G. M. Hopkins Heaven-haven
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- Poetic devices
- Imagery
- Deathbed drama
- Black, red, white
- Images of wrongdoing
- Act of grace
GlossaryChampion - In Donne's time, a champion was one who fought battles for another. IE, sickness both announces the coming of death (herald) and helps bring it about (champion). Overall ExplanationIt is reasonable to assume that this poem was written during a time of sickness for Donne, because it explores the idea of Donne's death with some anguish. Donne looks into his soul and finds it full of evil ("black"). He compares it first to someone who has committed a terrible wrong in some country and doesn't dare return. In this comparison, the country which has suffered this horrible wrong represents God. In his second comparison, his soul is a thief, who wants to get out of prison until he is sentenced to death, at which time life in prison looks quite appealing! Donne builds up the intensity of the poem with circular reasoning - he needs the grace to repent, but will not have grace until he repents. The ending is a poweful one, partially because Donne employs the paradox of red blood dying something white to create a strong image in the mind. What he means here of course is that the reality of Christ dying for to save humans' souls - the tangible red blood, is enough to make us pure in the eyes of God (white souls). Poetic devices
Imagery
Generally
Deathbed dramaThis sonnet is a deathbed drama like ‘This is my playes last scene’. Here, however, Donne is not just meditating on death but is lying seriously ill, with every possibility that he might die. It anticipates several poems he wrote in similar circumstances in later life, such as A Hymn to God the Father. As in most of the sonnets, Donne is talking, or arguing with someone. Here it is himself, under the guise of his soul. Black, red, whiteThe colour symbolism of the sonnet is obviously important. The opening image of sickness being death's ‘herald’, who announces his coming (as well as his champion, who fights on his behalf) should remind us that in heraldry colours play a symbolic function, as they do here. Black represents the sinfulness which mars the poet’s soul, red the blood of Christ which can bring forgiveness, and white the innocence for which he longs. Investigating Oh my blacke Soule
Images of wrongdoing
Act of graceIn this sonnet there is a bridge passage between the octave and the concluding part. ll.9-10 start as a statement of some assurance, but then turn into an agonised question. Faith does not come easily for Donne. More on grace: Grace (through which humans are believed to receive undeserved forgiveness and gifts from God) is a central concept in Christian thinking (John 1:17). Because human beings are seen as predisposed to disobey God, they are unable to enter a relationship with him without his forgiveness and ongoing help. As Donne suggests here, this help includes both assistance in turning to turn to God in the first place (‘the grace to begin’) and willingness to repent Ephesians 2:4-5). It is also believed to include the presence of the Holy Spirit with the individual to bring about a new way of living. Such help is an undeserved gift from God and relies upon him taking the initiative. The last four lines try to answer the question about grace. The poet seems to offer alternative answers, saying ‘really repent and blush red for shame’ or ‘wash thee in Christ's blood’, which, too, is red. In fact, in Christian teaching, the two are not alternatives but part of the same process. To repent is to be washed of those sins, as 1 John 1:9 makes clear. More on ‘wash thee in Christ's blood’: the phrase is taken from older translations of Revelation 1:5, with which Donne would have been familiar. It also occurs in the Anglican Prayer Book (the Book of Common Prayer) in the liturgy for communion. The prayer of humble access,beginning ‘We do not presume to come’ contains the phrase ‘our souls washed through his most precious blood’. The idea of blood taking away the guilt of sin comes from the sacrificial system of the Old Testament, when animals were sacrificed to atone for human sin. In the New Testament, Jesus Christ is described as having made a ‘once for all’ sacrifice to atone for sin Hebrews 10:11-14, with the shedding of his blood making forgiveness possible. Investigating Oh my blacke soule
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