Donne on Sunday

Divine Meditations

6
This is my play’s last scene, here heavens appoint
My prilgrimage’s last mile; and my race
Idly, yet quickly run, hath this last pace,
My span’s last inch, my minute’s last point,
And gluttonous death, will instantly unjoint
My body, and soul, and I shall sleep a space,
But my’ever-waking part shall see that face,
Whose fear already shakes my very joint:
Then, as my soul, to heaven her first seat, takes flight,
and earth-born body, in the earth shall dwell,
So, fall my sins, that all may have their right,
To where they are bred, and would press me, to hell.
Impute me righteous, thus purged of evil,
For thus I leave the world, the flesh, and devil.

—John Donne The Complete Poems (Penguin 1971)

__________
For the most part, I think these sonnets are more a demonstration of clever Donne than devout Donne. But clever Donne fudges in line 7, eliding my with ever to make a single syllable mever and thus keep the pentameter true. To my taste, the line might have had more interest had he let it get a bit rough. Then it might not have been so cold. For cleverness, I prefer sexy Donne.

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