John Donne

Addressed to the Lord, this poem poses a vexing question: where may we find the true church? Is it the richly painted church of Italy and Europe, the Roman Catholic Church? Is it the dour Protestant church of Germany and England?

Now the church is often referred to as the Bride of Christ. Even in the 17th C, the metaphor would have been old-hat. This did not stop Donne from exploiting the metaphor and, indeed, stretching it to its most absurd: Show us the true church, pleads Donne, show us your bride, for it is the divine plan that she be not a faithful spouse, but more of a swinger: "embraced and open to most men."

Oy.

Penultimate Holy Sonnet of John Donne
(or Christ the Cuckold?)

Show me dear Christ, thy spouse, so bright and clear,
What, is it she, which on the other shore
Goes richly painted? or which rob’d and tore
Laments and mourns in Germany and here?
Sleeps she a thousand, then peeps up one year?
Is she self truth and errs? now new, now’outwore?
Does she, and did she, and shall she evermore
On one, on seven, or on no hill appear?
Dwells she with us, or like adventuring knights
First travel we to seek and then make love?
Betray kind husband thy spouse to our sights,
And let myne amorous soul court thy mild Dove,
Who is most true, and pleasing to thee, then
When she’is embraced and open to most men.
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