Analysis of The Annunciation And Passion
John Donne 1572 (London) – 1631 (London)
TAMELY, frail body, abstain to-day ; to-day
My soul eats twice, Christ hither and away.
She sees Him man, so like God made in this,
That of them both a circle emblem is,
Whose first and last concur ; this doubtful day
Of feast or fast, Christ came, and went away ;
She sees Him nothing, twice at once, who's all ;
She sees a cedar plant itself, and fall ;
Her Maker put to making, and the head
Of life at once not yet alive, yet dead ;
She sees at once the Virgin Mother stay
Reclused at home, public at Golgotha ;
Sad and rejoiced she's seen at once, and seen
At almost fifty, and at scarce fifteen ;
At once a son is promised her, and gone ;
Gabriell gives Christ to her, He her to John ;
Not fully a mother, she's in orbity ;
At once receiver and the legacy.
All this, and all between, this day hath shown,
Th' abridgement of Christ's story, which makes one—
As in plain maps, the furthest west is east—
Of th' angels Ave, and Consummatum est.
How well the Church, God's Court of Faculties,
Deals, in sometimes, and seldom joining these.
As by the self-fix'd Pole we never do
Direct our course, but the next star thereto,
Which shows where th'other is, and which we say
—Because it strays not far—doth never stray,
So God by His Church, nearest to him, we know,
And stand firm, if we by her motion go.
His Spirit, as His fiery pillar, doth
Lead, and His Church, as cloud ; to one end both.
This Church by letting those days join, hath shown
Death and conception in mankind is one ;
Or 'twas in Him the same humility,
That He would be a man, and leave to be ;
Or as creation He hath made, as God,
With the last judgment but one period,
His imitating spouse would join in one
Manhood's extremes ; He shall come, He is gone ;
Or as though one blood drop, which thence did fall,
Accepted, would have served, He yet shed all,
So though the least of His pains, deeds, or words,
Would busy a life, she all this day affords.
This treasure then, in gross, my soul, uplay,
And in my life retail it every day.
Scheme | AABCAADDEEAFGGHIAJKLMNOOPAAAQQFFKLJJRSLHDDTUDA |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1110011111 1111110001 1111111101 1111010101 1101011101 1111110101 1111011111 1101010101 0101110001 1111110111 1111010101 1111011 1001111101 111001101 1101110001 111101011 110010101 1101000100 1101011111 110101110111 1011010111 1111010101 1101111100 1001010101 1101111101 0110110111 111111010111 0111111101 11111101111 0111110101 11011100101 1011111111 1111011111 1001001111 1101010100 1111010111 1101011111 1011011100 110011101 101111111 1111111111 0101111111 1101111111 11001111101 110101111 0011111001 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,980 |
Words | 378 |
Sentences | 9 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 46 |
Lines Amount | 46 |
Letters per line (avg) | 33 |
Words per line (avg) | 9 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 1,507 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 392 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 28, 2023
- 1:55 min read
- 179 Views
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"The Annunciation And Passion" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 1 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/22583/the-annunciation-and-passion>.
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