Notesale: Turn your study into money

Document Preview

Extracts from the notes are below, to see the PDF you'll receive please use the links above

---

Holy Sonnet VI
John Donne
This is my play’s last scene, here heavens appoint
My pilgrimage’s last mile: and my race
Idly, yet quickly run, hath this last pace,
My Span’s last inch, my minute’s latest point
And gluttonous death will instantly unjoint
My body’and soul, and I, shall sleep a space,
But my’ever-waking part shall see that face
Whose fear already shakes my every joint;
Then as my soul to’heaven, her first seat, takes flight,
And earth-born body in the earth shall dwell;
So fall my sins, that all my have their right,
To where they’are bred, and would press me to hell
...


Metaphors:
 Used to soften the idea of death

‘My play’s last scene…’
 Referring to life as a performance; links to Shakespeare; life is
inconsequential or unreal
 Is the end satisfying or is the audience (the soul?) left wanting more? Are
all the loose ends tied up or is there confusion left after?
 Life is less real than the afterlife – religious idea; it is only the world of
men, it’s not divine; suggests human life is deluded or insincere
 ‘My…’ – personal pronouns put him at the centre of the play, about his
life rather than others; contrast to Shakespeare’s universal attitude; only
his life that’s like that?
 Characteristic of Donne – only ever hear his side, implied response
never clarified
 Don’t know anything is true but yourself; others and your senses
can deceive you, only know own existence to be true

‘My pilgrimage’s last mile…’
 Religious connotations
 Penance – to atone for sins in preparation for death; echoes poem, ‘fall
my sins…’
 Relatable to the reader at the time – pilgrimage was a common
occurrence
 Suggests life was a hardship leading to something divine

‘My race… hath this last pace,’





Life as a competition – rat race
Destination – where is the finish line? Running towards death or away?
Speed – tiring, last effort; last step to take
Monosyllabic words create rhythm; halting steps, oxymoron

‘sleep a space
...
’
 No personal pronouns – detached; idea that soul is separate from body
 Hoping to return to where it came from – sins to hell, soul to heaven

scene – mile – pace – inch – point
 Getting smaller, nearer to the end
 Each little bit is becoming precious
 Perception of time changes as get older – goes faster; proportional to
life time
 Wanting to savour what is left of life – on some level doesn’t want it to
end; or counting down time till heaven

Themes:
Religion –
 Is it a prayer? He’s hoping to get to heaven; one sided conversation with
God
 Admitting he has sins to make up for
 ‘For thus I leave the world, the flesh, the Devil
...
fear already shakes my every
joint;’ – fear of the unknown, fear of judgement
 Dust to dust idea that the body will return to the earth while the soul
moves on to heaven

Structure:
 Long first line – suggests confidence that will get to heaven, but this
changes as the poem continues
 First half of the poem has a rhyme scheme of ABBA but this breaks up;
creates a spiralling movement which can be said to mimic descending
into hell
 The rhyming couplets are similar to those of Shakespeare – because they
were contemporaries?



---