The Canonization

I was really interested in Donne's poem "The Canonization" because of its title and the interplay of the various meanings of the verb "canonize" in his discussion of love and the love of his unnamed lady. The first line of the poem jumps out at the reader because of its forceful and demanding tone, despite being in regular iambic pentameter: "For God's sake hold your tongue, and let me love;" The caesura placed after "tongue" really brings the readers attention to the remaining words of the line, "and let me love". One is immediately left wondering why the narrator is unable to love and what force or person is stopping him. Then, as the poem continues, we see Donne defending his love. The fourth stanza, however, is of particular interest to me because here is where the reader really sees Donne's title at work within the poem. In this stanza, which begins, "We can die by it, if not live by love," Donne writes of his love and the love of his lady being "fit for verse" and meant for "sonnets pretty rooms;". To me, Donne is writing of the canonization of his love--proclaiming that their love will be canonized through verse, through poetry, and through this poem itself. When I looked at the several definitions for the word "canonize" the one that stuck out to me was "to make canonical; to admit into the Canon of scripture, or of authoritative writings". I think that Donne not only proclaims that his love will be canonized but that perhaps his poems themselves will, or should, also be. I am left wondering, however, if Donne truly is speaking solely about his love of his lady or also about his love for God, poetry, etc.?

-Devon