The Canonization By John Donne

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

         Or chide my palsy, or my gout,

My five gray hairs, or ruined fortune flout,

         With wealth your state, your mind with arts improve,

                Take you a course, get you a place,

                Observe his honor, or his grace,

Or the king's real, or his stampèd face

         Contemplate; what you will, approve,

         So you will let me love.

The speaker opens in the middle of an argument already happening — there is no gentle introduction. This is called in medias res. The tone is immediately combative and intimate. The monosyllabic bluntness of "hold your tongue" contrasts with the softness of "let me love" — juxtaposition of aggression and tenderness in one line.

Donne offers his own physical decay as a more legitimate target for criticism than his love life. This is self-deprecating irony — he is essentially saying "mock my broken body if you must, but not my love." The pairing of two diseases is also a catalogue (a list used for rhetorical effect).

 The speaker expands the list of things worth mocking — now adding age and financial failure. The phrase "ruined fortune" carries weight because Donne's own life had this reality. It's confessional while also being strategic — he's saying: "I have real problems you could attack, so why attack love?" The word flout is deliberately harsh, showing that he knows what the critic wants to do.

The speaker now turns the tables — instead of defending himself, he tells the critic what they should be doing. This is apostrophe (direct address to a person). The line is delivered with biting sarcasm — "go be ambitious and cultured, if that's what matters to you." The balanced structure (wealth//state : mind//arts) gives it an almost mocking tidiness — antithesis within parallelism.

Short, punchy, imperative commands — anaphora continues with the rhythm of "do this, do that." The clipped syntax mimics impatience. Donne is essentially saying: "Go be a social climber." This reflects his satirical view of courtly ambition, a recurring target in his work. Asyndeton (lack of conjunction between the two commands) speeds the line up, making it feel contemptuous and dismissive.

 The speaker mocks the act of patronage-seeking — attending upon powerful men and flattering them for advancement. This is Donne at his most satirical. Both "honor" and "grace" are ironic — these are men called honorable and gracious, but the act of fawning on them is depicted as undignified. Irony saturates the line.

"Or the king's real, or his stampèd face"

Word/Phrase	Meaning	Device
the king's real	The king's actual, living face — his physical royal presence	"Real" from the Latin regalis (royal); to see the king in person was a great privilege
his stampèd face	The king's face stamped onto coins — money, currency	Metonymy — the coin stands for wealth and material ambition
stampèd	The accent mark (stampèd) forces two syllables — stamp-ed — for meter	Diaeresis — a diacritical mark used to control pronunciation in verse

Overall line: This is one of the most brilliant lines in the stanza. Donne contrasts two ways of worshipping the king — literally going to court to see his face, or chasing his face on coins (money). Both are forms of idolatry — and both are presented as alternatives to love. The real vs. stampèd contrast is a compressed antithesis: the living king versus the dead image of him on metal. It also quietly suggests that the critic worships power and money rather than anything truly alive.

"Contemplate; what you will, approve,"

Word/Phrase	Meaning	Device
Contemplate	Gaze upon, meditate on, admire	Elevated, almost philosophical word — used sarcastically here
what you will	Whatever you like, whatever pleases you	A deliberate loosening of control — "I don't care what you choose"
approve	To be satisfied with, to sanction, to choose	Archaic sense: "find acceptable for yourself"

Overall line: The speaker throws his hands up — "fine, contemplate whatever you like." The semicolon after "Contemplate" creates a caesura (a pause mid-line), slowing the poem down momentarily, making the resignation feel real. But the resignation is strategic — it leads directly to the final line's demand.

"So you will let me love."

Word/Phrase	Meaning	Device
So	As long as, provided that, on the condition that	A conditional conjunction — all the preceding list collapses into this single demand
you will let me love	The only condition he cares about	Epistrophe / Refrain — mirrors the end of line 1 ("let me love"), creating a circular structure

Overall line: The stanza ends where it began — with the simple, unyielding demand: let me love. This circular structure is called epanalepsis (returning to the opening word or phrase). After the dazzling, sarcastic catalogue of worldly ambitions — wealth, titles, court, coin — the poem snaps shut on the smallest, most human request. The contrast between the vastness of the list and the smallness of the demand is the stanza's emotional punch.