Holy Sonnet Annotation - Stage 2.

Holy Sonnet XII.
Why are we by all creatures waited on ?
Why do the prodigal elements supply
Life and food to me, being more pure than I,
Simpler and further from corruption ?
Why brook'st thou, ignorant horse, subjection ?
Why dost thou, bull and boar, so sillily
Dissemble weakness, and by one man's stroke die,
Whose whole kind you might swallow and feed upon ?
Weaker I am, woe's me, and worse than you ;
You have not sinn'd, nor need be timorous.
But wonder at a greater, for to us
Created nature doth these things subdue ;
But their Creator, whom sin, nor nature tied,
For us, His creatures, and His foes, hath died.

Annotation 1:
Barnes, David. Holy Sonnet XII. By John Donne. Librivox. Audio download. Date uploaded: October 07, 2007. Date accessed: March 02, 2010. http://librivox.org/holy-sonnets-by-john-donne/.

This sound recording by David Barnes allows listeners to distinguish pauses and stops as John Donne intended them. It exemplifies the meter and the rhyme scheme. This is a credible source. It is not necessarily credible by literary scholars as it is simply a reading of Donne’s sonnet, but it does follow Donne’s structure of the poem, thereby instating its credibility. I plan to embed a Quicktime link in my annotation that a listener can pause and stop the recording at will.

Annotation 2:
Bromberg, Howard. “Holy Sonnets.” Masterplots II: Christian Literature. Pasadena, California: Salem Press Inc. 2008. Accessed online: March 02, 2010. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lfh&AN=MOL9830002025&site=lrc-live.

In this essay from Christian Literature, there is a shore, one line summary of the sonnet. I plan to place this annotation at the beginning of the sonnet to give the reader, whether they be well-versed in Donne’s poetry or a beginner, an aid to understanding the overall idea of Holy Sonnet XII. I plan on specifically using the line that states : “He [Donne] marvels that the Creator of all creatures died for humans, the most corrupt of his creations.”
As this is a journalistic effort and published in a noted literature compilation, it is a credible source and usable in this annotation.

Annotation 3:
Williamson, George. "Donne's Satirical Progresse of the Soule." ELH, Vol. 36, No. 1 (Mar., 1969), pp. 250-264 Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press. http://www.jstor.org/stable/2872153

This source is an examination of Donne’s theme of original sin. It provides some background on his opinion. As Williamson has written multiples of books on Donne and done extensive research on the metaphysical poet, his work is considered credible. Adding to the notability of his work is the fact that it has been published by Johns Hopkins University. I plan on inserting this annotation to help the reader understand that this sonnet is not the first, nor is it the last, occurrence of Donne’s original sin theme.

Annotation 4:
Fenner, Arthur. "Donne's 'Holy Sonnet XII'." Explicator 40.4 (1982): 14-15. MLA International Bibliography. EBSCO. Web. 2 Mar. 2010.

This small essay written specifically on Holy Sonnet XII also goes in depth into explaining the main themes and ideas presented in the sonnet. Although Explicator is not the most reliable source, Fenner has written numerous other papers on literature and is considered to be a credible, noteworthy source.
I plan on placing this annotation at the end of the sonnet. It gives a chance to reread the sonnet and consider the ideas that Fenner puts forth, including the idea of the hierarchy of the people or animals mentioned in the sonnet.

Annotation 5:
Evans, Gillian R. "John Donne and the Augustinian Paradox of Sin." Review of English Studies: A Quarterly Journal of English Literature and the English Language 33.129 (1982): 1-22. MLA International Bibliography. EBSCO. Web. 2 Mar. 2010.

One of the major ideas presented in Holy Sonnet 12 is the paradox of sin and the idea of original sin. It is a recurring theme with Donne and is most certainly present in the sonnet I am annotating. I have decided to devote a page to the idea of original sin, John Donne’s assessment of it, and later scholars’ critique of Donne’s said assessment. The author is clearly reliable, having been published in the Quarterly Journal of English Literature and the English Language. This helps cement the ideas and attitudes she presents concerning Donne and original sin.

Annotation 6:
Augustinian Spirituality and the Holy Sonnets of John Donne
Patrick Grant
ELH, Vol. 38, No. 4 (Dec., 1971), pp. 542-561
Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2872265

Patrick Grant examines all of Donne’s sonnets, including Holy Sonnet XII, and makes commentary on each one. He chooses to show how the sonnets are interrelated and connecting in various ways. He focuses on how original sin started and how affects John Donne’s writing style. This differs a bit from my other sources because Grant connects the sonnets together and shows the recurring theme. Grant, like Williamson, is published by Johns Hopkins and is a credible source. His works are full of research notes and citations, providing a way to check his sources.

Annotation 7:
Renaker, David. "Do Donne's Holy Sonnets Tell a Story?" The Atheist Seventeenth Century Website. N.p., 2002-2004. Web. 4 Mar. 2010. .

Renaker examines all of Donne’s sonnets in an attempt to make sense of the “story” that the sonnets tell. He analyzes each sonnet in turn. This is especially helpful as Holy Sonnet 12 is not as widely analyzed as other sonnets. I plan on using the information in this annotation in conjunction with other resources on both original and Donne’s writing style. Renaker provides an extensive section on his notes and sources. He has also analyzed many Donne works and critiqued fellow researchers’ work.

Annotation 8:

http://www.poetrycast.net/Donne/?p=17
http://www.luminarium.org/sevenlit/donne/sonnet12.php
Margaret Edson, Wit: A Play. Faber & Faber. (1999) ISBN: 10-0571198775

In Margaret Edson’s play, the main character, an intense scholar of Donne, participates in a memorable scene in which she is taught that the spelling and punctuation of Donne’s poetry has significant meaning to how the poem in accepted. In relating to this, I have chosen to take two forms of Holy Sonnet XII, the version at the top of the post and another, and analyze how the two are different, yet similar as far as message goes. Margaret Edson is certainly a credible source. She gained her degree in Renaissance History from Smith College and her master’s in English Literature from Georgetown University. Although “Wit” was her first published work, she used her background in English literature and as a hospital worker to ensure her play was factually correct.

Annotation 9:
Grant, Patrick. "Donne, Pico, and Holy Sonnet XII". Humanities Association Review (1973): 39-42. MLA International Bibliography. Web. 4 March 2010.

I have cited Grant above and believe he is a thoroughly credible source on Holy Sonnet XII. For this reason, I am using his work again. This journal article goes through each line of Holy Sonnet XII, breaking it down so a reader can easily understand and analyze the poem. He cites connections throughout the poem and also shows how important Donne’s word choice is. I plan on using this as an annotation specifically on how Donne wrote this sonnet. He uses different language and a different writing style in his sonnets than he does in his other poetry.

Annotation 10:
Bellette, Anthony F. "Little Worlds Made Cunningly: Significant Form in Donne's 'Holy Sonnets' and 'Goodfriday, 1613'". Studies in Philology, Vol. 72, No. 3. University of North Carolina Press: 1975. 322-347.

Adding to the above annotation, I plan on using this source to further investigate and analyze how Donne used and manipulated the English language in his sonnets. He discusses the language, the structure of the sonnet itself and its form. Although these are not normally analyzed by other critics, it is especially important to understand these. Bellette is a scholar of philology, the study of linguistics and literary studies. Due to his background in this and the fact that the University of North Carolina published him, he is considered a credible and knowledgeable source.