Discuss the importance of the audience or readership to John Donne's Poem, Holy Sonnet No. 5.

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Discuss the importance of the audience or readership to John Donne’s Poem, Holy Sonnet No. 5.

In the seventeenth century, the poet’s reliance on patrons and favour at the court of the newly crowned James was paramount to achieving advancement. For Donne, born to an ironmonger and raised by a physician, his placement in any prominent position in the rising form of metaphysical poetry would have to rely not only on his talent, but in associating with equally prominent patrons, and appeasing the dictats of King James’ court. Despite the radical lengths to which Donne was prepared to go in order to satisfy the terms of his patronage, his conversion and subsequent ecclesiastical career in the Church of England, I believe that the mechanical and strict religious tone set down in James’ own poetry did not force Donne to limit the breadth of his work. Certainly the poetry that Donne produce was designed to appeal to the audience at court, the holy sonnets written mostly during the course of his absence from society, but there appears to be more to it than mere talented sycophancy. Donne’s religious poetry often contains elements of monologue directed at God, and whilst this often fulfilled James’ requirements, it has such a close correlation with Donne’s life, and is performed in such a bold and innovative style, that it prevents us from dismissing his the work as blatant conformism.

Donne was obviously aware of the importance of acquiring patronage, since his upbringing forestalled direct introductions at court, and his work with Essex in The Azores led to his position as secretary to Sir Thomas Egerton. Following his illicit marriage to Egerton’s niece, Anne More, Donne was left without a powerful ally at court to defend him. It is not until after the marriage was accepted and he was instilled in the house of his friend Francis Wooley, that the possibility of a return to court arrived. It is between 1607 and 1609 that we assume Donne penned most of his Holy Sonnets, written in letters to possible patrons such as Mrs Herbert and the Earl of D, a reference to either Doncaster or Dorset, in an effort to restore his social standing in light of the harsh condemnation that he had received. For this audience then, were the sonnets primarily written, a collection of influential persons at court, but also in the case of Mrs Herbert, an excellent friend of his father-in-law. As such, there is a strong case for taking them as conciliatory texts in order to restore the faith that Egerton, subsequently Lord Ellesmere, had initially shown in Donne. If those people to whom the poems were directed were able to completely reverse his fortunes, then it is possible that there is no more to the poems than a simple desire to show both repentance and a hope for absolution in the eyes of those close to the King.

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Of course there are many critics that would argue on each side, for Donne as a radical, and as an impressive conformist. I would say that through the necessity of conformism that was imposed upon him, he was able to bring out his acts of rebellion. That the strictures enforced in the nature of his poetry were the tools  used as an expression of his dissatisfaction and his despair at the choices he made. Take line three of the sonnet; “But black sin hath betrayed to endless night/My world’s both parts”. This acknowledgement of sin is graphic when placed ...

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