golden ball represents child losing his childhood or moving on from innocence

In "Easter-Wings", Herbert utilizes the actions and appearance of a bird to describe the speaker's search for a relationship with God. There is an allusion to the fall of Adam in the beginning of the Bible, in which man was cut off from God. Since man sinned and decided to become its own arche, man started to die or "decay more" from the separation (line 3). This made man "most poor" and physically and spiritually incomplete (line 4). The speaker, recognizing the sorrow and the punishment place on him, asks God if he can be with him. The metaphor of the speaker spreading his wings and taking off in flight like a bird is the same as the speaker becoming free from sin and rising up his soul to God. There is also an allusion to the Resurrection, which was when Jesus died and rose again. This day became Easter. Christ's return allowed men to be free from sin, and the speaker "feels this day thy victorie"- meaning he believes Easter is a day for great celebration (line 18). The speaker asks for God's spirit within him so that he may rise out of the darkness.

As Jesus wore the crown of thorns to become the King, the speaker says he will wear his crown, remembering and enduring the suffering he once had. His sermon is referring to his story and his life, which he will preach just as much as the Bible (God's word). Donne provides a lot of biblical allusions throughout this poem of the Resurrection and the fall of Adam. It strengthens the speaker's reasoning for remembering his hardships.

Christ's cross and Adam's tree appear to lead to the same place. These two things are opposite in nature though because Jesus died for the sins of man and Adam was the origination of sin. It is the beginning of original sin and the end of original sin. Although there was that sin from Adam and man must face it, Christ's sacrifice will save him.

In this next stanza, the speaker changes into a map of the world and his doctors are trying to help keep his alive by finding out what his physical condition is. They discover that he has no return, meaning he will die. The setting seems more grave than before.

As he realizes he is dying and soon going to be in God's kingdom, the speaker is "made into music" as he waits for death. His choice to turn to God and devote his life over to Him is described as the tuning of an instrument. To be among saints, the speaker surrenders his life to be totally transformed by God. There is imagery of music, choirs that sing, instruments, and holy rooms (churches), which can all contribute to a pure, holy setting.

The speaker will not fall into his sexual appetite by not pursing things that will tempt his hunger. The summer sun is compared to the beauty of women; men like the warmth and the feeling of the sun, but they shun their eyes from its hot, blinding rays. Even though he'll see and be close to beautiful women at some points, he will only admire them and move on.

Sexual love and pleasure, although, becomes less enjoyable as time passes and it doesn't satisfy man completely. The dull craving of sexual pleasure had a dull after taste. Is the hignesse sitting in a golden chair regarding God or is it regarding the deity of sexual love?

The speaker places sexual love above all other things and worships it as a deity. Not only is it worshipped upon, but the speaker craves it ignorantly and is drawn by its unknown power. Sexual love is almost like a drug because man only grows to want it more when they desire it, and it is symbolized as a deity because encompasses a powerful presence that many admire.

The speaker refuses to turn his back towards Jesus until his sins have been washed away. He still wants to "receive corrections" or have God's guidance, but it is hard to fully look upon Him knowing he is dirty of sin. He seems to promise God that he will turn when his image is restored.

Again, this is another reference to the crucifixion of Christ, but in this poem the speaker resists looking to the east towards God. He knows he is deeply rooted in sin, so the spectacle of seeing Jesus die to get rid of his sins is painful. He may feel guilty for the sinful burdens he carries.

In these lines, the speaker claims man is still sinful and persuaded by pleasure and business. Man has to deal with external temptations that through them off course and people are easily influenced to give in to it. The spheres or in this cases men's souls should be fixated towards God and spiritual devotion, yet their spheres "are subject to forraigne motions". It reminds me of the alignment of planets, which are all perfectly set in motion with each other. Just as the planets have solid courses, man has to orbit around God; if anything were to disrupt the planet's courses, then there would be disarray. Men need to circle God and be good in order to have a solid course/foundation.

