I was recently asked if I was a Unitarian, because I preached on non-biblical texts. Even though I usually preach on scripture, at times there are other writings that I use to illustrate theological concepts. Among those are the Holy Sonnets of John Donne.

Eight years younger than Shakespeare, English writer John Donne lived from 1572 to 1631. Donne was one of the greatest poets in the English Renaissance, yet was conflicted. Even living in a violent era where healthcare was precarious, he experienced more than the usual amount of death and conflict.

As a soldier, Donne fought the Spanish, experienced the deaths of his beloved wife and six of his twelve children and suffered several severe illnesses himself. He experienced prison and ostracism because he dared to marry someone who differed from him in age, religion, and social class all in the name of love. But, perhaps the most stressful was the crisis of faith that he experienced. Reared in a Roman Catholic household he and his family experienced persecution, and death. He wavered between Catholicism and Anglicanism, before the Holy Spirit led him to the latter, and later, he took holy orders at the command of the king. Promoted to one of the most important clerical positions in London, he played an important role in establishing Protestantism in the city.

Donne used poetry to experience God, a relationship that was not always pleasant. Much of his writing is angry, and he rails at God for the many crises in his life. But he also used his poetry to reconcile with God, and to come to a greater understanding of the divine.

Death preoccupied Donne. It is the predominant theme his 19 poems now called the Holy Sonnets, although the poet did not intend them as a unit nor have published during his lifetime. The poetry Donne wrote is useful for exploring death because it deals with emotions, abandoning the language of reality to help both the writer and his audience deal with the tremendous mix of feelings death engenders. The sonnet form, new to England in Donne’s time, seems especially appropriate because its formal structure of 140 syllables, arranged in 14 lines each, requires the poet to choose words and their order carefully, often concealing the intended meaning until careful analysis makes it jump out.

Although not all of the Holy Sonnets focus on death, it is a recurring theme. Death was common before the 20th century with people dying at a younger age, often at home. The odds of a child reaching adulthood, or even its first birthday, were tenuous, and so, dealing with death was a more frequent occurrence then than it is now. Yet, however sanitized it might be, we should deal with it from a Christian perspective. For this reason, preaching on Donne’s poems can be helpful in getting congregants to realize that the fear of death is not irrational, but can be encountered with the knowledge that Jesus Christ conquered death. Donne was often scared and angry with death, but reconciled his fear with the certainty of eternal life in the conclusions of his poems. One of the sonnets I have often used is also probably his best known:

Here, Donne calls out death and reminds his adversary that, as Christians, he has no power over us. In Donne’s thinking, we are not unfamiliar with death, although we encounter its cousins, rest and sleep, regularly, and they are pleasurable. And, although Death relies on arbitrary things to function, for not everyone is affected regularly by sickness or violence, people can imitate the effect of death by sleeping. Yet, when the final sleep comes, it is not an ending, but a beginning of eternal life. Knowing that heaven awaits us negates the power of death. Donne ends by echoing the words of St. Paul in 1 Cor. 15:26, “The last enemy to be destroyed is death.”

Another one of the Holy Sonnets starts with a reference to Donne’s well-known love of the theatre:

Here, Donne compares life to a play, pilgrimage, and a footrace. Once examining how death will treat his body, he realizes that leaving his earthly form behind liberates his soul from both sin and the hassles of living. This poem is less triumphant than the previous one, yet provides the comforting message that, relieved of earthly cares, the soul will see God.

Another of Donne’s poems imagines the end of time:

This poem imagines the Day of Judgement, and, at first, addresses the angels who will be playing trumpets, as described in Cor. 15:52 — “For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.” Donne calls to mind incredible sounds and confusion as all the dead rise up and re-inhabit their earthly bodies. However, the second part of the poem (the sestet) where the poet talks to God applies to those currently living. He asks God to let the dead remain dead for a while, so the poet can mourn them, and also to give him time to confess his sins while alive.

I have these sonnets printed out on sheets which are folded and stapled when referring to them in church so they cannot be easily read while I am preaching. When the time comes in my sermon to examine the poem, I ask everyone to open the handout as I read the poem several times. Donne’s sonnets are almost like mysteries with meaning hidden in plain sight. It takes several hearings until the meaning jumps out, but once it does, I am able to explain how the poem relates to the gospel lesson or topic I am discussing.

Death is a serious topic that many Christians do not want to think about, however, it must be confronted. The Holy Sonnets are a good means of doing so.

Notes

1. Donne’s relationship with death is explored in Ramie Targoff’s “Facing Death,” published in Achscah Guibbory, ed., The Cambridge Companion to John Donne (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) 217-231.

2. General details about Donne’s life may be found in the chronology in Ilona Bell’s edition of his poems, John Donne—Selected Poems (London: Penguin, 2007) xv-xvii.

3. This is often labeled as Sonnet X, although there is no consistent numbering in the surviving sources, and wrong information has been promulgated about the order. For example, the chart on Wikipedia showing the order of the sonnets in the Westmoreland MS is completely wrong. Donne’s poems were not published during his lifetime, but did circulate amongst his friends in manuscript copies. These copies were the basis for the publication of the poems after Donne’s death. Poems in this article are taken from The Poems of John Donne, edited by E. K. Chambers (London: Lawrence & Bullen, 1896).

4. John Stubbs, John Donne—The Reformed Soul. (New York: W.W. Norton, 2006) 47. This sonnet is often listed as number VI.

5. Often listed as number VII.

About the author

Jeff Dailey wrote one article for this publication.

Dr. Jeff S. Dailey is the founding pastor of All Nations Lutheran Church in Manhattan.

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