John Donne: Poem analysis » Good Friday, 1613. Riding Westward » Synopsis of Good Friday, 1613
The context of Good Friday, 1613. Riding Westward is explained in the poem itself, unusually for Donne. He has been forced to ride out on some business matter on a Good Friday. Normally, he would have preferred to spend the day in quiet meditation on Christ's death, since in the Christian calendar, that is the day on which Christ was crucified. The day is fixed from the Jewish Feast of Passover, which would fall on the Sabbath (Saturday). The Gospel-accounts state that Jesus' crucifixion fell on the day before that Sabbath Mark 15:42; Luke 23:54. Special services would have been held in Anglican churches but the poet is unable to participate.
Moreover, he finds himself riding westward. This sense of geography is important, since the site of the crucifixion, Jerusalem, lies due east. He is thus riding directly away from the direction to which his mind would want to turn. In fact, he appears to be turning his back on it. But the back is the place where punishment occurs, in the sense of flogging or whipping, so in the end he sees it as appropriate. He deserves punishment for his sins.
A meditation
The poem thus does become a meditation, one done almost by default, yet the more powerful for that. It is a poem which grows in appeal. There is nothing immediately attractive about it, but the use of imagery and argument seems in the end so appropriate that it has to be reckoned as one of Donne's greatest religious poems.
Investigating Good Friday, 1613
- At what stage in Donne's life was Good Friday, 1613 written?
- What was the significance of Good Friday for him?
- Have you ever had to go somewhere quite the opposite of where you really wanted to go?
- Can you remember your feelings?
- Today's New International Version
- 42It was Preparation Day (that is, the day before the Sabbath). So as evening approached,
- King James Version
- 42And now when the even was come, because it was the preparation, that is, the day before the sabbath,
- Today's New International Version
- 54It was Preparation Day, and the Sabbath was about to begin.
- King James Version
- 54And that day was the preparation, and the sabbath drew on.
The Friday before Easter Sunday and the day when the death of Jesus on the cross is commemorated. It is called 'good' because the death of Jesus is believed to have made it possible for human sin to be forgiven.
Christian devotional practice in which a verse of the Bible or some aspect of the Christian life is held in prayerful and focused thought, until some deeper aspect of its reality manifests itself.
Title (eventually used as name) given to Jesus, refering to an anointed person set apart for a special task such as a king.
Name originally given to disciples of Jesus by outsiders and gradually adopted by the Early Church.
1) In the Bible a member of the Hebrew race
2) Someone who belongs to the Jewish faith which believes in one God and the importance of Jewish Law.
The Jewish spring festival celebrating the deliverance of the people of Israel from slavery in Egypt.
The seventh day of the Jewish week, on which people were to rest from work.
Gospel - Literally 'good news' - used of the message preached by Jesus recorded in the New Testament.
1. The central message of the Christian faith
2. Title given to the four New Testament books which describe the life of Jesus Christ
Execution by nailing or binding a person to a cross.
The Anglican church is the 'Established' or state church of England, the result of a break with the Catholic church under Henry VIII and further developments in the reign of Elizabeth I.
The city on a hill (Mt. Zion) which King David captured and made the capital of Israel. It was the site of the Temple built by Solomon and of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. Today it is still a holy city for Jews, Christians and Muslims.
Disobedience to the known will of God. According to Christian theology human beings have displayed a pre-disposition to sin since the Fall of Humankind.
Christian devotional practice in which a verse of the Bible or some aspect of the Christian life is held in prayerful and focused thought, until some deeper aspect of its reality manifests itself.
Figure of speech in which a person or object or happening is described in terms of some other person, object or action, either by saying X is Y (metaphor); or X is like Y (simile). In each case, X is the original, Y is the image.
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