Collected Poems of John Donne
John Donne (1571-1631)
Holy Sonnet 14 [1618]
Batter my heart, three-personed God, for you
As yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend;
That I may rise, and stand, o'erthrow me, and bend
Your force to break, blow, burn, and make me new.
I, like an usurped town, to another due,
Labour to admit you, but Oh, to no end.
Reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend,
But is captived, and proves weak or untrue.
Yet dearly I love you, and would be loved fain,
But am betrothed unto your enemy:
Divorce me, untie or break that knot again,
Take me to you, imprison me, for I,
Except you enthrall me, never shall be free,
Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.
Questions for Discussion
1. In Holy Sonnet 14, “Batter My Heart,” the central conflict is between:
A) earthly love and heavenly love
B) God and the Devil
C) freedom and slavery
D) the speaker and temptation to sin
2. The structure of Holy Sonnet 14 is:
A) a series of paradoxes and commands
B) a series of rhetorical questions
C) a love sonnet
D) a conversation between God and man
3. The predominant images in the poem are all associated with:
A) love
B) hardship
C) violence
D) divorce
4. The line from Holy Sonnet 14 that states the speaker may “never be chaste lest thou ravish me” is an example of a(n):
A) simile
B) metaphor
C) allusion
D) paradox
A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning [1611]
As virtuous men pass mildly away,
And whisper to their souls to go,
Whilst some of their sad friends do say,
"The breath goes now," and some say, "No,"
So let us melt, and make no noise,
No tear-floods, nor sigh-tempests move;
'Twere profanation of our joys
To tell the laity our love.
Moving of the earth brings harms and fears,
Men reckon what it did and meant;
But trepidation of the spheres,
Though greater far, is innocent.
Dull sublunary lovers' love
(Whose soul is sense) cannot admit
Absence, because it doth remove
Those things which elemented it.
But we, by a love so much refined
That our selves know not what it is,
Inter-assured of the mind,
Care less, eyes, lips, and hands to miss.
Our two souls therefore, which are one,
Though I must go, endure not yet
A breach, but an expansion.
Like gold to airy thinness beat.
If they be two, they are two so
As stiff twin compasses are two:
Thy soul, the fixed foot, makes no show
To move, but doth, if the other do;
And though it in the center sit,
Yet when the other far doth roam,
It leans, and hearkens after it,
And grows erect, as that comes home.
Such wilt thou be to me, who must,
Like the other foot, obliquely run;
Thy firmness makes my circle just,
And makes me end where I begun.
Questions for Discussion
1. The speaker in the poem is a
A) man who wants to get away from his lover.
B) friend of a dying man.
C) churchman.
D) man who wants to travel.
E) lover who must leave on a journey.
2. Which of the following best describes the speaker’s point of view in stanzas 3, 4, and 5?
A) True lovers can separate without causing major disturbances.
B) Earthquakes cause more problems than the movement of heavenly bodies.
C) People who depend on physical love are similar to the stars and planets.
D) A person should not miss his lover’s lips and eyes.
E) Lovers have better minds and senses than other people.
3. All of the following are figurative images in the poem EXCEPT
A) virtuous men.
B) trepidation of the spheres.
C) eyes, lips, and hands.
D) gold to airy thinness beat.
E) the fixt foot (of a compass).
4. The subject of the poem is
A) death
B) true lovers parting
C) a compass
D) the nature of the earth
E) a journey
5. The tone of the poem is
A) sanguine
B) paradoxical
C) humorous
D) melancholy
E) sardonic
6. The poem’s major conceit is
A) lovers as a compass
B) earthquakes and celestial movement
C) virtuous men and death
D) love as thin gold
E) virtuous men and love
7. The phrase “laity of love” in line 8 refers to
A) clergymen in love
B) lovers who need physical sensation for their love
C) lovers who can abide absences
D) love remaining after death
E) nonreligious people who worship love
8. According to Donne, true love
A) can tolerate separation
B) belongs to the “laity of love”
C) dies like virtuous men
D) is the “trepidation of the spheres”
E) is “sublunary lovers’ love”
9. “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning” is what kind of poem?
