One of the biggest debates at the turn of the seventeenth century was determining who was responsible for choosing a mate and what criteria that mate must possess in order to be suitable for marriage. The Canonization by John Donne continues with the metaphysical style of poetry employing unusual verse and unexpected chains of reasoning. This poem argues for a non-traditional role of love while stating that if his love cannot be possible in the real world than it will become legendary through poetry and inducted into the canon of saints.
             Donnes' poem consists of five stanzas metered in iambic lines ranging from trimeter to pentameter. In each of the nine line stanzas, the first, third, fourth and seventh lines are pentameter while the second, fifth, sixth and eighth in tetrameter. The ninth is then in trimeter. The very last line of the poem is a rhyming couplet with the rhyme scheme being ABBACCCDD.
             The first stanza explains his relationship to the world of politics, economics, wealth and nobility. He details how he has moved beyond those concerns and is focusing on love. He wishes for his addressee to do the same, for him to find a career, take his place in life and assume the role of being preoccupied with the King and money. He doesn't want the reaction from the addressee, but to be left alone so he can love.
             The second stanza parodies contemporary Petrarchan notions of love. "What merchant ships have my sighs drown'd? Who says my tears have overflow'd his ground?"(11) These lines can directly relate to one of Donnes' petrarchal poems, The Ecstasy. "A pregnant bank swell'd up to rest. The violets reclining head, Sat we two, one another's best."(2-4) Petrarchan love poems were often full of claims like these. This stanza then goes on to mock the ways of the everyday world. With statements such that the love he possesses will not keep soldiers from figh...