The Reformation · written c. 1609–1620; published 1633
The Divine Poems
John Donne · 1572–1631
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
This work is in the public domain and can be read in full, free, at the archives below. The Library catalogues it; it does not host the text.
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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