HOLY SONNET XIV

Mr Richard McCurdy, S.J., told our sophomore honor class that Donne’s sonnet, Batter My Heart…, was a little “grown-up” for kids our age, but he thought we could handle it.

Also, since he was teaching it to a senior class at the time, it allowed him to kill two birds with one lesson plan.

I always think of Batter My Heart as a “terrible sonnet.” Then wikipedia reminds me it was Hopkins who wrote the terrible sonnets, although Batter… is every bit as terrible as say, Carrion Comfort.

Actually, some rhythmic riffs in Batter… foretell Hopkins’ sprungness.

Here’s a little scorecard to help tell the two apart.



BTW: According to wikipedia Donne wrote a polemic titled Ignatius and his Cohort which takes place in, and numbers Ignatius Loyola among the residents of, hell.

I wonder what pissed him off.

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