Lyric Poem · Death & Loss
Holy Sonnet I: Tho Has Made Me
by John Donne
1Tho has made me, and shall thy work decay?
2Repair me now, for now mine end doth haste;
3I run to death, and death meets me as fast,
4And all my pleasures are like yesterday.
5I dare not move my dim eyes any way,
6Despair behind, and death before doth cast
7Such terror, and my feeble flesh doth waste
8By sin in it, which it towards hell doth weigh.
9Only thou art above, and when towards thee
10By thy leave I can look, I rise again;
11But our old subtle foe so tempteth me
12That not one hour myself I can sustain.
13Thy grace may wing me to prevent his art,
14And thou like adamant draw mine iron heart.
Full-text availability follows the United States display decision recorded below; status can differ elsewhere.
“Holy Sonnet I: Tho Has Made Me” by John Donne — quilloak.com/poems/holy-sonnet-i-tho-has-made-me
Quick facts
- Poem
- Holy Sonnet I: Tho Has Made Me
- Poet
- John Donne
- Length
- 14 lines
- Form
- Lyric Poem
- Themes
- Death & Loss, Love, Peace
Craft notes
How this poem works
Measured from the text on this page, not copied from a summary. Counts are approximate: syllables and rhymes come from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, which models General American English, so dialect, older pronunciation, and performance can all change what you hear.
- Shape
- 14 lines · one 14-line stanza
- Line length
- Mostly 10-syllable lines (pentameter length).
Want the rules this form is measured against? Read what makes a lyric poem, or run your own draft through the form checker to see the same measurements on your lines. How we measure · Report a mistake
Text, source & rights
A traceable edition
Full-text display is based on the committed source record and a United States term-expiry review.
- Author record
- John Donne1572–1631
- Source record
- PoetryDBHoly Sonnet I: Tho Has Made Me by john-donne, PoetryDB transcription
- Display decision
- Full text · United States · reviewed 2026-07-18
- Publication record
- Not recorded in the imported source
- Text fingerprint
- SHA-256 f6b6dcea820ffaef…
- Editorial handling
- Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.
More poems like this
Holy Sonnet XI: Spit In My Face You Jews, And Pierce My Side
John Donne
Holy Sonnet XVI: Father, Part Of His Double Interest
John Donne
Holy Sonnet XVII: Since She Whom I Loved
John Donne
Holy Sonnet XVIII: Show me, dear Christ, thy Spouse, so bright and clear
John Donne
The Funeral
John Donne
A Hymn to God the Father
Ben Jonson