While this call to aid for God is gracious, the speaker makes this request a desperate plea. He wants to be imprisoned by God's love and never set free. This calling is a mixture of grace and violence- a battle yet a surrender all in one.

The speaker still feels tempted by the devil since the world is the devil's playground, but he loves God and seeks him. His spiritual relationship with God and his fight against sin is compared to martial relationships; he wants to be "divorced" from the devil and his tricks and remarried to God.

Donne uses alliteration within this line ("breake, blowe, burn) to almost exaggerate these actions. The speaker wants God to completely tear away his old self in order to rebuild him. These words are powerful, just like God's will is too. This soul mending will have a beautiful outcome, but it will also have a destructive, straining start.

In conclusion, wicked spirits will appear to be bad and horrible while beautiful souls will appear beautiful and pure. He ties this answer into the crucifixion of Christ, and claims Jesus's forgiveness and compassion made the crucifixion beautiful in a way. Those that act good will not be foul beings.

This poem is a sonnet, which typically asks a question and then gives a replying answer to it. The question regards how good his soul is and if he will be afraid to face God on the judgement day. His answer is that he will not be afraid. Even though the speaker has had sexual desires with women, he still believes his soul is good.

This is another allusion to the crucifixion of Christ, in which he was terribly beaten and fixed onto the cross. Jesus prayed for forgiveness for his foes, even though he was going to die on their behalf, and yet he showed mercy and compassion for them still.

The speaker is addressing the question of is soul and what would happen if the world ended today. I think this poem could be an allusion to the Last Day mentioned in the Bible (also known as the Revelation). Every man will be judged on this day, and those that believe or are pure at heart, which would be young children, will be saved. He questions how good his soul is.

Other things such as being charmed or poisoned are far more terrible than just death, so the speaker questions why Death is feared so much more and encompasses some type of pride. Death is just a "short sleep past" so it shouldn't be feared.

Donne's "Death Not Be Proud" concludes that men cannot die from death because they just rest after this life and are delivered into eternal life afterwards. There is no reason to be afraid of death, since the souls of men aren't dying- it's just their bodies. The speaker is also directly talking to death, therefore personifying Death.

Fate is personified as a mighty force that no man can escape from, no matter if they are kings or not. Men are controlled and in a way enslaved by fate.

The fire will burn away the speaker's world, but he is also concerned about the "lust and envy having been burnt heretofore". This could also be another biblical reference to the story of Moses and the Israelites. God's chosen people rebelled against Him by giving into lust and envy, and the world now still has men that given in to these sins. The speaker worries that the fire will not fully change him. On the other hand though, the speaker trusts God to burn him because he just wishes for healing and forgiveness.

As both good and bad are flooded away, "new lands" or new ideals can replace what was once there and change the speaker whole heartedly. The flood could be a good way to wash the parts out, but a fire will instead replace it and do the same job. This will still cleanse the speaker.

The speaker has good qualities or "elements and an Angelike spright", but he also harbors bad sin. Although he has good in him, the speaker must have both parts of him die. This reminds me of the story off Noah and the Arc. God had to flood the earth, washing out everything bad and possibly even some good.

Even when one lover or one foot roams around, the other one will lean or move closer to it. The lover's home is at the center of compass when the two feet meet. The speaker will always end up home or where he started from in the end, reuniting with his lover.

The lovers are like a compass with one each being a fixt foot, which moves towards a direction. The fixt feet follow each other towards the same directions and if one moves, so does the other.

Their love can be taken anyway and spread out across large distances. It is not restricted to one place because the souls are still bonded. When many lovers may feel threatened by distance, the speaker and his lover only feel more in love and more capable of growing it. The simile of gold is like the expanding love covering the places it goes.

Two lovers cannot fall apart because they are too inseparable to have a solid foundation just break. It is like an earthquake- the ground may shift and bring fear to many, but it cannot be the ultimate death of love.

