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 ruin'd fortune flout ;
With wealth your state, your mind with arts improve ;
Take you a course, get you a place,
Observe his Honour, or his Grace ;
Or the king's real, or his stamp'd face
Contemplate ; what you will, approve,
So you will let me love.

Alas ! alas ! who's injured by my love?
What merchant's ships have my sighs drown'd?
Who says my tears have overflow'd his ground?
When did my colds a forward spring remove?
When did the heats which my veins fill
Add one more to the plaguy bill?
Soldiers find wars, and lawyers find out still
Litigious men, which quarrels move,
Though she and I do love.

Call's what you will, we are made such by love ;
Call her one, me another fly,
We're tapers too, and at our own cost die,
And we in us find th' eagle and the dove.
The phoenix riddle hath more wit
By us ; we two being one, are it ;
So, to one neutral thing both sexes fit.
We die and rise the same, and prove
Mysterious by this love.

We can die by it, if not live by love,
And if unfit for tomb or hearse
Our legend be, it will be fit for verse ;
And if no piece of chronicle we prove,
We'll build in sonnets pretty rooms ;
As well a well-wrought urn becomes
The greatest ashes, as half-acre tombs,
And by these hymns, all shall approve
Us canonized for love ;

And thus invoke us, "You, whom reverend love
Made one another's hermitage ;
You, to whom love was peace, that now is rage ;
Who did the whole world's soul contract, and drove
Into the glasses of your eyes ;
So made such mirrors, and such spies,
That they did all to you epitomize—
Countries, towns, courts beg from above
A pattern of your love."
(1)

• In the poem the speaker is asking that he not be criticized or scorned for his desire to love. He wishes to be allowed to do so freely and without guilt. His love has not caused any problems and has not affected anyone's life in a negative way, but the listener in the poem compares it to all the terrible things in the world. This comparison is especially emphasized in stanzas one and two when he mentions disease, death, and destruction.

-Chris

• In the first stanza, the narrator implores the reader to judge him on any basis but his love- his gray hairs, his palsy, but not his love. If they do have a complaint about his love, he tells them to keep it to himself. He tells the reader to deplore his lack of fortune or education, as long as they "Let me love."

-Brianna

Symbols representing love

Death
The fourth stanza exemplifies metaphysical poetry in that it uses death to represent love, which is not a common comparison. Donne indicated that he does not literally mean death by saying that their legend may be unfit for a tomb or a hearse. He goes on to talk about living on through a poem. He imagines that their love wold not live on just as a chronicle, which is a very detailed, factual kind of report, but as a sonnet, which he finds to be beautiful. By this sonnet which contains their legend, their love will be canonized, or glorified and declared saintly. Canonization declares a deceased person to be a saint, so, again, there is the strange idea of death symbolizing love. (Kayla)


What is being said about his love
-Sara

• In the fourth stanza Donne says that he "can die by it if not live by love". He goes on to explain that even if his love is doomed only to die it will live on in the poem. He says that "we'll build sonnets in pretty rooms", meaning that if he will build his love and live through the sonnets. This fourth stanza is also where Donne first uses the word 'canonize'. Though the common definition of the word canonize is to declare a saint a second definition as given by the dictionary is also 'to glorify', which makes more sense in this poem than declaring a saint would. Donne is trying to glorify his love.

-Jaci


The narrator in this poem is speaking in response to being criticized by the way he loves. It can be determined that he loves in a reckless way, one that has unintentionally hurt people. Yet he says that this is in no way comparable to the hurt that is caused to other people. He makes it seem that it is necessary for people to hurt, and that he is doing no wrong by it, rather than keeping things constant. The name of this poem, canonization, is the process by which a person is determined a saint. And during canonization a person is being criticized left and right and that can be the reason why John Donne chose it as the title to the poem.
-Katie Reilly

The title of this poem, Canonization is important to this poem's definition of love. In real life, in order for a person for be canonized, or made a saint, they must either be martyrs or confessors. Martyrs died for what they believed in, and confessors lived for their faith. The narrator of the poem both lived his life devoted to love, and died for love. Donne uses this poem to make a metaphysical comparison of love to the Christian faith. Therefore, the narrator should be canonized for his actions.
-Brett D

