“Holy Sonnet 7: At the round earth's imagined corners” Summary

“Holy Sonnet 7: At the round earth's imagined corners” Themes

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  God's Judgment and Mercy

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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Holy Sonnet 7: At the round earth's imagined corners”

• Lines 1-4

  At the round earth's imagined corners, blow
  Your trumpets, angels; and arise, arise
  From death, you numberless infinities
  Of souls, and to your scattered bodies go:

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 5-8

  All whom the flood did, and fire shall, o'erthrow,
  All whom war, dearth, age, agues, tyrannies,
  Despair, law, chance hath slain, and you whose eyes
  Shall behold God, and never taste death's woe.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 9-12

  But let them sleep, Lord, and me mourn a space,
  For, if above all these, my sins abound,
  'Tis late to ask abundance of thy grace
  When we are there.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 12-14

  Here on this lowly ground,
  Teach me how to repent; for that's as good
  As if thou hadst sealed my pardon with thy blood.

  

  

  

  

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“Holy Sonnet 7: At the round earth's imagined corners” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

• Allusion

  

  

  

  

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• Apostrophe

  

  

  

  

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• Repetition

  

  

  

  

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• Asyndeton

  

  

  

  

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“Holy Sonnet 7: At the round earth's imagined corners” 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.

• Numberless
• O'erthrow
• Dearth
• Agues
• Hath, hadst
• Slain
• Mourn a space
• Abound
• 'Tis late
• Lowly
• Repent
• Thou, thy

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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Holy Sonnet 7: At the round earth's imagined corners”

• Form

• Meter

• Rhyme Scheme

“Holy Sonnet 7: At the round earth's imagined corners” Speaker

“Holy Sonnet 7: At the round earth's imagined corners” Setting

Literary and Historical Context of “Holy Sonnet 7: At the round earth's imagined corners”

More “Holy Sonnet 7: At the round earth's imagined corners” Resources

• External Resources

  • A Brief Biography — Learn more about Donne's life and work from the British Library.

  • Donne and the Metaphysicals — Learn more about the 17th-century literary movement for which Donne is the poster boy.

  • Donne's Legacy — Watch a celebration of Donne filmed at St. Paul's Cathedral, the iconic London church of which he was the Dean.

  • The Poem Aloud — Listen to the actor Richard Burton performing the poem.

  • The Poem as a Song — Listen to a musical setting of the poem by composer Willametta Spencer.

• 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 1: Thou hast made me, and shall thy work decay?

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

  • 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