Point of View

The Holy Sonnets are written primarily from the first-person perspective of an unnamed speaker, presumably male, who is struggling to understand what lies ahead for him as he faces imminent death. Often, the speaker is writing directly to God, which makes many of the Sonnets similar to prayers. They are intimate glimpses into the psychology of a single person, and often the speaker will remind the reader just how narrow the focus of the poems is by referring to his own body.

In Sonnet 7, the perspective strays somewhat from that of the speaker as he embodies the voice of Christ, saying, "Spit in my face, ye Jews, and pierce my side, / Buffet, and scoff, scourge, and crucify me" (1-2). By writing from the presumed perspective of Christ during the crucifixion, the speaker draws attention to the fact that Christ was once, like him, fully human...