If poisonous minerals, and if that tree
Whose fruit threw death on else immortal us,
If lecherous goats, if serpents envious
Cannot be damned, alas, why should I be?
Why should intent or reason, born in me,
Make sins, else equal, in me more heinous?
And Mercy being easy, and glorious
To God; in his stern wrath, why threatens he?
But who am I, that dare dispute with thee
O God? Oh! of thine only worthy blood,
And my tears, make a heavenly Lethean flood,
And drown in it my sin's black memory;
That thou remember them, some claim as debt,
I think it mercy, if thou wilt forget.
Holy Sonnet Ix: If Poisonous Minerals, And If That Tree
John Donne
(1)
Poem topics: death, memory, remember, tree, fruit, claim, forget, easy, reason, black, equal, thine, god, mercy, Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
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