Holy Sonnet IV
Oh my blacke Soule! now thou art summonedBy sicknesse, deaths herald, and champion;Thou art like a pilgrim, which abroad hath doneTreason, and durst not turne to whence hee is fled,Or like a thiefe, which till deaths doome be read,Wisheth himselfe delivered from prison;But damn'd and hal'd to execution,Wisheth that still he might be imprisoned.Yet grace, if thou repent, thou canst not lacke;But who shall give thee that grace to beginne?Oh make thy selfe with holy mourning blacke,And red with blushing, as thou art with sinne;Or wash thee in Christs blood, which hath this mightThat being red, it dyes red soules to white.
Words in this poem
- repent a.
- Prostrate and rooting; -- said of stems. Gray. [L. repens, -entis, creeping, p. pr. of repere to creep.]
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- beginne v. i.
- To have or commence an independent or first existence; to take rise; to commence. [AS. beginnan (akin to OS. biginnan, D. & G. beginnen, OHG. biginnan, Goth., du-ginnan, Sw. begynna, Dan. begynde); pref. be- + an assumed ginnan. sq. root31. Se]
- sinne adv.
- Old form of Since. [Obs. or Prov.Eng. & Scot.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Holy Sonnet IV is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poems of John Donne, Volume 1 (of 2) Edited from the Old Editions and Numerous Manuscripts, Project Gutenberg ebook #48688; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: John Donne, Holy Sonnet IV, in Poems (1633), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #48688, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/donne-poems/holy-sonnet-iv.html, id L20845.
Form and metre
Holy Sonnet IV is 14 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 80%).
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 -AABBAA-CDCDEE summoned · championA · doneA · fledB · readB · prisonA · executionA · imprisoned · lackeC · beginneD · blackeC · sinneD · mightE · whiteE
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Oh my blacke Soule! now thou art summoned | 10 | ·······/˘˘ |
| By sicknesse, deaths herald, and champion; | 10 | ····/˘·/˘˘ |
| Thou art like a pilgrim, which abroad hath done | 11 | ····/˘·˘/·· |
| Treason, and durst not turne to whence hee is fled, | 11 | /˘········· |
| Or like a thiefe, which till deaths doome be read, | 10 | ·········· |
| Wisheth himselfe delivered from prison; | 10 | /˘··˘/˘·/˘ |
| But damn'd and hal'd to execution, | 9 | ······˘/˘ |
| Wisheth that still he might be imprisoned. | 10 | /˘·····˘/˘ |
| Yet grace, if thou repent, thou canst not lacke; | 10 | ····˘/···· |
| But who shall give thee that grace to beginne? | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Oh make thy selfe with holy mourning blacke, | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| And red with blushing, as thou art with sinne; | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Or wash thee in Christs blood, which hath this might | 10 | ·········· |
| That being red, it dyes red soules to white. | 10 | ·/˘······· |
Notes from the edition 1
Herbert Grierson's record of the readings of the early editions and manuscripts, from his Poems of John Donne (Oxford, 1912; Project Gutenberg #48688).
- Line 8 imprisoned. W: imprisoned; 1633-69
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