbolic vocabulary of the Counter Reformation" in a "new setting." Sellin (1974,192-96), noting that with the Reformation, God became less a be... nevolent deity and more a God who lay beyond the scope of human reason, thinks that HSMin dramatizes the position of Luther and Calvin on man's relation to God and God's will (192). Sellin states that Protestants lost the psychological comfort of being able to discern with certainty the Lord's intentions and that with the empha... sis on predestination one was unable to know for certain whether one was elect because God's ways were unsearchable. This perception of God, Sellin says, is dis... cernible in the drama and the lyric poetry of the Renaissance, and it is evident in the Holy Sonnets, specifically HSDue and HSMin. In HSMin, says Sellin, the oc... tave raises Luther's question, namely, "why does God lay our destruction to the charge of human will, when man cannot avoid it?" (193). Sellin states that in the sestet Donne answers the question the way that Luther answered it: "though you should ask much, you never find out" (193). See also Sellin under Holy Sonnets: General Commentary. Miller (1982, 836) finds that the sonnet opens "audaciously by accusing God of unfairness in the consequences He has decreed for original sin," but in the sestet the persona recognizes his unworthiness to dispute with God, begging that his "tears of guilt" might bring God "to overlook his sins rather than actually forgiving them." Although this sonnet, unlike HSBatter, "does not turn on a sexual image," Miller notes, it nonetheless contrasts "the lot of fallen man unfavorably with that of lech... erous goats, who have no decree of damnation over them." Sherwood (1984, 154) contends that the Holy Sonnets do not affirm rational ~ HSMin COMMENTARY General Commentary Potter (1934, 18-19) writes about Donne's "search for himself" that pointed him eventually towards religion. Noting that Donne's religious writings reveal his continuing quest and show that "he was not always satisfied to wait patiently till death should open wide the gates and let him in" (18), Potter cites HSMin as a poem that results from "such impatience," adding that few churchmen went as far as Donne does in this poem "in questioning the justice of God's ways to man" (18-19). Ansari (1974, 143) writes that there is "a sharp and strong protest against the inscrutable cosmic order" in HSMin. Roston (1974, 58-59) argues that in HSMin Donne achieves an "inversion of the familiar" by placing the "hyperbolic vocabulary of the Counter Reformation" in a "new setting." Sellin (1974,192-96), noting that with the Reformation, God became less a benevolent deity and more a God who lay beyond the scope of human reason, thinks that HSMin dramatizes the position of Luther and Calvin on man's relation to God and God's will (I 92). Sellin states that Protestants lost the psychological comfort of being able to discern with certainty the Lord's intentions and that with the emphasis on predestination one was unable to know for certain whether one was elect because God's ways were unsearchable. This perception of God, Sellin says, is discernible in the drama and the lyric poetry of the Renaissance, and it is evident in the Holy Sonnets, specifically HSDue and HSMin. In HSMin, says Sellin, the octave raises Luther's question, namely, "why does God lay our destruction to the charge of human will, when man cannot avoid it?" (193). Sellin states that in the sestet Donne answers the question the way that Luther answered it: "though you should ask much, you never find out" (193). See also Sellin under Holy Sonnets...