The Sonne
O Sonne of God, who seeing two things,Sinne, and death crept in, which were never made,By bearing one, tryed'st with what stingsThe other could thine heritage invade;O be thou nail'd unto my heart,And crucified againe,Part not from it, though it from thee would part,But let it be, by applying so thy paine,Drown'd in thy blood, and in thy passion slaine.
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 (]
- sinne adv.
- Old form of Since. [Obs. or Prov.Eng. & Scot.]
- heritage a.
- That which is inherited, or passes from heir to heir; inheritance. [OE. heritage, eritage, OF. heritage, eritage, F. héritage, fr. hériter to inherit, LL. heriditare. See Hereditable.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Sonne 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, The Sonne, in Poems (1633), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #48688, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/donne-poems/the-sonne.html, id L05011.
Form and metre
The Sonne is 9 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABABCDCDD. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 83%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.1 syllables. 11% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 ABABCDCDD thingsA · madeB · stingsA · invadeB · heartC · againeD · partC · paineD · slaineD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| O Sonne of God, who seeing two things, | 9 | ·····/˘·· |
| Sinne, and death crept in, which were never made, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| By bearing one, tryed'st with what stings | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| The other could thine heritage invade; | 10 | ·/˘··/˘˘˘/ |
| O be thou nail'd unto my heart, | 8 | ········ |
| And crucified againe, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Part not from it, though it from thee would part, | 10 | ·········· |
| But let it be, by applying so thy paine, | 11 | ·····˘/˘··· |
| Drown'd in thy blood, and in thy passion slaine. | 10 | ·······/˘· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.