Title: Donne's "The Canonization": Its Theological Context and Its Religious Imagery
Abstract: THE CANONIZATION is an irrepressibly witty poem that impudently compares an erotic relationship to a saintly experience. As the speaker argues the case for sainthood, his mock-serious tone heightens the humor, and the wit of this secular love poem is derived from its ironic adaptation of religious images. But the conceit of erotic sainthood is integrated into a larger theological context that is suggested by the word pattern in the last line of the poem. As explained in Donne's sermons, connotations of this word reveal that the lovers in The Canonization resemble the Persons of the Trinity. Moreover, this resemblance is reinforced by the poem's religious images, particularly the dove, phoenix, and eagle. Interpreting The Canonization against a frame of reference provided by Donne's sermons and by Christian iconography will explain the theological context of the poem and will illuminate its religious images. Equally important, it will suggest the range of wit in The Canonization, for the poet moves freely between playful daring on the one hand and breezy blasphemy on the other. At the end of the poem, the speaker proposes an invocation that can be addressed to him and his beloved in heaven after they have achieved sainthood: And thus invoke us; You whom reverend love Made one anothers hermitage; You, to whom love was peace, that now is rage, Who did the whole worlds soule extract, and drove Into the glasses of your eyes So made such mirrors, and such spies, That they did all to you epitomize, Countries, Townes, Courts: Beg from above A patterne of your lovel (11. 37-45)
Publication Year: 1973
Publication Date: 1973-08-01
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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Cited By Count: 2
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