A) ode
B) sonnet
C) narrative
D) elegy
E) lyric
10. In the last stanza, the speaker talks of
A) dying
B) leaving his lover
C) returning to his lover
D) making a trip similar in route to a circle
E) missing his lover
Love's Diet
To what a cumbersome unwieldiness
And burdenous corpulence my love had grown,
But that I did, to make it less,
And keep it in proportion,
Give it a diet, made it feed upon
That which love worst endures, discretion
Above one sigh a day I allow'd him not,
Of which my fortune, and my faults had part ;
And if sometimes by stealth he got
A she sigh from my mistress' heart,
And thought to feast upon that, I let him see
'Twas neither very sound, nor meant to me.
If he wrung from me a tear, I brined it so
With scorn and shame, that him it nourish'd not ;
If he suck'd hers, I let him know
'Twas not a tear which he had got ;
His drink was counterfeit, as was his meat ;
For eyes, which roll towards all, weep not, but sweat.
Whatever he would dictate I writ that,
But burnt her letters when she writ to me ;
And if that favour made him fat,
I said, "If any title be
Convey'd by this, ah ! what doth it avail,
To be the fortieth name in an entail?"
Thus I reclaim'd my buzzard love, to fly
At what, and when, and how, and where I choose.
Now negligent of sports I lie,
And now, as other falconers use,
I spring a mistress, swear, write, sigh, and weep ;
And the game kill'd, or lost, go talk or sleep.
Questions for Discussion
1. The extended metaphor of stanzas 1–4 compares love to
A) an unwilling dieter
B) an illness
C) an unruly child
D) a prisoner in jail
E) a lawyer
2. In line 2, the verb “had grown” would be written by a modern prose writer as
A) grew
B) has grown
C) would have grown
D) did grow
E) has been growing
3. The figure of speech used through stanzas 1–4 is an example of
A) simile
B) personification
C) irony
D) ambiguity
E) apostrophe
4. In the last line of the second stanza, the speaker suggests that
A) the lady is deeply in love
B) only men, not women, sigh for love
C) the lady does not sigh for him
D) the sighs of the lady are more genuine than his
E) true love cannot feast on sighs
5. According to the second and third stanzas, the food and drink by which love grows are
A) faults and fortunes
B) scorn and shame
C) the heart and the eyes
D) sighs and tears
E) stealth and counterfeiting
6. The metaphor of lines 22–24 compares winning the lady’s favor with
A) finishing in the fortieth position in a race
B) being obligated to work for forty days
C) inheriting a fortune
D) waiting until middle age to be married
E) being placed very low on a long list
7. According to the poem, which of the following is not a potentially fattening food?
A) sighs
B) a man’s tears
C) a lady’s tears
D) discretion
E). love letters
8. The word “Thus” which begins the last stanza of the poem refers to
A) “entail” (line 24)
B) lines 19 and 20
C) stanza 1
D) stanza 4
E) lines 1–24
9. In lines 27–28, the repeated “Now” . . .“now” would be phrased in modern English
A) sometimes . . . other times
B) now . . . then
C) both . . . and
D) if now . . . then
E) once . . . now
10. In the next-to-last line of the poem, the three verbs “sigh,” “weep,” and “write” are used to
I. recall the events of stanzas 2, 3, and 4
II. show how deeply the speaker now feels about love
III. recount the expected behavior of a lover
A) II only
B) I and II only
C) I and III only
D) II and III only
E) I, II, and III
11. In stanza 5, all the following words are part of the central metaphor EXCEPT
A) “fly” (line 25)
B) “negligent” (line 27)
C) “spring” (line 29)
D) “game” (line 30)
E) “killed” (line 30)
