John Donne's Poem 'Holy Sonnet XIV'

Sonnet “XIV” (Holy Sonnet 14)

John Donne’s poem “Sonnet XIV” delves into the speaker’s relationship with God and his enemy, Satan. Donne’s resolves the conflict of an overcrowded relationship through Paradox. Donne mainly relies on Paradox to convey the speaker asking God to be free from the enemy and sin.

The Form of John Donne’s poem “Sonnet XIV,” is a source of tension. When conflicting elements resist one another tension is produced. Therefore, Donne abandons the traditional Petrarchan Sonnet that conforms to a speakers love for a woman and he speaks about his love for God. The poem’s controlling meter is an Iambic Pentameter. The poems rhyme scheme is regular. The rhyme scheme of a Petrarchan sonnet being “abbaabbacdcdee”. The last

In the third quatrain, the couplet “Except you enthrall me, never shall be free/nor chaste except you ravish me” is paradoxical. Paradox is formed when two opposing things seem impossible but they’re actually true. In this line, we view the speaker referencing two contrasting things which are unless you captivate me, I will not have freedom, as well as I will never be pure unless you take me with force. Aside from the sexual nature of those statements and the fact that they seem insolvable, they are quite true. The only way for the speaker to be free from sin is for God to “enthrall” him and take control. The word enthrall is ambiguous, it can mean to charm or to enslave. Furthermore, some of the diction that the speaker uses like “viceroy” and “fain” are archaic for present day

Nonetheless, he says that he’s married to sin. Therefore, he and sin are bonded and the only way to be separated is for God to, as the speaker mentions “Divorce me untie me or break that knot again, take me to you, imprison me.” In this stanza, the speaker indicates to God that he wants him to destroy the relationship with the enemy and break the holds of sin. Just before the rhyming couplet that ends the poem, he again uses Paradox. When we actually glean that the speaker wants God to “imprison me” to be freed from sin. Its sounds quite ludicrous. He wants God to break the holds of the enemy but in return he wants to be bonded to God. However, it is true, to be free from the enemy and sin and imprisoned by God is to be liberated. In the last two stanzas of the poem we find the resolution. The speaker loves God and wants to be free from sin and the ties of the enemy. He makes it quite aware that he no longer wants to live a life of sin and he ask God to interfere and take