Holy Sonnet XV
Wilt thou love God, as he thee! then digest,My Soule, this wholsome meditation,How God the Spirit, by Angels waited onIn heaven, doth make his Temple in thy brest.The Father having begot a Sonne most blest,And still begetting, (for he ne'r begonne)Hath deign'd to chuse thee by adoption,Coheire to'his glory,'and Sabbaths endlesse rest.And as a robb'd man, which by search doth findeHis stolne stuffe sold, must lose or buy'it againe:The Sonne of glory came downe, and was slaine,Us whom he'had made, and Satan stolne, to unbinde.'Twas much, that man was made like God before,But, that God should be made like man, much more.
Words in this poem
- sonne n.
- A male child; the male issue, or offspring, of a parent, father or mother. [OE. sone, sune, AS. sunu; akin to D. zoon, OS., OFries., & OHG. sunu, G. sohn, Icel. sonr, Sw. son, Dan. sön, Goth. sunus, Lith. sunus, Russ. suin', Skr. sunu (]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Holy Sonnet XV 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 XV, in Poems (1633), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #48688, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/donne-poems/holy-sonnet-xv.html, id L20856.
Form and metre
Holy Sonnet XV is 14 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%).
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 ABBAABBAC-BCDD digestA · meditationB · onB · brestA · blestA · begonneB · adoptionB · restA · findeC · againe · slaineB · unbindeC · beforeD · moreD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Wilt thou love God, as he thee! then digest, | 10 | ········˘/ |
| My Soule, this wholsome meditation, | 9 | ······˘/˘ |
| How God the Spirit, by Angels waited on | 10 | ···/·/˘/˘· |
| In heaven, doth make his Temple in thy brest. | 10 | ·/···/˘··· |
| The Father having begot a Sonne most blest, | 11 | ·/˘/˘˘/···· |
| And still begetting, (for he ne'r begonne) | 10 | ··˘/˘····· |
| Hath deign'd to chuse thee by adoption, | 9 | ······˘/˘ |
| Coheire to'his glory,'and Sabbaths endlesse rest. | 12 | ····/˘·/˘··· |
| And as a robb'd man, which by search doth finde | 10 | ·········· |
| His stolne stuffe sold, must lose or buy'it againe: | 10 | ·········· |
| The Sonne of glory came downe, and was slaine, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Us whom he'had made, and Satan stolne, to unbinde. | 12 | ······/˘···· |
| 'Twas much, that man was made like God before, | 10 | ·········· |
| But, that God should be made like man, much more. | 10 | ·········· |
Notes from the edition 4
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 4 brest. W: brest, 1633-69
- Line 8 rest.] rest; 1633
- Line 11 Sonne 1633: Sunne 1633-69
- Line 12 stolne, 1633, A18, D, H49, N, TC: stole, 1635-69, B, O'F, S96, W, Chambers
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