A piece of literature that we did not touch in class that I have chosen is a poem authored by John Donne. The poem we read in class was, A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning. The poem I am deciding to analyze is A Hymn to God the Father. This poem was published in the Baroque Era, and the reader is able to witness this by the strong alliance that Donne expresses with God. This was a time where the physical and the spiritual worlds are expressed through one another. This is also a time where man is infatuated with the belief and the creation of God. With knowing God as being the omnipresent and absolute being the ways of life are managed in his light. This poem by Donne expresses loads of emotion as if he is begging and pleading for an answer as he is unsure of what may happen to him in the later stages of life, and also those following death. As critiqued by Elite Skills Classics, they explain that Donne seeks this answer for forgiveness as he knows he will sin his entire life, but is remaining question is will all of his sins be forgiven before he dies and this is stated in lines 13 and 14, “I have a sin of fear, that when I have spun” (13); “My last thread, I shall perish on the shore” (14). Also the reference to the shore refers to his fear and obligates to point between life and death, earth and heaven, and considered between is either, Hell, or a life of nothingness. This poem shows the values of power/authority of this time, as God is the all-reigning being. He is shown as the absolutist.
His poem also makes a indication back to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. This is stated in line2, “Which was my sin, though it were done before?” (2), where he makes a reference back to the original sin of Adam and Eve, and its conservation done by himself. With this poem, again Donne is able to reflect on traits such as, power/authority, physical/spiritual, emotion, and also sense of self as he makes a a private and personal relationship with a higher being, and with these characteristics, it can be proven that this poem is of the Baroque Era.
Word Count: 388
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