Jesse Sharpe PhD thesis - Research@StAndrews:FullText ...

Donne’s Incarnating Words 78
of Christ is described, and though this is an act of complete submission, as Jesus allows
himself to be executed as a criminal, Donne describes it as Jesus being ‘lifted up’. While
the body of Christ is certainly lifted onto the cross, the movement of death is one
downward. It is not a glorification of the divinity in the Incarnation, but a submission to
humanity and the flesh as God must now die. But Donne correctly describes the human
and divine movement down to death as a spiritual glorification in that this is the act that
will allow humanity and God to be united once again.
Now thou art lifted up, draw me to thee,
And at thy death, giving such liberal dole,
Moist, with one drop of thy blood, my dry soul. (12-14)
This act of death is one of life and communion, and Donne recognises that the physical
blood of Jesus’ body is the price needed to save humanity. The liquidity of the blood will
rejuvenate the dry land of his soul. It is a physical transaction that is required to save
Donne’s, and all humanity’s, immaterial soul. The physicality of Jesus’ sacrifice is what
Donne looks to in order to achieve eternal life, but death cannot be the end in this Easter
story, and so the next poem completes Christ’s Passion and meditates upon the
resurrection.
‘Resurrection’ is a poem of victory, and the victory is not just Christ’s but
potentially Donne’s as well. The sonnet recognises the physical and spiritual work taking
place in these actions and reads:
Moist with one drop of thy blood, my dry soul
Shall (though she now be in extreme degree