Donne wants God to forgive his many sins, even though they are the same sins that have been committed by countless others before him. (" . . . though it were done before.") Even if the Almighty should deign to forgive those sins, however, the speaker has many more that he'd like to have taken into consideration, though he doesn't specify exactly what those sins are.
Furthermore, the speaker has led others into sin, acting like a door to welcome them into a sinful world. But even if God should forgive him for that, the speaker has yet more sins that need to be forgiven, including one that he's practiced for the better part of twenty years.
It's instructive that the only specific sin that the speaker refers to is the fear of death. And yet here he isn't asking for forgiveness; his only desire is that God should promise him that when he, the speaker, dies, he will see Jesus Christ, his savior. If God makes good on this promise, then the speaker will give up his fear of death, or his "sin of fear."
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44115/a-hymn-to-god-the-father
Sunday, February 26, 2012
In how may ways does the speaker commit sins in "A Hymn to God the Father"? Explain.
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