HYMN TO GOD THE FATHER
HYMN TO GOD THE FATHER
IGNOU MEG01 BLOCK-2 Unit-13 John Donne: Portrait of the Man, His Thematic and Technical Innovations and textual study of four Love Poems
Religious poetry
A song to the Godfather
three close-knit stanzas.
Each stanza has six lines.
Rhyme scheme is “ABABAB”.
Poet is in a sad mood, confessing and asking for repentance and forgiveness.
Words and meanings -
Wilt - What
Thou - You
Deplore - feel or express strong disapproval of (something).
Shun - avoid, ignore or close door
Wallowed - indulge in an unrestrained way in (something that one finds pleasurable).
Spin - Past tense Spun (revolve)
Heretofore - Before now
In each stanza the poet beseeches God to forgive his sins. But in the first two stanzas he is not sure that all his sins would be forgiven. It is only towards the end of the poem that he gains full faith in God's magnanimity.
His sins are multitudinous and he does not have any face to ask God for writing off all his sins at one go. Moreover, he is unsure of refraining from future sins.
In the second stanza the same prayer for forgiveness continues with a modification. Here he talks about his abetting others to commit a sin. EIe also talks about his sin that he committed a year or two ago. He shunned it and was tempted to commit numerous other sins.
The third stanza is a resolution of the conflict that raged in the poet's mind. The conflict was between the consciousness of sill and a profound yearning for forgiveness. At last, all doubts and uncertainties are still and the poet has a feeling that God is satisfied with his penitence and that the divine grace that forgave many a sin of his will continue doing so in future.
You can check out my YouTube videos on the same topic where I have explained everything in Hindi in detail. Links are below-
Block-3 The Metaphysical Poets: Donne, Herbert
More related and helpful links in the description box of my YouTube channel.
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