“Holy Sonnet 1: Thou hast made me, and shall thy work decay?” Summary

“Holy Sonnet 1: Thou hast made me, and shall thy work decay?” Themes

• 

  Humanity's Reliance on God's Grace

  • See where this theme is active in the poem.
• 

  The Mortal Body vs. the Immortal Soul

  • See where this theme is active in the poem.

Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Holy Sonnet 1: Thou hast made me, and shall thy work decay?”

• Line 1

  Thou hast made me, and shall thy work decay?

  

  

  

  

  Unlock with LitCharts A⁺

• Lines 2-4

  Repair me now, for now mine end doth haste,
  I run to death, and death meets me as fast,
  And all my pleasures are like yesterday;

  

  

  

  

  Unlock with LitCharts A⁺

• Lines 5-8

  I dare not move my dim eyes any way,
  Despair behind, and death before doth cast
  Such terror, and my feebled flesh doth waste
  By sin in it, which it towards hell doth weigh.

  

  

  

  

  Unlock with LitCharts A⁺

• Lines 9-12

  Only thou art above, and when towards thee
  By thy leave I can look, I rise again;
  But our old subtle foe so tempteth me,
  That not one hour I can myself sustain;

  

  

  

  

  Unlock with LitCharts A⁺

• Lines 13-14

  Thy grace may wing me to prevent his art,
  And thou like adamant draw mine iron heart.

  

  

  

  

  Unlock with LitCharts A⁺

“Holy Sonnet 1: Thou hast made me, and shall thy work decay?” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

• Apostrophe

  

  

  

  

  Unlock with LitCharts A⁺
  • See where this poetic device appears in the poem.

• Rhetorical Question

  

  

  

  

  Unlock with LitCharts A⁺
  • See where this poetic device appears in the poem.

• Caesura

  

  

  

  

  Unlock with LitCharts A⁺
  • See where this poetic device appears in the poem.

• Alliteration

  

  

  

  

  Unlock with LitCharts A⁺
  • See where this poetic device appears in the poem.

• Simile

  

  

  

  

  Unlock with LitCharts A⁺
  • See where this poetic device appears in the poem.

“Holy Sonnet 1: Thou hast made me, and shall thy work decay?” Vocabulary

Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

• Thou/Thee/Thy
• Doth
• Feebled
• Leave
• Subtle
• Sustain
• Wing
• Adamant

• • See where this vocabulary word appears in the poem.

Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Holy Sonnet 1: Thou hast made me, and shall thy work decay?”

• Form

• Meter

• Rhyme Scheme

“Holy Sonnet 1: Thou hast made me, and shall thy work decay?” Speaker

“Holy Sonnet 1: Thou hast made me, and shall thy work decay?” Setting

Literary and Historical Context of “Holy Sonnet 1: Thou hast made me, and shall thy work decay?”

More “Holy Sonnet 1: Thou hast made me, and shall thy work decay?” Resources

• External Resources

  • The Poem Read Aloud — Listen to a recitation of "Holy Sonnet 1."

  • John Donne Biography — Read a brief summary of Donne's life and work, courtesy of the Poetry Foundation.

  • The Holy Sonnets — Check out all 19 of Donne's Holy Sonnets.

  • The Metaphysical Poets — Learn more about the metaphysical poets from this short reference entry in Encyclopedia Britannica.

  • An Early Manuscript of Donne's Poems — Browse a 1632 handwritten manuscript of Donne's poems, including "Thou hast made me" on page 25. Courtesy of Harvard's Houghton Library.

• LitCharts on Other Poems by John Donne

  • A Hymn to God the Father

  • Air and Angels

  • A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning

  • A Valediction: Of Weeping

  • Elegy V: His Picture

  • Holy Sonnet 10: Death, be not proud

  • Holy Sonnet 14: Batter my heart, three-person'd God

  • Holy Sonnet 6: This is my play's last scene

  • Holy Sonnet 7: At the round earth's imagined corners

  • Hymn to God My God, in My Sickness

  • No Man Is an Island

  • Song: Go and catch a falling star

  • The Apparition

  • The Canonization

  • The Flea

  • The Good-Morrow

  • The Relic

  • The Sun Rising

  • The Triple Fool

  • To His Mistress Going to Bed