The Canonization by John Donne

"The Canonization" By John Donne was first published in his posthumous 1633 collection, Poems. The poem's speaker, a middle-aged man who has fallen deeply in love, tells a mocking friend to leave him alone and "let him love" already. Love, this poem suggests, is timeless in more than one way: it can strike at any age, and (with a little help from poetry) it can help lovers to attain saint-like immortality.


The Canonization
BY JOHN DONNE

For God's sake hold your tongue, and let me love,

         Or chide my palsy, or my gout,

My five gray hairs, or ruined fortune flout,

         With wealth your state, your mind with arts improve,

                Take you a course, get you a place,

                Observe his honor, or his grace,

Or the king's real, or his stampèd face

         Contemplate; what you will, approve,

         So you will let me love.






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