[Poem] THE CANONIZATION - A Look into Donne’s Fusion of Sacred Imagery and Earthly Passion

The Canonization - John Donne

/The Canonization - John Donne/

An Exalted Tribute to Transformative Love

Note: The following presents John Donne’s “The Canonization” (public domain) in its entirety. Each line appears twice to mirror the previously requested format—original line followed by the identical line (both in Early Modern English, which is essentially the same as modern English for Donne’s text).

Original (Early Modern English) / Modern English (Identical Text)

For God's sake hold your tongue, and let me love;

Or chide my palsy, or my gout;

My five gray hairs, or ruin'd fortune flout;

With wealth your state, your mind with arts improve;

Take you a course, get you a place,

Observe his Honour, or his Grace;

Or the King's real, or his stamp'd face

Contemplate; what you will, approve,

So you will let me love.

Alas, alas, who's injured by my love?

What merchant's ships have my sighs drown'd?

Who says my tears have overflow'd his ground?

When did my colds a forward spring remove?

When did the heats which my veins fill

Add one more to the plaguey bill?

Soldiers find wars, and lawyers find out still

Litigious men, which quarrels move,

Though she and I do love.

Call us what you will, we are made such by love;

Call her one, me another fly,

We are tapers too, and at our own cost die,

And we in us find the eagle and the dove;

The phoenix riddle hath more wit

By us; we two being one, are it;

So, to one neutral thing both sexes fit,

We die and rise the same, and prove

Mysterious by this love.

We can die by it, if not live by love,

And if unfit for tombs and hearse

Our legend be, it will be fit for verse;

And if no piece of chronicle we prove,

We'll build in sonnets pretty rooms;

As well a well-wrought urn becomes

The greatest ashes, as half-acre tombs,

And by these hymns, all shall approve

Us canoniz'd for Love.

And thus invoke us: You, whom reverend love

Made one another's hermitage;

You, to whom love was peace, that now is rage;

Who did the whole world's soul contract, and drove

Into the glasses of your eyes

(So made such mirrors, and such spies,

That they did all to you epitomize)

Countries, towns, courts beg from above

A pattern of your love!

John Donne’s “The Canonization” is a witty, passionate defense of love against external criticism and societal norms. Written in the late 16th or early 17th century, it exemplifies Donne’s Metaphysical style—a blend of intellectual playfulness, complex conceits, and religious or spiritual imagery. The title itself, “The Canonization,” positions romantic love as worthy of the same veneration typically reserved for saints, an audacious move that underscores Donne’s core argument.

The poem opens with a direct plea: the speaker asks naysayers to divert their judgments and allow him to love in peace. Donne uses everyday concerns (like age, ailments, and social duties) to highlight how easily people surrender to trivial pursuits, as opposed to the transcendent power of genuine love. He then shifts to rhetorical questions that highlight the harmless nature of his affection, playfully asserting that neither tears nor sighs cause real harm in the world.

A central conceit unfolds as Donne frames the lovers’ union in near-mystical terms. Their passionate bond, he suggests, mirrors alchemical or mythical transformations: they are at once ordinary (‘flies,’ ‘tapers’) yet extraordinary (the ‘phoenix,’ the fusion of male and female energies). The poem argues that their love transcends traditional boundaries, even time and mortality, by lodging itself in art, namely through verse.

Donne then extends the metaphor of canonization, implying that future generations will ‘pray’ to these lovers as paragons of devotion. Their mutual affection becomes so powerful that it gathers the entire universe within itself—countries and courts become microcosms reflected in the lovers’ eyes. Ultimately, “The Canonization” asserts that authentic love, no matter how physically contained, can attain a sacred stature. Though it may disrupt social conventions, it inspires spiritual awe and unity far greater than the worldly matters its critics uphold.

By mixing religious terminology with distinctly human intimacy, Donne repositions love as both transcendent and sanctifying. The hallmark of “The Canonization” lies in its brilliant argument that genuine love deserves both reverence and immortal remembrance.

Key points

• Defends love against social judgment, depicting it as harmless yet all-encompassing.
• Employs bold conceits, combining sacred and secular imagery.
• Elevates romantic passion to a saintly or canonized status.
• Reflects the core Metaphysical style: intellectual ingenuity merged with emotional intensity.