12. In the final stanza of the poem, the speaker
A) has changed and now accepts the possibility of a genuine love
B) is more respectful of women than he was at the beginning of the poem
C) has become pessimistic about the love of women
D) is self-congratulating, cynical, and content
E) is divided in his mind — wanting to believe in love but afraid of commitment
13. Which of the following best describes the logical organization of the poem?
A) Stanza 1 — stanzas 2, 3, 4 — stanza 5
B) Stanza 1 — stanzas 2, 3 — stanzas 4, 5
C) Stanzas 1, 2 — stanza 3 — stanzas 4, 5
D) Stanzas 1, 2, 3 — stanzas 4, 5
E) Stanza 1 — stanza 2 — stanzas 3, 4, 5
14. The poem draws its imagery from all the following EXCEPT
A) falconry
B) law
C) eating
D) drinking
E) music
15. Of the following words, which best suggest by their sound and length the qualities that they denote?
A) “cumbersome unwieldiness and burdenous corpulence” (lines 1–2)
B) “A she sigh” (line 10)
C) “that that favor made him fat” (line 21)
D) “the fortieth name in an entail” (line 24)
E) “buzzard love” (line 25)
16. The poem alludes to all the following conventional ideas about how a lover should behave EXCEPT
A) the lover is unable to sleep
B) the lover is melancholy and often weeps
C) the lover sits alone thinking about the loved one
D) the lover is so distracted by love that his clothes are disheveled
E) the lover writes tender love letters to the beloved
1. A
2. C
3. B
4. C
5. D
6. E
7. D
8. E
9. A
10. C
11. B
12. D
13. A
14. E
15. A
16. D
Holy Sonnet 10 [c.1601-1610]
Death, be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadful, for thou are not so;
For those whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow
Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me.
From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be,
Much pleasure; then from thee much more must flow,
And soonest our best men with thee do go,
Rest of their bones, and soul's delivery.
Thou'art slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men,
And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell,
And poppy'or charms can make us sleep as well
And better than thy stroke; why swell'st thou then?
One short sleep past, we wake eternally,
And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die.
Questions for Discussion
1. Which of the following best summarizes the speaker's message to death?
A) "I fear that you will vanquish me."
B) "You are a monstrous devil."
C) "Nothing can ever stop you."
D) "You have no real power over me."
E) "You have every reason to be arrogant."
2. The word closest to the meaning of "but" in line 5 is
A) only.
B) not.
C) also.
D) consequently.
E) thus.
3. "Thou art slave to fate, chance, kings and desperate men, And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell..." (lines 9 and 10)
In these lines, the speaker portrays Death as
A) unyieldingly strong.
B) peaceful and attractive.
C) weak and unappealing.
D) exaggerated and laughable.
E) threatening but unbelievable.
4. To "wake eternally" (line 13) means to
A) survive illness.
B) enter Heaven.
C) embrace Death.
D) understand life.
E) regain one's faith.
5. In line 6, the speaker personifies Death as
A) an evil leader who chases people.
B) a teacher who instructs learned men.
C) a guide who takes people away.
D) a sea captain.
E) a kind and gentle savior.
6. Who would me most likely to appreciate the main idea of this poen?
A) a doctor
B) a pastor or rabbi
C) New parents
D) A woman about to be married
E) A person close to death
What is the message of Holy Sonnet
10, “Death Be Not Proud”?
a) Death can never triumph because faith
grants eternal life.
b) Death is part of life and is both good and
evil.
c) Were it not for death, humans could never
appreciate life.
d) who cares about death?
34) The poet’s tone in “Death Be Not Proud” is:
a) respectful and apologetic
b) confident and confrontational
c) sarcastic and cruel
d) matter-of-fact
The Legacy
When I died last, and, Dear, I die
As often as from thee I go,
Though it be but an hour ago,
And Lovers’ hours be full eternity,
I can remember yet, that I
Something did say, and something did bestow;
Though I be dead, which sent me, I should be
Mine own executor and legacy.
