A Hymn to Christ, at the Author's Last Going int
The speaker entrusts every dangerous sea voyage to Christ, seeing any damaged ship as an emblem of God’s ark and any engulfing flood as an emblem of Christ’s blood. Even if God seems angrily hidden by clouds, the speaker trusts that God’s eyes never truly despise him. Leaving an island and the people he loves there, he asks God to place divine separation between his sins and God, just as the physical seas will divide him from those he leaves behind. In the winter of his life, he turns inward toward God as the eternal root of true love. The speaker asks Christ to free him from competing human attachments. He treats his former loves of fame, wit, and hope as false mistresses and seeks a complete divorce from them so that they may be joined to God instead. Choosing darkness over distractions, he desires to see God alone and seeks refuge from earthly storms in an everlasting night.
By John Donne · First published 1633 · Genre: Devotional Poetry, Metaphysical Poetry, Lyric Poetry · 376 words
First lines
In what torn ship so ever I embark, / That ship shall be my emblem of Thy ark; / What sea soever swallow me, that flood / Shall be to me an emblem of Thy blood; / Though Thou with clouds of anger do disguise / Thy face, yet through that mask I know those eyes, / Which, though they turn away sometimes, / They never will despise.
I sacrifice this island unto Thee, / And all whom I love there, and who love me; / When I have put our seas 'twixt them and me, / Put thou Thy seas betwixt my sins and Thee. / As the tree's sap doth seek the root below / In winter, in my winter now I go, / Where none but Thee, the eternal root / Of true love, I may know.
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A Hymn to Christ, at the Author's Last Going into Germany is listed on Textopian as a poem by John Donne, dated 1633 CE.
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- Work type: Poem
- Author: John Donne
- Date: 1633 CE
- Language: English
- Genres: Devotional Poetry, Metaphysical Poetry, Lyric Poetry, Spiritual Poetry, Religious Poetry
- Length: 376 words
- Structure: 1 section, 4 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Standard (8th-9th Grade)
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Genres
- Devotional Poetry — The work is explicitly a devotional hymn expressing personal religious faith, commitment to Christ, and spiritual dedication through a journey narrative.
- Metaphysical Poetry — Exemplifies Donne's signature metaphysical style with elaborate conceits: the ship as an ark, the sea as Christ's blood, and complex theological reasoning about divine love and earthly attachments.
- Lyric Poetry — Presents personal, emotionally expressive first-person meditation on faith, sacrifice, and spiritual transformation with musicality characteristic of lyric verse.
- Spiritual Poetry — Centrally concerned with spiritual journey, transformation, and the soul's relationship to the divine; explores themes of sacrifice, redemption, and eternal spiritual commitment.
Tags
devotional · metaphysical · religious · travel · journey · spiritual · prayer · ocean · crossing · faith · guidance · protection