“Oh make thy selfe with holy mourning blacke”: Aspects of Drama and Performance in John Donne’s Holy Sonnet “Oh My Black Soule”

Abstract

Abstract This article provides a close reading of John Donne’s Holy Sonnet “Oh My Black Soule” with regard to its dramatic and performative qualities. The opening line of the poem contains an allusion to the morality play Everyman; moreover, in this sonnet, the speaker addresses his soul as if he were on a stage; and, in the end, he finds a resolution to the inner conflict that is being described in the course of the poem. Drama is thus significant in three ways: the speaker witnesses a drama of the soul, which is summoned, and reacts to it; he takes part in the drama and its performance as the speaker of a soliloquy; and a drama (in the sense of conflict) goes on within himself. The sonnet is the enactment of a drama of salvation and an expression of the innermost fears and prayers of the speaker who, eventually, finds a resolution and comes to a happy ending. While these three dimensions are all equally linked to the dramatic and performative qualities of this poem, the focus will be on the second aspect and the question how the Holy Sonnet may add to our understanding of the soliloquy, the communicative form which became most popular on the stage at the time John Donne wrote this poem.