Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Wednesday

Please continue your comments on "Hymn to God My God in My Sickness" here.

10 comments:

Victoria Burdette said...

Mr. Koon, today we discovered that the comment option was not available to us on this poem so I will comment here:

Today, Meagan and I discussed the analogy Donne uses in this poem in which he compares the speaker to a map. Within this analogy, the doctors who tend to the speaker become cosmographers and the speaker deals with straits. There is a play on words here as straits refers to passages of water that would likely be on a map but it can also refer to a difficult or distressing position which would go along with his illness. I think that the most interesting comparison in this analogy is in the third stanza where he compares east and west to death and resurrection. Although east and west are opposites, they are really just a continuation of each other on a map. Even though resurrection and death are opposites, resurrection will follow death in the speaker. This is likely a reference to eternal life as he is "coming to that holy room." Gotta love that juxtaposition.

Anonymous said...

Victoria and I also discussed the comparison Donne makes in the fifth stanza about Christ and Adam. The speaker of the poem states that Adam's tree in paradise and Christ's cross at Calvary represent the two ends of the spectrum, one signifying mans sinful ways and the other God's holiness and love. And because the two "stood in one place" both Adams can be found in the speaker. Since the speaker of the poem knows he is on his death bed he is probably comparing his life on earth to the first Adam (the sinful Adam) to before he enters Heaven, being washed in Christ's blood and made pure.

Unknown said...

I believe in the first stanza, the speaker compares himself to music like it is being used for god: "I shall be made thy music" (line 30. As he awaits entry into heaven, he "tunes" himself as an instrument. In order to prepare himself for his own interpretation of sacred song among the "choir of saint", he considers what he still has planned to do on Earth. In the second stanza, Donne shifts the concept and calls himself a map. He realizes that on a map the western most and eastern most points are the same. The speaker's life can be used as a lesson to preach that suffering and death are on the natural route to redemption. Overall, the speaker faces the possibility of his own death by focusing his preparations.

Unknown said...

I am commenting with the thoughts of Jawaun, Gabe, and myself. In the third stanza the speaker, presumably Donne,sets up the comparison of west to death and east to life. This could be due to the sun rising in the east and setting in the west or the fact that in his time the east was civilized and the west was unknown and dangerous. Therefore, the speaker says he is happy that his death is near due to the sickness mentioned in the title. In the next line he addresses the danger of the west and death, for no one that has traveled west has returned much like no one has ever returned from the dead. The speaker then questions the power of death by asking, "What shall my wet hurt me?" The speaker is almost challenging death which leads into the next line, as is it a justification of this position. It reads, "As west and east [death and life] in all flat maps [Donne's work] are one," He sets up the idea that he will be remembered forever through his poetry so that he will never actually die in spirit. However, the last line of this stanza, which is a slight problem area, creates a classic Donne paradox. By saying, "So death doth touch the resurrection," he is implying that his death will alter the view of his works and change how his memory is resurrected.

Unknown said...

Sam and I had stanza five. We began by getting a general overview of what was being described in the stanza. What we gathered from it is that the speaker is describing his fever and how he will soon die and begs to ensure he will be accepted to heaven. Now to break down the stanza. We thought the first two lines depict how both Adam and Jesus are exemplified in the speaker. Showing the cross as Jesus and the tree as Adam. The third line reaffirms this by explicitly telling us this information. The fourth line references his fever as well as how he has Adam in him (the human curse from the Garden of Eden) . The final line says that by the "last Adam" (jesus) , essentially saying by his sacrifice the speaker will get into heaven.

SDB said...

Will, Dale, and I examined the fourth stanza. This stanza contains a number of specific terms that ensure that this stanza is not as open to interpretation as others. These terms refer to specific locations. The first line refers to the pacific ocean, which, at that time, was mostly known as being off the east coast of Asia. The second line refers to Jerusalem and the Middle East. The next two refer to a number of straights, or narrow waterway passages between two isthmus's. And the last line refers to the three sons of Noah: Japheth, Cham, and Shem.

This can seem confusing. But, it makes sense when it is all put together with information from other stanzas. The first stanza makes reference to "that holy room", or heaven, so we can conclude that the speaker believes he is dying. The narrow straights in this stanza are compared to the idea that it is incredibly difficult to get into heaven.

The first and second, and the last lines refer to multiple locations. Obviously, the Pacific Ocean and Jerusalem are separate locations, but the sons of Noah requires a bit more thinking. After the flood, the world was divided among Noahs sons. Japhet received the North, Cham received the South, and Shem received the Middle.

While talking about these locations, the speaker expresses uncertainty in which location he is going to. Combined with the references to the afterlife, we can conclude that this stanza expresses the speakers uncertainty about wether he will go to heaven or hell after his death.

Unknown said...

I think Will and Dale had great insight, in that the speaker believed that he's not sure if he will be going to heaven. So i think the next few stanzas, is a continuation of that. How he's asking God to see himself in him. He asks God to "receive" him, and "give me his other crown." He mentions how he spoke Gods word to other souls (people, he was a preacher), but not only that, he says the Sermons were for him as well. "And as to other souls i preach'd thy word, be this my text, my sermon to mine own." meaning, that i think he's saying it wasn't just Gods word, it was his, that he took it to heart, and that he always examined himself. We can see that through his poetry as well. The last line troubled me though, and i don't understand it. but i can say that i find the last part amusing "...the Lord throws down"

Unknown said...

In relation to what Sydnee talks about regarding the usage of "straits", I also would like to evaluate on it's multiple uses in the 2nd stanza and its relation to the 4th. I can interpret that the use of straits as a double entendre allows a more connective insight to exactly what the speaker could be referring to. Donne seems to provide a humorous tone to what he puns with the straits that he travels along or pathways, to his difficulties. The difficulties he could be speaking of his soon to be pathway to heaven (his channel). In the 4th stanza, he says, "All straits, and none but straits, are ways to them,.." The specific names in the poem I did a little background check on and they consist of specific places among the European Seas and Channels. The value of him stating that all straits are ways to the places, as they are the ideal places of paradise. The "difficulty" to get to them by lying in the bed seems hard to comprehend, through the speaker's mind.

Patrick Williams said...

Reading Jeb, Gabe, and Jawaun's analysis led me to think of Holy Sonnet X, where Donne also challenges Death, albeit in a more direct way. Similar to Sonnet X, the speaker claims that he is not afraid of death, and that the concept of death should not be feared. Donne takes a more religious approach to this poem, and I think it enhances the idea of not being afraid of death. Because Donne's audience was mostly Christian, the common religious themes referenced in the poem (paradise, resurrection, Christ's cross, and Adam's tree, etc) appeal more to his audience. The speaker is saying that he is not afraid of death because he follows God, as that the poem serves as a "sermon to mine own." I think the poem definitely serves as a sermon, because it involves a lot more religious references than most of his other poems, and instead of focusing on love or relationships, if is more of a commentary on life and faith that I have not seen often from Donne.

Unknown said...

The speaker in the beginning of the poem talks about how is near death and how he will ascend into heaven. The speaker is very content with life and his home is to be with God and all places of holy nature is in one. There are unified before his presence and how every place God existed. In the final stanza the speaker focuses on the crucifixion and how his role on earth was responsible for teaching others about God and helping save souls for God.