MULTIMODAL DONNE ANNOTATION

HOLY SONNET XI

SPIT IN MY FACE, YOU JEWS, AND PIERCE MY SIDE, BUFFET, AND SCOFF,and SCOURGE AND CRUCIFY ME,For I have sinn'd, and sinne', and only He,Who could do no iniquity, hath died.

In the beginning of Sonnet XI, Donne gives us quite a violent awakening. He is essentially asking to be persecuted and subjected to the suffering that Jesus endured, acknowledging his life as a sinner and the fact that he continues to persecute Jesus in his sinfulness, in his humanity. An article entitled “Augustinian Spirituality an the Holy Sonnets of John Donne”, written by Patrick Grant and published by the Johns Hopkins University Press speaks about this, and in particular these two beginning lines; it begins with St. Bonaventure, who was a faithful disciple of St. Augustine, and his thoughts on atonement.

With regards to the audio, I notice how Donne writes the sonnet, in particular the first two lines where he says "Spit in my face, you Jews, and pierce my side, buffet, and scoff, and scourge, and crucify me" - this gives the impression of continuous suffering, in his use of the word "and" between each punishment, as there is no pause that would have been granted by the use of a comma alone. We can hear from the voiceover how the speaker recites it as well that the suffering verbs just seem to go from one to the other without a break, and also increase in intensity.

Grant the author, quotes verses from a meditation that St. Bonaventure is promoting, which, in the last lines he interjects with a prayer of strength for himself. Bonaventure is essentially ending the way Donne begins – with a desire to join Christ in his crucifixion.

What I found particularly interesting was the analogy of Jesus on the crucifix as being both a symbol of sadness and one of hope being drawn by St. Bonaventure here, in particular, the cross as a symbol of our salvation.

But by my death can not be satisfiedMy sins, which pass the Jews' impiety.They kill'd once an inglorious man, but ICrucify him daily, being now glorified.

Donne here is essentially lamenting his humanity and natural predisposition to sin, as he acknowledges that he cannot truly atone for his sins the way Jesus did for him. This all points back to his desire for atonement and wanting to suffer in the first two lines of the sonnet; here we see the reasons behind this.

He goes on to explain that his sins “pass the Jews’ impiety”. This infers back to the Bible, in that Jesus was persecuted by the Jews, who refused to acknowledge Him as the Son of God. They accused Him of blasphemy and thus condemned Him to death. What Donne is trying to say is that although the Jews persecuted Jesus and committed an absolutely horrible act of sin by killing him, they truly did not believe in their hearts who He really was; Donne however, although he knows that Jesus is the Lord, still “crucifies” Him daily by His sin, and thus his sins “pass the Jews’ impiety”. It is the foundational teaching in Christianity that Jesus came to die for the sins of humanity, and that by His death, all our sins were nailed to the Cross with Him, so to speak. Thus, when Donne speaks about crucifying Jesus daily, he means that by his sinning daily, He continues to condemn Jesus just as the Jews did, which makes it even worse.

Moreover, the teaching goes that Jesus died and rose again after three days in glory to ascend into Heaven with God the Father, hence why Donne mentions “being now glorified”. This additionally makes his sins seem even more filthy and apparent and makes his impiety even more so, because the Jews killed Jesus while He was human; Donne “kills” Jesus even now that He is Lord.