Original Sin
The poem doesn't shy away from the idea that, because we are born human, we are born already having sinned. This goes back to Genesis in the Old Testament, where the first humans sinned against God...
Done/Donne
Donne ends the fifth line of each stanza with "done," a play on his last name. By inserting himself in the poem, the general concept of human sin and anxiety about death become a more personal issu...
The Door to Sin
After the speaker sins, other people make his sin "their door" to more sinning. He's using a metaphor. By comparing sin to a doorway by which other sins can be entered, he's saying that he is guilt...
The Shore
The speaker uses another metaphor here; this time, he compares Limbo (the place between heaven and hell in some Christian traditions) to the shore (the place between land and sea). Though we h...
The Son/Sun
In the third and final stanza, Donne uses a pun to reference both the son of God and the actual, physical sun in the sky. As long as the son remains in his life in the constant way that the sun shi...