If Poisonous Minerals

By J. Donne

Donne makes a very significant shift by using an immensely defiant tone in the first 8 lines but then moves to a remorseful voice in the rest of the poem. In this Shakespearian sonnet, Donne uses an ABBA rhythm: 1 quatrain, 2 quatrain, 3 quatrain, couplet. The shift occurs between the second and third quatrain. Throughout the whole poem, the speaker is talking to God which is prayer or an apostrophe; but he is talking to himself as well which also makes this a soliloquy.

In the first 8 lines, the speaker states inanimate objects that have killed people, yet, have not gone to hell. "If poisonous minerals... cannot be damned, alas, why should I be?" (1-4). It becomes evident that the speaker has committed a terrible crime, most like murder perhaps, and comes the conclusion that the God only sends humans to Hell is because we have reason. He asks, "Why should intent or Reason, born in me, Make sins, else equal, in me more heinous?" (5-6). He ponders why would God give him these attributes when they will cause him to go to Hell. The tone is declarative and explanatory as well. The next 6 lines take a dramatic shift into a sorrowful and regretful tone.

Lines 9-14 suddenly presents a remorseful tone. The speaker begs God to forget him because he has sinned. "...drown in it my sins' black memory...I think it mercy if thou wilt forget" (12-14). It's ironic because most people ask God to remember them and not forget them but the speaker feels unworthy of God's recognition and wants to be forgotten. He uses an allusion of Noah and the Flood, "And my tears, make a Heavily Lethean flood" (11). The speaker uses this reference to empathize the grief and sorrow he is filled with from his sins. Overall, Donne uses the shift to capture every emotion he is filled with.