The Invalidation of "The Canonization"

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."

            “The Canonization” by John Donne is a poem that was originally published in the first edition of Songs and Sonnets in 1633, two years after the poet’s death in 1631. “The Canonization” was written during a period of time in Donne’s life when he was obsessed with his wife, and believed that no other world existed outside that which they shared.  The title of the poem is a preview for readers as to the content of the poem itself.  To canonize is to glorify; a canonization is an act in which the church declares a deceased person to be a saint.  Donne’s choice to title this poem “The Canonization” suggests that he is comparing his love affair with his wife to be saintly.  The speaker in the poem is trying to defend his love from the unnamed complainers of the poem.  The speaker tries to show that his love affects no one but his love and himself by saying “who’s injured by my love?/What merchant’s ships have my sighs drown’d?/Who says my tears have overflow’d his ground?”(“The Canonization, 10-12)  The speaker is trying to tell whatever unnamed complainer to leave him alone and let him love, and to direct his complaints elsewhere, as his love does no harm to anyone else.  “For God’s sake hold your tongue, and let me love; […] 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.”(1,5-9)

            The title of the poem would lead readers unfamiliar with the poem to believe that the poem is saint-oriented, but the first line, “For God’s sake hold your tongue” makes the poem seem a bit blasphemous.  The fact that the poem is titled “The Canonization”, something that is most commonly associated with the process of becoming a saint, and most certainly what Donne what trying to achieve, makes the poem’s title itself seem wrong. It seems that in giving the poem such a religiously associated title, thus creating committing such blasphemy, Donne invalidated his love’s saintly comparison.