John Donne Flashcards
Good Friday
A sincere meditation/ stream of consciousness on Good Friday, the day one high Christians commemorate the crucifixion of Jesus. Donne begins with a metaphysical conceit of a sphere that represents the human soul and discusses it in relation to cosmology. Creates a Ptolemaic microcosm where all souls are spheres or planets that interact and move according to laws of universe “foreign motions” but get distracted by “pleasure or business” . Creates a paradox where he says the setting of the sun caused an endless day because his death atoned for all human sins so others may live. Donne reflects on how hard it must have been to look upon the cross and he is grateful that he didn’t have to because 1. Donne is travelling in the wrong direction, towards the west (but thinks about the east where Jerusalem is) 2. Exodus 33:20 says “you cannot see my face for no man shall see me and live” and 3. he feels emotionally and spiritually unworthy, the scene carries “too much weight” for him. Donne is thankful that he could not have seen the horrors of the crucifixion but he reflects that they are in his memory and through that he can look toward God and God can look towards him. He implores God to “burn off my rusts and my deformity” so that he can be made more in Christ’s likeness, only then he can turn and face God.
Themes: Religion, Jesus’ Crucifixion, Repentance, Spiritual
