if poisonous minerals

Donne’s “If poisonous minerals” has a shift in tone towards the middle of the poem where the author switches from his questioning of God’s decisions on what is wrong and why he believes that is unfair he should be damned, to him submitting and recognizing that God is worthy of his own decisions, and in control. Donne starts first part of the poem with two strong examples of inanimate objects which cause death; the “Poisonous minerals”, and the “tree, whose fruit threw death on us”. The poisonous minerals are significant in that even though they flow into your body and poison it, they “Cannot be damn’d”. Through this allusion not only is Donne using personification towards the minerals, he is also comparing himself to something which has no brain. Donne continues his questioning of Gods decision of damning him but not other harmful things by alluding to the Bible, specifically the tree which Adam and Eve ate of. These first two questions directed toward God are the most significant in the poem in that, in both cases the reason these two things caused death or harm is because of the humans doing. The poisonous minerals may intoxicate your body and poison you, but one has to eat or partake of it in order to be harmed by it. The fruit which Adam and Eve ate and consequently were overtaken by death, was eaten by their own choice which means that it is not the fault of the fruit, but the fault of themselves. He continues by talking about lecherous goats and Serpents which are envious also not being damned; The difference between those things and a human is, that those are animals without a heart or soul and do not know what is morally right or wrong. The first part of the poem before the tone comes to a close as he asks why he should be damned when those other objects aren’t. He asks why, even though he was born with the potential and intent to sin, he would he be punished in more hateful and strict ways. The questioning tone ends with the question of why God would show his wrath towards him when it is so easy for him to be merciful. He answers the questions himself in a sudden shift of tone when he realizes that he is in no position to question God. The point above about how we as humans blame things on others, such as him putting the tree in the context of killing humans rather than humans making the choice, must have been realized by the author at this point. He continues by talking about how he is not worthy and how Jesus’ shed his blood along with his tears create a flood to cover up us as humans black sin. He concludes the second tone by asking God to not forget about him, but to forget about his sin. This is a good end to the tone because of the irony in that he asks God for one more favor, to forget his sins.