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Religious criticism, the verse epistle, and Donne's daring discretion.(John Donne's poems)

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From: Christianity and Literature
Date: 20050922
Author:Kneidel, Gregory

John Donne's verse epistle, "Honour is so sublime perfection," is his most religious poem, (1) at least in the restricted sense that the word "religion" appears in it more often than in any of his other poems. (2) This curious fact might surprise both specialist and non-specialist readers of Donne alike. The poem is never printed with or listed among his religious poems. Like Donne's other neglected verse epistles, it lacks the qualities we most readily associate with his best studied religious poetry: the witty profanity of the Songs and Sonnets, the searching skepticism of ...

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