Topic > Dynamics and Movement: Importance of Poem Structure in Sacred Sonnet I

In his nineteen sacred sonnets, John Donne contemplates his mortality and explores themes of divine love and judgment alongside his deep personal issues. In the first sacred Petrarchan sonnet "You created me", Donne presents a hopeless situation in which death and hell loom before the speaker because of his sins, and God's grace is the only way through which can be saved. The poem centers on the speaker's inevitable connection with death, his growing desperation over the fear of falling into hell, and his plea to God to help him. There is extensive use of movement, both the physical circumstances of the speaker and the technical aspects of the poem, which reflects the situation and creates tension in the poem. In Holy Sonnet I, Donne uses movement in the poem's structure and subject matter to describe the speaker's entrapment and God's role in resolving his predicament. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Donne's Holy Sonnet 1 is chilling because of the closeness the reader feels to the speaker's situation. The sonnet is written in the first person, which, in addition to the vivid imagery and dramatic speed with which the poem moves, creates a more intimate experience for the reader with such impending death. The poem consists of an octave and a sestet. In the eighth, Donne describes the speaker's situation: his entrapment in the labyrinth of despair in which only Death from Hell awaits him at the exit. In the next sextet, Donne explores the speaker's hope as he looks to God for help. In the poem, the large amount of movement depicted in the speaker's situation creates heightened tension and describes how he is trapped in his anxiety and unlucky to fall into hell unless he finds a source of salvation. The speaker “[runs] toward death, and death meets [him] just as quickly” (3). Gripped by the terror of this inevitable collision, the speaker has lost all sense of pleasure like yesterday. The words “run,” “meet,” and “fast” are then immediately followed by stillness, as the speaker “[dares] not to move [his] dim eyes in any way” (5), because he is trapped by the desperation behind of him. and “death first [that casts] / such terror” (6). The syntax of these lines changes along with the physical situation of the speaker. The separation of line 3 into the speaker running towards death and then death meeting him also reflects the image of death enclosing him from all sides. This use of line order is repeated in line 6, where despair is behind and death is in front. The active attitude that death and desperation assume, for example "death meets me" (3) instead of "I meet death", contributes to the disturbing image of death that "casts / so much terror" (6) as if she were alive as the speaker is and serves to increase the tension in the poem. Donne continues to describe the “flesh weak [wasting away] / Because of sin… and [weighs towards hell]” (7). The action of the flesh, emphasized as “weak” with the use of alliteration, which projects the speaker towards hell, contributes to the inevitable element of the situation. The parallel structure of lines six, seven, and eight, in which with "death first throws / So much terror, and [his] weak flesh wastes / ... in it, which weighs towards hell" makes use of repetition of the word “does”. Such repeated use of the same word, and therefore the emphasis on the expression of terror and wasting flesh heading towards hell, intensifies the terror felt by the speaker and the labyrinthine situation. At the end of line nine, the word “weigh” and the.