The Canonisation

Question 1

For God’s

Answer 1

For God’s sake hold your tongue, and let me love,

Question 2

Or chide my

Answer 2

Or chide my palsy, or my gout,
My five grey hairs, or ruined fortune flout,

Question 3

Alas, alas

Answer 3

Alas, alas, who’s injured by my love?
What merchant’s ships have my sighs drowned?

Question 4

Soldiers find

Answer 4

Soldiers find wars, and lawyers find out still
Litigious men, which quarrels move,
Though she and I do love.

Question 5

By us: we two

Answer 5

By us: we two being one, are it.
So, to one neutral thing both sexes fit.

Question 6

We die and rise

Answer 6

We die and rise the same, and prove
Mysterious by this love.

Question 7

Stanza 4: poetic imagery

Answer 7

Our legend be, it will be fit for verse

We’ll build in sonnets pretty rooms

And by hymns, all shall approve
Us canonised for love.

Question 8

And if unfit

Answer 8

And if unfit for tombs and hearse
Our legend be, it will be fit for verse

Question 9

Countries, towns, courts:

Answer 9

Countries, towns, courts: beg from above
A pattern of your love!

Question 10

Precis

Answer 10

The Canonisation, by John Donne, is written with 5 regular stanzas with regular rhyme scheme and iambic meter. He defends his love against societal judgement, and elevates it to spiritual and immortal status.