I heard me say, “Tell her anon,
That myself, that is you, not I,
Did kill me,” and when I felt me die,
I bid me send my heart, when I was gone,
But alas could there find none,
When I had ripp’d me, and search’d where hearts should lie;
It kill’d me again, that I who still was true,
In life, in my last will should cozen you.
Yet I found something like a heart,
But colors it, and corners had,
It was not good, it was not bad,
It was intire to none, and few had part.
As good as could be made by art
It seem’d, and therefore for our losses sad,
I meant to send this heart in stead of mine,
But oh, no man could hold it, for ’twas thine.
Questions for Discussion
1. Which of the following most accurately describes the poem?
A) The poem is a dialogue between the speaker and his beloved.
B) The poem is the speaker’s will left behind after his death.
C) The poem presents the direct address of the speaker to his beloved.
D) The poem presents a speaker directly addressing a general reader.
E) The poem is a letter directed to the writer’s beloved.
2. In line 4, the phrase “lovers’ hours be full eternity” is saying that
A) time flies when you are in love
B) lovers are never on time
C) lovers are so happy that they think they are in heaven
D) the joys of love are everlasting
E) to lovers, an hour apart seems like forever
3. The word “executor” in line 8 can be best understood to mean
A) a chief officer or director
B) an heir designated in a will to inherit money or property
C) a funeral undertaker
D) a person responsible for carrying out the terms of a will
E) a hangman or executioner
4. In the first stanza, there are metaphors in all the following lines EXCEPT
A) line 1
B) line 3
C) line 4
D) line 7
E) line 8
5. In stanza two, the phrase “myself (that’s you, not I)” can be best explained by the fact that
A) lovers were said to exchange hearts
B) love has so confused the speaker that he cannot distinguish one person from another
C) a man who is in love is not himself
D) “that” refers to “her,” not to “myself”
E) the parenthesis is not to be understood as part of this sentence
6. In line 15, the speaker’s second death (“it killed me again”) is caused by
A) his ripping open his chest in search of a heart
B) his failure to keep his word to his beloved
C) his separation from his loved one
D) his fear of her being unfaithful to him
E) his wish to make the loved one feel guilty
7. In line 16, the word “cozen” can be best defined as
A) to intimidate
B) to disinherit
C) to be related to
D) to cheat
E) to care for
8. The idea in stanza one, line 8, of the speaker becoming “his own legacy” is explained in stanza 2 in
A) line 9
B) line 12
C) line 13
D) line 14
E) line 16
9. In line 18, the phrase “corners had” is used to mean “was flawed” or “was imperfect” because
I. the circle, not the square, was considered to be the perfect form.
II. it is difficult to see around corners.
III. four is thought to be a lucky number.
A) I only
B) II only
C) III only
D) I and II only
E) I, II, and III
10. The idea of “it was entire to none” (line 20) is repeated in
A) the second part of line 20 (“and few had part”)
B) line 21 (“as good as could be made by art”)
C) line 22 (“for our losses sad”)
D) line 23 (“this heart instead of mine”)
E) line 24 (“no man could hold it”)
11. Unlike the first and second stanzas, the third stanza
A) relies heavily on figurative language
B) uses odd word order in order to make the lines rhyme
C) is critical of the lover
D) uses both the first and third person pronouns
E) expresses the speaker’s continued love for the lady
12. On which of the following characteristics of the lady does the poem focus?
A) her beauty
B) her sincerity
C) her fickleness
D) her vanity about her beauty
E) her concern with appearances
13. Which of the following best describes the purpose of the poem as a whole?
A) to express the speaker’s love
B) to condemn the loved one’s faithlessness
C) to come to terms with the imminence of separation
D) to stress the importance of mutuality in love
E) to lament the brevity of life and love
1. C
2. E
3. D
4. B
5. A
6. B
7. D
8. B
9. A
10. E
11. C
12. C
13. B