The speaker knows his lover is much sadder yet more faithful to him, but when another man comes to court the woman, then the speaker will write his name down on the paper to replace the other. The name is a constant reminder of the lover's past relationship with the soon to be dead speaker. Moving on to the last stanza, the speaker tells the lover that he is just murmuring words; the speaker could be desperate for the lover's faithfulness or he could just be babbling because he is on his death bed. This part is ironic because this whole poem was based upon the lover always admiring and remembering the speaker, yet he dismisses his thoughts by saying they are just babbling.

This can be a religious reference to heaven. Heaven is also called Paradise, and good souls go to Paradise. In this poem though, Paradise is suppose to be his lover, and he lives and prospers in her. He uses human anatomy to connect the lovers together as one, almost as if the two were merged physically and spiritually together.

The speaker knows his lover will be faithful to him and know the true him, despite the "accessories" to his name. He promises to act the same- his faith to her is as strong and unbreakable as the written name on the window glass. The patterne could be referring to obedience and will power for the lovers.

The glass mirrors the speaker's true self to his lover. She can see his name clearly and who he was as a person by looking into the glass. She will also feel closer to him, reminiscing on their relationship. There is a lot of symbolism and imagery regarding "thine eyes", which are known to be windows to the soul. By envisioning the speaker will clear eyes, the lover will be able to catch a glimpse of the speaker's soul. "I am you" in the last line must mean that the two lovers are still connected somehow.

The speaker engraves his name onto a glass window in hopes of being remembered. Firm, strong words are used to exemplify the amount of effort the speaker has for wanting to be memorable, such as firmness, hard, engrav'd, etc. He wants his lover especially to remember him, which will be worth a greater value to him. The glass will not easily be broken and tarnished, just like he hopes his life will not be forgotten.

The flea having the two people's blood basically makes the two people married. Therefore, the woman cannot kill the flea because it hasn't truly done anything, but sucked blood. This could guilt trip the woman to not killing the flea and possibly being persuaded. There would also be no triumph in killing the flea since its a small, helpless creature. The speaker ends with saying that the woman will not lose her honor because it is just a mere thing, just like the death of the flea.

The number three is repeated various times within this stanza in the beginning ("three lives") and in the last line ("three sinnes in killing three"). Three is a reoccurring number that shows up in scripture, mostly regarding the Holy Trinity. This poem has a lot of religious analogies, despite the true intentions.

"The Flea" has an extensive metaphor of a flea uniting two people together since their blood mixes when a flea bites. The speaker is attempting to claim their blood union is no different than them having sex. It isn't inappropriate for the flea to take the blood of multiple people and carry it with them, even though they did it without consent and courtship.

The speaker and his beloved's love should be a template for all love and should be praised. Just like admiring a saint for their heroism, there love would be admired by its peaceful yet passionate qualities. This quote in the last stanza shows how lovers should be a reflection of each other like when seeing yourself in a mirror. In the end, their love can be a "pattern" or design for love in general.

If the lovers can't live by love, then they can at least die and have their love be immortal through canonization. The lovers would be saints of love. This religious process of sainthood is compared to the sacredness of love in how lovers will find ways to be together in the afterlife and to be remembered by their love.

The love shared by the speaker and his beloved are like the characteristics of an eagle, a dove, and a phoenix. An eagle is strong and masculine while the dove is feminine and preciously innocent. There love is expressed as a mixture of these characteristics, but it is also mysterious and fierce like a phoenix. The speaker claims there love can be judged or called whatever but it works for them.

There is a back and forth contemplation on if the speaker hurt anyone by his love. He questions if his tears had drowned ships or the heat of love and passion has caused natural disasters, like the plague. The tears are a metaphor for overflowing waters; both tears and the sea are passionately dangerous. It is the same with the heat of lovers and the plague, which are both caused by a high climax of warmth. Overall, the speaker believes there is a powerful intensity to the love he shares with his beloved.

