In preparation for our discussion of religious poetry by Donne, Marvell, Herbert, and Crashaw, read Rivers Chs. 7 (Reformation and Counter-Reformation) and 8 (Protestant Theology).  For Monday, April 19th, read Donne's Holy Sonnets 5, 13, and 14 and Marvell's "The Coronet."  Delete Bacon's "Of Superstition," listed on the syllabus, from the assignment.
 

Study Guide on Donne's Holy Sonnets and Marvell's "The Coronet"

I.  Selected Holy Sonnets by Donne

A.  Compare the language used to address God in the Holy Sonnets with the language used to address woman in Donne's secular love poetry.

B.  For my reading of Holy Sonnet 5 (which originally appeared in the journal Philological Quarterly), link to the online full-text database  Infotrac.

C.  How do these sonnets compare to Petrarchan love sonnets?  In particular, how does the blazon in Holy Sonnet 13 compare with the blazon in the ninth sonnet of Philip Sidney's Petrarchan sonnet sequence Astrophil and Stella (page 462 in the Norton)?  (Recall from class that a blazon is a systematic extended metaphor in which the various features of the lady's face and/or body are compared to various beautiful things and substances.) Also, analyze the logic of Donne's speaker in the sonnet in light of the Petrarchan tradition of the "cruel fair" (the beautifully fair yet cruelly pitiless beloved) in the following two poems: Ralegh's "Nature, That Washed Her Hands in Milk" (p. 1026 in the Norton) and Sonnet #47 from Spenser's sonnet sequence, Amoretti:

  Trust not the treason of those smyling lookes,
  Untill ye have thyr guylfull traynes well tryde:
  For they are lyke but unto golden hookes,
  That from the foolish fish thyer bayts doe hyde:
  So she with flattring smyles weake harts doth guyde
  Unto her love, and tempte to theyr decay,
  Whome being caught she kills with cruell pryde,
  And feeds at pleasure on the wretched pray:
  Yet even whylst her bloody hands them slay,
  Her eyes looke lovely and upon them smyle:
  That they take pleasure in her cruell play,
  And dying doe them selves of payne beguyle.
  O mighty charm which makes men love theyr bane,
  And thinck they dy with pleasure, live with payne.

D.   How does the sexual language in the poem contribute to the its overarching effect?

E.  Holy Sonnet 14 proceeds from and creatively explores number of Christian doctrines:

How does the form of the poem and the speaker's use of language evoke the mystery of God as a trinity of three persons (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit)?
How does the speaker interpret the Christian idea that the true Church, and each individual human soul, is the Bride of Christ?
How successful is the speaker of the poem in responding to Christ's dictum, "Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself . . ."  That is, to what extent does the speaker really surrender himself to God (watch for his use of the pronouns "I" [nominative] and "me" [objective]).
 
II.  Marvell's "The Coronet"
A.  Seek to define and explicate the meanings and nuances in the following words as used in "The Coronet":
fruits
flowers
towers
summed up
rich
weave
speckled
disguised
interest
knots
curious
frame
spoils
crown

B.  In context, what does it mean to "crown . . . feet"?

C.  Is "The Coronet" a rejection or renunciation of devotional poetry?

D.  Does Donne's speaker in the assigned Holy Sonnets seem conscious of the issues raised in "The Coronet"?  Does Donne himself (as the poet who invented and shaped those sonnets) seem aware of the issues that concern Marvell's speaker and Marvell himself as a poet?  (For my take on these questions, see the link to my article in section I.B above).