Comparison of the speaking voices and the speaker’s relationship with God in two different poems: Sin by George Herbert and Holy Sonnet #1 by John Donne.
This paper compares two different poems. The devotional lyrics Sin, by George Herbert, and Holy Sonnet #1, by John Donne, differ radically in both their speaking voices and their representations of the relationship between the speaker and God. As this essay will argue, Donne’s “Holy Sonnet” may be distinguished from Herbert’s Sin by its profoundly personal and emotional speaking voice.