Lyric Poem · Death & Loss

Holy Sonnet XII: Why Are We By All Creatures Waited On?

by John Donne

Reading room

1Why are we by all creatures waited on?

2Why do the prodigal elements supply

3Life and food to me, being more pure than I,

4Simple, and further from corruption?

5Why brook'st thou, ignorant horse, subjection?

6Why dost thou, bull, and bore so seelily,

7Dissemble weakness, and by one man's stroke die,

8Whose whole kind you might swallow and feed upon?

9Weaker I am, woe is me, and worse than you,

10You have not sinned, nor need be timorous.

11But wonder at a greater wonder, for to us

12Created nature doth these things subdue,

13But their Creator, whom sin nor nature tied,

14For us, His creatures, and His foes, hath died.

Full-text availability follows the United States display decision recorded below; status can differ elsewhere.

Tip: click any line number to copy a ready-made citation for that line.

“Holy Sonnet XII: Why Are We By All Creatures Waited On?” by John Donne — quilloak.com/poems/holy-sonnet-xii-why-are-we-by-all-creatures-waited-on

Quick facts

Poem: Holy Sonnet XII: Why Are We By All Creatures Waited On?
Poet: John Donne
Length: 14 lines
Form: Lyric Poem
Themes: Death & Loss, Nature, Sad

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: Lines run 10-11 syllables (median 11). No single length dominates, which is normal once elision and contraction are in play.

The poem’s silhouette — approximate syllables per line, measured from the text above. Even bars mean a measured line; ragged bars mean the poem sets its own widths.

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 XII: Why Are We By All Creatures Waited On? 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 e88f22b80ea9e9f9…
Editorial handling: Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.

Jurisdiction-specific, never a worldwide claimRights policy Report a text or rights issue

Lyric Poem Death & Loss Nature Sad

Keep reading

She Walks in Beauty

Lord Byron · 1814

She walks in beauty, like the nightOf cloudless climes and starry skies;And all that's best of dark and bright

18 lines · lyric

Love's Philosophy

Percy Bysshe Shelley · 1819

The fountains mingle with the riverAnd the rivers with the ocean,The winds of heaven mix for ever

16 lines · lyric

When You Are Old

W. B. Yeats · 1893

When you are old and grey and full of sleep,And nodding by the fire, take down this book,And slowly read, and dream of the soft look

12 lines · lyric

More poems about death →