John Donne as a Religiously Divine Poet

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Introduction

The name of John Donne is recalled in both the spaces of his distinctive love and divine poetry. His religious poetry deals with his love for Christ and God. Donne took to write religious poetry during the later years of his life, from 1609 to 1610. During that time, Donne was suffering from many mental and financial crisis. His wife had died and his financial condition was transformed into a dismal situation. He was also transitioning from Roman Catholic beliefs to the Anglicanism (following the beliefs of the English Church). The divine poems, nineteen in number, call forth "the problem of faith in a tortured world with its death and misery". Religious themes, the similarity of treatment in love and divine poetry, metaphysical elements and individualism are some chief characteristics of Donne's Divine poetry.

Religious Themes

Donne's divine poetry is thoroughly religious and does not discuss any other ideas or subjects. This is only possible through the religious themes displayed aptly in the particular sonnets. The first religious theme deals with the insignificance of Man in the grand scheme of the universe under divine powers. Donne discusses the temporary residence of Man on the planet earth and he eventually has to leave it just like Satan made Adam and Eve leave Paradise,

But our subtle foe so tempteth me
That not one hour myself I can sustain.

Just like any other religiously minded person, Donne expresses his fear of death in his Petrarchan Sonnets. Man commits many sins during his residence on the planet earth and he deems death as a punishment by God. When death shall arrive, his body and his sins shall be buried together,

Then as my soule, to heaven her first seate, takes flight
And earth-born body, in the earth shall dwell,
So, fall my sinnes, that all may have their right,
To where they bred.

The concept of one's accountability in the hereafter is vividly present in Donne's poetry. When the Day of Judgement shall arrive, no one will be able to escape from and everyone shall be held answerable for his good and evil-doings,

Thy Grace may wing me to prevent his art,
And thou like Adamant draw mine iron heart.

Similarity between Love and Divine Poetry

John Donne initially appeared as a poet of love but he retained many similarities in his divine poems as well. Just like his love poems, his divine poems are highly personal and represent his distinctive style. Donne was of the view that a person should select his religion after a careful study and observation. Donne was a Catholic by birth but his own philosophy motivated him to get into the door of the Church of England. He asks Christ to reveal true religion in his own distinctive fashion,

Show me, dear Christ,
Thy spouse so bright and clear.

Thus, Donne's treatment of true religion as a spouse is identical because his love poems are also based on the same idea to showcase a faithful spouse out of the bunch to whom Donne enjoyed his sensual love relations. Leishman's remarks on Donne's personal religious enterprise are highly agreeable,

Donne’s best religious poetry is intensely personal; not an exposition of Christian doctrine, but passionate and dramatic prayer to be delivered from temptations and distractions, to be made single-hearted, to find in God’s will his peace.

Metaphysical Elements

Donne's abrupt use of metaphysical elements in his religious poems makes his poetic genius appealing. He interprets the untouchable divine assets as sensual and concrete-beings. He uses the same solid imagery for the divine punishments and rewards. For instance, in Batter my Heart, he says, "Batter my Heart, Three Person’d God." Here, the metaphysical use of "batter" signify punishment and "Three-Personed God" hints at the Trinity. Beginning with a personal address to God, each poem shows a situation which transforms into an argument of for the case of mercy. For instance, he compares himself to an occupied town in the same poem mentioned above,

I, like an usurpt towne, to another due,
Labour to admit you, but Oh, to no end.

Donne is no Moralist

The last noticeable but important characteristic of Donne's religious poetry is that it is neither didactic [lesson giving like a teacher] nor moralistic. Donne wants the catharsis (satisfaction, relaxation) from his moods, sins and bad-doings during his search of God. Donne was the most sincere and truthful religious poet of the seventeenth century because it felt his religious passion to its extreme. W. B. Yeats notes,

His pedantries and his obscenities, the rock and loam of his Eden, but make us the more certain that one who is but a man like us all has seen God.

Conclusion

To simply put, Donne talks about his personal experiences of finding God in his Divine Poetry, just like his love poetry deal with his personal attachment to women, sex and marriage. Every art of Donne is appreciable but his holy sonnets are something beyond the collective approach of the people because these sonnets "make a universal drama of religious life, in which every moment may confront us with the final annulment of time." (A. J. Smith)