Holy Sonnet IX: If Poisonous Minerals, And If That Tree by John Donne: Full Text of the Poem

Holy Sonnet IX: If Poisonous Minerals, And If That Tree

by John Donne

Renaissance · Short · 14 linesnaturefaith

If poisonous minerals, and if that tree Whose fruit threw death on else immortal us, If lecherous goats, if serpents envious Cannot be damned, alas, why should I be? Why should intent or reason, born in me, Make sins, else equal, in me more heinous? And Mercy being easy, and glorious To God; in his stern wrath, why threatens he? But who am I, that dare dispute with thee O God? Oh! of thine only worthy blood, And my tears, make a heavenly Lethean flood, And drown in it my sin's black memory; That thou remember them, some claim as debt, I think it mercy, if thou wilt forget.

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Public domain. Source: PoetryDB. Reproduced verbatim; see theanthology for the full collection.

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