The symbols in stanza three represent both the author's interpretation of their love and how others see them. They are seen as flies--a continued theme from Donne's other poems--symbolic of the closeness of them and also suggesting eroticism. This shows the physical and romantic aspect of their love. As "tapers", or candles, they attract each other (the other being a fly) and bring the other to their deaths. This symbolizes their devotion to one another--they attract one another so much that they would die for the other. Again, this alludes to the physical part of the relationship--"die" meant to have intercourse (which, at this time, was thought to lead to earlier death), and this shows that, in reality, their devotion is as real as their words say it is by these actions. As the eagle and the dove--supposedly he the eagle--they are both flawed while having some good characteristics. Together, they complete one another, forming the immortal phoenix. If their love is broken--the death of this phoenix--it reforms from the ashes of the breakup, much like the ashes of the phoenix creates a new bird. Others find this unusual and bizzare, as most would find it interesting at the least to find a love this tumultuous and simultaneously enduring.
Overall, this stanza shows everything that their love makes them, both physically and mentally. It shows their devotion to one another in every way possible, and emphasizes their status as two halves of one whole being.
--Clarke

The Love that the narrator has in this poem is not just frowned upon. It seems that he and his wife or girlfriend fight a lot, and that is why people look at them with scorn. The narrator even says "You, to whom love was peace, that now is rage" and also compares their love to war. He says that they'll either live in love or at least die in love. Like a phoenix, they keep dying, or fighting, and rising up again. They'll stay together no matter how bad it gets. That seems to fit the title, "Canonization", for it doesn't just mean making someone a saint. That person is usually already deceased. The narrator thinks that this love will eventually destroy him, but he'll be remembered as a saint for staying with it so long. (2)
-Alex B.

• The author of the poem is trying to convey the all important idea of love. He is saying that love is more powerful and important than the aforementioned items, and that in the physical surrounding of the stanzas by the word 'love' itself, love not only overpowers but encompasses all of life's more petty yet tangible objects.
  
  • Nick C. Esquire

In the fourth stanza he talks about the eternal love that they could have. When he says "Our legend be, it will be fit for verse," he thinks that their love will be so pure that it will be desired by everyone else that they should put it into poem form. And then when he says "The greatest ashes," like the ashes in the rebirth of a phoenix, he could mean that their love can withstand death and can be reborn and through the hyms their love will be accepted and glorified.
--Becca

The author of this poem is trying to show the importance of his love and the overall idea that love is all you need and it overpowers everything else. He also thinks people should be able to love the way they want to without any criticism, because it is only between the two lovers, not anyone else. The love between them, as the author states, unites the two as one soul and their love is all they need to survive. The author's own love is not harming anyone, so he does not see why other people should get involved in it.
- Mini

In the third stanza the author is trying to convince the person he is speaking to that his love is unique and powerful."We die and rise the same, and prove Mysterious by this love." The author and his lovers love for one another is so intense and special, they will die together and be reborn by it.

• Stephen S.

In the first stanza of the poem, the author asks for the the person to love them for who he is on the inside not outside.
Mo H.

In the third stanza, the author uses metaphors to interpret the love between the speaker and whomever.

The author speaks of their love lasting till death in stanza 4. He uses sayings as the love being to the tomb, ashes, the hearse, and the glassy stare; which is the look of death over a person. The death will make there love then eternalized for eachother.
Jon Porco

All of the stanzas have a rhyming scheme. Line one and nine of each stanza end with love. Also in every line eight, the last word for each stanza rhyme withe each other- approve, move, prove, approve (again), and above. Line eight also rhymes with line four. Line two rhymes with line three, and lines 5,6, and 7 all rhyme with each other.- Austin

In stanza 3, Donne says "By us; we two being one, are it." By this he means their love has brought them together, to a point where they are no longer two people, but they are one, and he goes on to talk about how, because they are one, they are no longer seperated by the differences of the sexes, and this mysterious occurence can only further prove that what they have is true love.
-Justin Moore

I personally interpreted the poem as being about two lovers who were being persecuted for being in love, because it was unacceptable for one reason or another for them to be together. This interpretation led me to read stanza three a little differently. "Call her one, and me another a fly, we're tapers too, and at our own cost die." I read that as a metaphor that Donne and his lover were flies, and candles, and as flies they were drawn to the flame, even though they knew it would hurt them. They couldn't help it. They'd rather die, of their own accord, even, than deny themselves of what they want.
-Kelsey

John Donne could have also used the title canonization for those who were canonized. the first people that were honored as saints were martyrs, those who died for their faith. john donne could be comparing those people to narator of the peace, saying that he would die for his love just as the saints died for their faith. -Meg-

(3)

(1)http://www.luminarium.org/sevenlit/donne/canonization.php
(2)http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/canonization
(3) http://www.stgemma.com/images/gemma_canonization2.jpg