The Poems of John Donne (Longman Annotated English Poets) by Complete Poems (Longman 2010)

Author:Complete Poems (Longman, 2010)
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781317862024
Publisher: Taylor and Francis
Published: 2014-06-06T00:00:00+00:00

Upon the Annunciation when Good Friday Fell upon the Same Day

Date and Context. Probably c. 25 March 1608, as the scribe of the ancestral copy of Group III thought, though immoveable feast and moveable fast coincided on 25 March in 1597 too. Every year they were brought together in the Collect for Communion on the feast of the Annunciation, praying that ‘as we have known Christ thy Son’s incarnation by the message of an angel, by his Cross and Passion we may be brought unto the glory of his resurrection’. Marotti (1986) p. 344 thought the poem might have been written for Magdalen Herbert (cp. Corona, Cross).

Analogues. Sir John Beaumont’s last poem, ‘Upon the two great Feasts of the Annunciation and Resurrection falling on the same day, March 25, 1627’, first published in Bosworth-field (1629; Shorter Poems, ed. R. D. Sell (1974) pp. 98–9), may, as Gardner hypothesised, have been prompted by a reading of D.’s poem in manuscript (as may G. Herbert’s ‘In Natales et Pascha Concurrentes’), though there may rather be a common model in their Roman Catholic heritage, e.g., the discredited (by Protestants) Voragine 53 (1. 209), which repeats the early tradition that the Crucifixion occurred on the same day in March as the Annunciation.

Text. TCD is the only source not showing obvious errors. Among many such in Group III, however, some variants offer possible readings, and may be earlier versions, e.g., in ll. 13, 21 and 46.

TAMELY, frail body,abstain today: today

My soul eats twice, Christ hither and away.

Sources collated: Group I: H49, D, C57, Lec; H40; Group II: TCD, DC; Group III:

Dob, S96, Lut, O’F; 1633, 1635

Base text: TCD

Select variants:

Heading II The Annunciation I: Upon the Annunciation and Passion falling upon [on Lut, O’F] one day. [Anno S96: Anno Do. Lut: An. Do. O’F] 1608 [1618 Lut: 168 O’F]. III: The Annunciation and Passion 1633, 1635 1 body] flesh III, 1635

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