In Donne's "Holy Sonnet XIV," his piety is met by his poetic ability. As the sonnet follows the speaker's pleas to God for guidance and fortification, Donne uses a series of thoughtfully

The second quatrain reads much like a confessional as the speaker owns up to the responsibility of his sinfulness- likening his person to "an usurped town, to another due" (5). By comparing himself to a town that has been seized by an enemy, the speaker not only admits to being sinful, but to being taken over by sin. Through this simile, the speaker establishes his internal struggle. That is, just as a town is generally not given over to an enemy without a struggle or a fight, the speaker, too, strives to resist his innate sinfulness. In the following lines, a tone of distress begins to develop as the speaker’s "labors" are "to no end" (6), reinforcing the notion of struggle perveyed in the fifth line. He goes on to reason: "your viceroy in me, me should defend/ but is captivated, and proves untrue" (7-8). Here the speaker recognizes that God's conscience within him should govern his actions, yet he continues to falter with whatever baseness there is within him. This recognition further expresses the speaker's need or desire for spirituality while confessing his essential weakness, and moves the sonnet into the closing lines.

In the closing sestet, the speaker takes a quite different tone than in the first two quatrains. From the opening line to the resolution, he becomes increasingly intimate in his language, claiming: "Yet dearly I love you, and would be loved fain" (9). Close attention should be given to the phrase "dearly I love you," as the word "dearly" implies a profound or tender love, like that of one between marriage mates. Moreover, the speaker "would be loved fain" or would take pleasure in being loved- again reinforcing the sense of an intimate relationship. However, attention is directed back to the speaker’s dilemma: "but am betrothed unto your enemy" (10). In this one line, the speaker defines the entire basis for his plea. Born into sin, and thus promised to God's "enemy," the speaker struggles to be acceptable before God. Referring to this union the speaker states: "Divorce me, untie or break that knot again" (11). Here the speaker calls upon God to free him from his marriage to sin, to so to speak, "untie or break" the knot (of sin) that the speaker finds so difficult to unravel. However, in contrast to the previous line's plea for freedom, line twele states: "take me to you, imprison me" (12), and brings the sonnet to it's resolution. In this last stand, the speaker draws another paradox: "for I/ except you enthrall me, never shall be free" (13). Elaborating on line twelve, the speaker asserts that he will never be free from his sinfulness unless he is enslaved by God- "enthralled" or spellbound by his holiness. The final line of the poem continues: "Nor never chaste, except you ravish me" (14). The speaker's desire for spirituality is manifest in his last and most powerful assertion as he contrasts the clean, righteous trait of chastity with a base, somewhat carnal action. That is, he claims that he would never be pure, unless God used his force to become part of him or to take over his being.

John Donne's poetic mastery is clearly evident in his "Holy Sonnet XIV." His use of seemingly clashing rhetoric conveys a clear message of divine trust and love despite everpresent weakness. The struggle between the precisely chosen paradoxes emphasizes the catharsis and essential sincerity of the speaker. This emotional strength of the speaker within his beliefs evokes the poems intrinsic value and effectiveness as a sonnet.