{"id":97,"date":"2007-03-26T06:38:07","date_gmt":"2007-03-26T06:38:07","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2007-03-30T15:27:07","modified_gmt":"2007-03-30T15:27:07","slug":"john-donne","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/archives\/97","title":{"rendered":"John Donne"},"content":{"rendered":"

John Donne (1572-1631) was an Anglican priest, poet, member of Parliment, and Dean of St. Paul’s.<\/a> He preached his last sermon during Lent of 1631. He left behind an impressive collection of works, but he his most popularly known lines are, “no man is an island,” and “never send to know for whom the bell tolls.” His poem, “Good Friday, 1631, Riding Westward” inspired this sketch.
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Good Friday, 1613, Riding Westward<\/em><\/p>\n

Let man’s soul be a sphere, and then, in this,
\nThe intelligence that moves, devotion is,
\nAnd as the other spheres, by being grown
\nSubject to foreign motion, lose their own,
\nAnd being by others hurried every day,
\nScarce in a year their natural form obey;
\nPleasure or business, so, our souls admit
\nFor their first mover, and are whirled by it.
\nHence is’t, that I am carried towards the West,
\nThis day, when my soul’s form bends to the East.
\nThere I should see a Sun by rising set,
\nAnd by that setting endless day beget:
\nBut that Christ on His cross did rise and fall,
\nSin had eternally benighted all.
\nYet dare I almost be glad, I do not see
\nThat spectacle, of too much weight for me.
\nWho sees Gods face, that is self-life, must die;
\nWhat a death were it then to see God die?
\nIt made His own lieutenant, Nature, shrink,
\nIt made His footstool crack, and the sun wink.
\nCould I behold those hands, which span the poles
\nAnd tune all spheres at once, pierced with those holes?
\nCould I behold that endless height, which is
\nZenith to us and our Antipodes,
\nHumbled below us? or that blood, which is
\nThe seat of all our souls, if not of His,
\nMade dirt of dust, or that flesh which was worn
\nBy God for His apparel, ragged and torn?
\nIf on these things I durst not look, durst I
\nOn His distressed Mother cast mine eye,
\nWho was God’s partner here, and furnished thus
\nHalf of that sacrifice which ransom’d us?
\nThough these things as I ride be from mine eye,
\nThey are present yet unto my memory,
\nFor that looks towards them; and Thou look’st towards me,
\nO Saviour, as Thou hangst upon the tree.
\nI turn my back to Thee but to receive
\nCorrections till Thy mercies bid Thee leave.
\nO think me worth Thine anger; punish me,
\nBurn off my rusts, and my deformity,
\nRestore Thine image, so much, by Thy grace,
\nThat Thou mayst know me, and I’ll turn my face.<\/p>\n

—John Donne<\/p>\n

(art by Israel Galindo)
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John Donne (1572-1631) was an Anglican priest, poet, member of Parliment, and Dean of St. Paul’s. He preached his last sermon during Lent of 1631. He left behind an impressive collection of works, but he his most popularly known lines … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-97","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}