Pedantic Wretch, Go Chide

Maryrose McLaughlin

Pedantic wretch, go chide is the line brought 

Up to the sun; this cleric’s pen cuts through 

The chains of modesty. He writes some new, 

Ironic title on a list of not-

to-do’s, but change of heart means he has sought 

And found that lust. But from these poems’ view 

Enjoyment still proceeds his guilt. Construe 

Another meaning from these lines: though fraught,

I learn that urns in rooms are lovers stunned 

By lust and burnt to ash. So then again

I read the lines, the words grow quite rotund, 

I understand on this tenth reading when

The double meaning’s found. So these fecund 

And obscure poems mark Donne’s life, ‘Amen.’