Right off the bat, this poem starts with a strong dramatic dialogue with a third person, asking to be let alone to love his wife. The speaker is making fun of the third person's concern by saying he might as well be made fun of for his old age or his wealth. To defend his position, the speaker tells the third person to involve him else in other interests and to let him love freely.

I recognized that I've heard this word before, and it is the declaration of a deceased person as a saint. It typically occurred in the early ages of the Christian church, particularly Roman Catholic, for certain individuals worthy of the entitlement. The speaker in the poem believes his lover and himself will be canonized when united into one soul.

The sun is only somewhat happy because it doesn't have anyone else. The speaker wants the sun to warm the just the lovers now, placing the bed as the center of the world. In the beginning, the sun was a nuisance to the lovers, but now it helps warm the lovers. The sun orbits the bedroom and the bed is the center of all. There is a huge change of perspective on the sun and its duties.

The poet's bed is a symbol of love and strength. The world's greatest gifts of gold and spice cannot surpass the lover's beauty and the shared connection between lovers. In some ways the world is not as worthy or rich enough to be compared to a lover's bedroom.

The speaker of this poem seems to be listing unlikely/impossible scenarios that would never happen, like catching a falling star, hearing mermaids singing, or finding a favorable wind. He/she is suggesting to go and accomplish these things, yet it is ironic because these tasks are hardly suggested to do. It alludes to sarcasm and satire, in which the speaker is suggesting these scenarios to prove a greater significance which I will discuss in my next annotation.

In "Sunne Rising", the speaker mockingly questions why the sun comes through the windows to disrupt the lovers. The sun is referred to as a busy old fool, which only stresses the fact that the sun is being a "pest". The speaker wants to be left alone with his love, and wishes that the sun would move on to shine on the school boys and kings. In a way, love isn't restricted by time and the sun should almost "know better" to intervene.

There is a lot of constant exaggeration throughout this poem. The speaker stresses the fact that the "faithful" woman would have multiple affairs, not just one. The short part about the aged man is exaggerated greatly. This man would basically discover every strange phenomenon or magical occurrence from his endless journey, but finding a faithful, beautiful woman was beyond impossible. I think the speaker uses exaggeration as a satirical device to show how he has almost accepted this notion that women eventually are all unfaithful.

The speaker suggests meeting this woman if anyone were to ever find her, but then he declines. Even if the woman lived next door or close by it wouldn't be worth the time. By the time the speaker writes a letter, the woman would've already cheated. I think the speaker is very cynical and it is a very touchy subject; it is almost as if the speaker has had many bad experiences with supposedly "faithful women" that proved him wrong. This poem can be viewed as light-hearted, but it also has a dark lingering bitterness to it.

Going back to my first annotation of "Song", the speaker's greater point to be made from all the satirical listing of impossible scenarios has to do with women. He claims a man that has seen everything and had many stories to tell could tell tales about strange wonders, but could never say he has met a women who is faithful and beautiful. Even above all other mysteries and wonders in the world, a faithful and gorgeous girl is yet the most impossible thing to come by.

In the last stanza, Donne explains that lovers that are meant to be together cannot have a tarnished love if they are in sync. He uses geographical terms of "sharpe north and declining west" to describe love as inseparable; the hemisphere cannot go without a North or West, just like two lovers can't be unalike. Overall, love cannot perish. In a way, this poem contradicts the traditional treatment of erotic love, claiming it to be led with the same devotion as religious faith.

This poem makes key references to religion and how like Jesus Christ arose from the grave and brought redemption to the world, love awakens people from their graves and brings a sense of enlightenment to others. Love is not feared if the two lovers are united together, which makes lovers not seek anything else but their relationship. It is a very special type of devotion, in which the lovers "possess one world".

John Donne expresses in this first stanza that the pleasures once enjoyed are merely "childish" compared to the joining of two lovers. Those pleasures had limitations when love between people is introduced into young people's lives. It was a "dream" or a vision of something so great, but love is the most beautiful desire.