“The Canonization” Introduction

• Read the full text of “The Canonization”

“The Canonization” Summary

“The Canonization” Themes

• 

  The Power and Holiness of Love

  • See where this theme is active in the poem.
• 

  Love, Poetry, and Immortality

  • See where this theme is active in the poem.

Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “The Canonization”

• Lines 1-3

  For God's sake hold your tongue, and let me love,
           Or chide my palsy, or my gout,
  My five gray hairs, or ruined fortune, flout,

  

  

  

  

  Unlock with LitCharts A⁺

• Lines 4-6

           With wealth your state, your mind with arts improve,
                  Take you a course, get you a place,
                  Observe His Honor, or His Grace,

  

  

  

  

  Unlock with LitCharts A⁺

• Lines 7-9

  Or the King's real, or his stampèd face
           Contemplate; what you will, approve,
           So you will let me love.

  

  

  

  

  Unlock with LitCharts A⁺

• Lines 10-15

  Alas, alas, who's injured by my love?
           What merchant's ships have my sighs drowned?
  Who says my tears have overflowed his ground?
           When did my colds a forward spring remove?
                  When did the heats which my veins fill
                  Add one more to the plaguy bill?

  

  

  

  

  Unlock with LitCharts A⁺

• Lines 16-18

  Soldiers find wars, and lawyers find out still
           Litigious men, which quarrels move,
           Though she and I do love.

  

  

  

  

  Unlock with LitCharts A⁺

• Lines 19-22

  Call us what you will, we are made such by love;
           Call her one, me another fly,
  We're tapers too, and at our own cost die,
           And we in us find the eagle and the dove.

  

  

  

  

  Unlock with LitCharts A⁺

• Lines 23-27

  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.

  

  

  

  

  Unlock with LitCharts A⁺

• Lines 28-32

  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;

  

  

  

  

  Unlock with LitCharts A⁺

• Lines 33-36

                  As well a well-wrought urn becomes
  The greatest ashes, as half-acre tombs,
           And by these hymns, all shall approve
           Us canonized for love:

  

  

  

  

  Unlock with LitCharts A⁺

• Lines 37-39

  And thus invoke us: You, whom reverend love
           Made one another's hermitage;
  You, to whom love was peace, that now is rage;

  

  

  

  

  Unlock with LitCharts A⁺

• Lines 40-44

           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:

  

  

  

  

  Unlock with LitCharts A⁺

• Lines 44-45

  Beg from above
           A pattern of your love!

  

  

  

  

  Unlock with LitCharts A⁺

“The Canonization” Symbols

• 

  The Phoenix

  • See where this symbol appears in the poem.

“The Canonization” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

• Conceit

  

  

  

  

  Unlock with LitCharts A⁺
  • See where this poetic device appears in the poem.

• Pun

  

  

  

  

  Unlock with LitCharts A⁺
  • See where this poetic device appears in the poem.

• Metaphor

  

  

  

  

  Unlock with LitCharts A⁺
  • See where this poetic device appears in the poem.

• Rhetorical Question

  

  

  

  

  Unlock with LitCharts A⁺
  • See where this poetic device appears in the poem.

• Parallelism

  

  

  

  

  Unlock with LitCharts A⁺
  • See where this poetic device appears in the poem.

• Repetition

  

  

  

  

  Unlock with LitCharts A⁺
  • See where this poetic device appears in the poem.

• Allusion

  

  

  

  

  Unlock with LitCharts A⁺
  • See where this poetic device appears in the poem.

• Enjambment

  

  

  

  

  Unlock with LitCharts A⁺
  • See where this poetic device appears in the poem.

• Alliteration

  

  

  

  

  Unlock with LitCharts A⁺
  • See where this poetic device appears in the poem.

• Assonance

  

  

  

  

  Unlock with LitCharts A⁺
  • See where this poetic device appears in the poem.

“The Canonization” 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.

• Hold your tongue
• Chide my palsy, or my gout
• Flout
• State
• Arts
• Take you a course
• Get you a place
• His stampèd face
• What you will, approve
• A forward spring
• The plaguy bill
• Litigious men
• Quarrels
• What you will
• Fly
• Tapers
• Die
• The eagle and the dove
• The phoenix riddle
• Hath
• Neutral
• Unfit
• If no piece of chronicle we prove
• We'll build in sonnets pretty rooms
• Well-wrought urn
• Canonized
• Invoke
• Reverend
• Hermitage
• Rage
• Contract
• Glasses
• Epitomize
• A pattern of your love

• • See where this vocabulary word appears in the poem.

Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “The Canonization”

• Form

• Meter

• Rhyme Scheme

“The Canonization” Speaker

“The Canonization” Setting

Literary and Historical Context of “The Canonization”

More “The Canonization” Resources

• External Resources

  • Poems (1633) — See images of the posthumous collection in which this poem was first published.

  • The Metaphysical Poets — Learn more about Donne's role as one of the foremost "metaphysical poets."

  • The Poem Aloud — Listen to a lively performance of the poem.

  • A Short Biography — Learn more about Donne's life and work at the British Library's website.

  • Donne's Portrait — Take a look at a famous portrait of Donne. Donne is intentionally playing the part of the melancholy, elegant lover here!

• 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 6: This is my play's last scene

  • 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 Dream

  • The Ecstasy

  • The Flea

  • The Good-Morrow

  • The Relic

  • The Sun Rising

  • The Triple Fool

  • To His Mistress Going to Bed