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The Reformation · written c. 1609–1620; published 1633
The Divine Poems
John Donne · 1572–1631
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What it is
Sonnets and hymns of argumentative, physical, and often desperate address to God — asking to be battered, and admitting he cannot repent without help.
Why it lasted
The greatest religious poetry in English, and unusual in making doubt and reluctance the substance rather than the obstacle.
Where to read it
Public domain and free to read in full, though not held here. The archives below have it.
These open a search on each archive rather than a direct link, which is the honest way to point at an edition nobody here has checked line by line.
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