Unholy sonnet 4 by Mark Jarman - Essay Example

number Critique on Unholy Sonnet 4 by Mark Jarman Introduction Mark Jarman is a poet with passion for God that reflects in his various works. Jarman’s sonnets have their own importance in the manner they are organised in and in terms of the messages they try to deliver. This paper will look into Jarman’s Unholy Sonnet 4 that provides an absent yet ever present image of God, and the manner in which the sonnet’s structure extols the divine. Critique Jarman has split his sonnet into two distinctive portions with distinctive purpose. The first part of the sonnet explores God alone and without comparison to other theological belief while the second part of the sonnet explores God in comparison to other strands of organised theological belief. In addition, the first part of the sonnet tends to extol God through an exploration of nothingness while the second part provides more concrete form to God so that comparisons can be formed. The poet begins by exploring God as “nothingness” and exclaims that this is a rather “amazing” view of God since this form of emptiness is all pervasive and tends to encompass everything (Jarman). It is noticeable that Jarman tends to address God and His existence in the third person as if standing outside of the box of existence as a human being. This form of poetical usage by Jarman provides greater assertiveness to the poem and its text. In delivering his message, Jarman also tends to exclaim that such nothingness tends to surround human existence with delight. This delivers the idea that Jarman sees man as a prime interest of God rather than a relegated creature expelled from Paradise, as held by certain theological circles. The poet aims to create wonder and amazement towards divinity from the very start and the use of emptiness and its mystical description only enhances this objective. Additionally, the poet’s contention that God “lets us be” signifies that Jarman holds God to be far more powerful and influential than man (Jarman). Stringing Jarman’s ideas together, it becomes clear that Jarman places man as God’s prime interest even though God is far more powerful. This essentially delineates a relationship of respect rather than of love between mankind and divinity. Within the next few verses, Jarman reverses his position on the matter and exclaims that the “nonentity” is submissive in comparison to man’s desire for reason and the “friction” resulting from such dispositions (Jarman). The poet mentions violence in order to express the belief that man’s reasoning, no matter how sound, is still unsound enough to provoke violence. When contrasted with the start of the poem, where God is shown as powerful yet still peaceful, man in these verses is shown as hostile and unable to manage himself effectively. Within the next verse, Jarman expresses the idea that God’s character as being strong yet generous and man’s unreasonable character are “all that matters” (Jarman). The poet once again, switches gears and assumes the first person to delineate that all the energy focused by mankind to development and material progress tends to “explode” inside the previously claimed nothingness. Essentially, the poet uses this device to express the idea that no matter how acerbic man becomes, especially with his claims of progress and development, God is still forgiving and accepting given God’s “loving emptiness”. After the first part of the sonnet, the poet changes his techniques of expression in order to claim more concrete existence for God and his image. Jarman has used two particular metaphors “Dante’s rings” and “Zen zero’s mouth” in order to confine worldly theological beliefs as being inferior to divine theological exertion. The use of Dante’s rings may signify that God’s generosity is such that man’s fear of Hell may be unwarranted. In order to continue the apotheosis, the poet compares his sense of God to the previous metaphors and declares that his God tends to “recede from every metaphor” (Jarman). This indicates that Jarman’s God is not confined by worldly metaphor but is rather something much larger and vast. It also lends credence to the idea that the poet’s expressed God is far vast than what human reason can attempt to fathom. This is expressed clearly when Jarman declares that his God can turn the “hardest data into untruth” signifying that God is powerful enough to transform man’s reason and logic into nothingness (Jarman). Jarman’s use of the terms “blank” and “blankness” make it clear that the previous theme of emptiness is recurring in this part of the sonnet too. God’s transformation of all the blanks with blankness signifies that such an entity is omnipotent enough to change man’s material progress or man’s quest to answer the unknown by more blankness and hence more emptiness. If examined closely, Jarman tends to navigate freely between material and emptiness with ease in this poem in order to indicate that no matter what man becomes, he will always remain subservient to God. Moreover, it also expresses the idea that all paths lead to God. The paths claiming emptiness from the beginning, as in the start of the poem, lead to more blankness. Similarly, the paths claiming reason and logic also lead to more blankness. Therefore, in Jarman’s view all paths essentially lead to God, whether they start out with logic or with illogic. Jarman sums up his sonnet beautifully by bringing in the concept of love which stays in the presence of emptiness and “which the stars adore” (Jarman). The poet’s reference to the stars indicates the belief that God is settled in the skies and that the skies could be considered as the ultimate destination for the nothingness and emptiness being iterated by the poet. Conclusion Jarman’s exclusive style in expressing theological ideas especially his belief of God and His existence has been blended uniquely in his work under discussion. The sonnet style of poetic expression coupled with two distinctive forms within the sonnet make it distinctive. The poet’s reference to God’s emptiness and its pervasive nature as well as its all encompassing character are the major themes carried forward in Jarman’s Unholy Sonnet 4. Works Cited Jarman, Mark. Unholy Sonnet 4. 2013. 18 March 2013 . Read More