“Holy Sonnet 6: This is my play's last scene” Summary

“Holy Sonnet 6: This is my play's last scene” Themes

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  The Separation of the Body and Soul in Death

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  Fear of Death and God's Judgment

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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Holy Sonnet 6: This is my play's last scene”

• Lines 1-2

  This is my play's last scene; here heavens appoint
  My pilgrimage's last mile;

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 2-4

  and my race,
  Idly, yet quickly run, hath this last pace,
  My span's last inch, my minute's latest point;

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 5-8

  And gluttonous death will instantly unjoint
  My body and my soul, and I shall sleep a space;
  But my'ever-waking part shall see that face
  Whose fear already shakes my every joint.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 9-12

  Then, as my soul to'heaven, her first seat, takes flight,
  And earth-born body in the earth shall dwell,
  So fall my sins, that all may have their right,
  To where they'are bred, and would press me, to hell.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 13-14

  Impute me righteous, thus purg'd of evil,
  For thus I leave the world, the flesh, the devil.

  

  

  

  

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“Holy Sonnet 6: This is my play's last scene” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

• Antithesis

  

  

  

  

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• Caesura

  

  

  

  

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• Metaphor

  

  

  

  

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• Repetition

  

  

  

  

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“Holy Sonnet 6: This is my play's last scene” Vocabulary

Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

• Appoint
• Pilgrimage
• Idly
• Hath
• Pace
• Span
• Latest Point
• Gluttonous
• Unjoint
• A Space
• Ever-waking Part
• My Every Joint
• Seat
• Right
• Press Me
• Impute Me Righteous
• Purg'd
• The World
• The flesh

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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Holy Sonnet 6: This is my play's last scene”

• Form

• Meter

• Rhyme Scheme

“Holy Sonnet 6: This is my play's last scene” Speaker

“Holy Sonnet 6: This is my play's last scene” Setting

Literary and Historical Context of “Holy Sonnet 6: This is my play's last scene”

More “Holy Sonnet 6: This is my play's last scene” Resources

• External Resources

  • The Holy Sonnets — Check out "Holy Sonnet 6" alongside the other poems in the sequence.  

  • An Early Manuscript of Donne's Work — Take a look at an early handwritten manuscript of Donne's poems (including Holy Sonnet 6).

  • A Brief Biography — Learn more about Donne's life and work via the British Library. 

  • Donne and the Metaphysical Poets — Learn more about the 17th-century literary movement for which Donne is the poster boy. 

  • Donne's Legacy — Watch a celebration of Donne filmed at St. Paul's Cathedral, the iconic London church of which he was the Dean. 

• LitCharts on Other Poems by John Donne

  • A Hymn to God the Father

  • Air and Angels

  • A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning

  • A Valediction: Of Weeping

  • Elegy V: His Picture

  • Holy Sonnet 10: Death, be not proud

  • Holy Sonnet 14: Batter my heart, three-person'd God

  • Holy Sonnet 1: Thou hast made me, and shall thy work decay?

  • Holy Sonnet 7: At the round earth's imagined corners

  • Hymn to God My God, in My Sickness

  • No Man Is an Island

  • Song: Go and catch a falling star

  • The Apparition

  • The Canonization

  • The Dream

  • The Flea

  • The Good-Morrow

  • The Relic

  • The Sun Rising

  • The Triple Fool

  • To His Mistress Going to Bed