The form of John Donne’s The Canonization demonstrates Donne’s complex metrical experiments, witty conceits, and his exploration of religion, philosophy, and cultural myths. Some of these techniques have dated Donne’s poetry for modern readers, but the evangelical spirit of the would-be priest shines through upon close examination. The poem’s form is divided into five stanzas, each baring nine lines of rhyming text with the following rhyme scheme: ABBA, CCC, AA. The metrics vary in each stanza with all lines being of either 10, 8, or 6 beats. The opening, fourth, and seventh lines of each stanza have ten beats. The two lines that come in between the opening and fourth lines and the fourth and seven lines have eight beats, while the two closing lines of each stanza have six. A rhyming couplet, a familiar device of the traditional sonnet, is the form used to close each stanza. The poem is frenetic in pace and humorous in tone, with the unnamed and witty speaker beseeching God, King, and countrymen to “let me love” (Donne 9). While the form of this poem resembles a sonnet, it demonstrates Donne’s preference for metrical experimentation in his poems.
The first stanza introduces us to a speaker who is somewhat frenetic and forceful. He seems emotionally rattled over some issue to do with his being denied the right to love. He seems so distraught that he even begins his request to let him love with an appeal to God. He begs of us that we criticize anything else about him that we may, but, he beseeches us to let him love “For God’s sake hold your tongue, and let me love,/Or chide my palsy or my gout,/My five grey hairs, or ruin’d fortune flout,/With wealth your state, your mind with arts improve,/Take you a course, get you a place,/Observe his Honour, or his Grace,/Or the King’s real, or his stamped face/Contemplate what you will, approve,/So you will let me love” (Donne 1-9).
We assume the speaker is ...