| John Donne (1572–1631). The Poems of John Donne. 1896. | | | Divine Poems
Holy Sonnets | | XI. “Spit in my face, you Jews, and pierce my side” |
| | | SPIT in my face, you Jews, and pierce my side, | |
| Buffet, and scoff, scourge, and crucify me, | |
| For I have sinn’d, and sinn’d, and only He, | |
| Who could do no iniquity, hath died. | |
| But by my death can not be satisfied | 5 |
| My sins, which pass the Jews’ impiety. | |
| They kill’d once an inglorious man, but I | |
| Crucify him daily, being now glorified. | |
| O let me then His strange love still admire; | |
| Kings pardon, but He bore our punishment; | 10 |
| And Jacob came clothed in vile harsh attire, | |
| But to supplant, and with gainful intent; | |
| God clothed Himself in vile man’s flesh, that so | |
| He might be weak enough to suffer woe. | | | | |
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