By englishedition 
Read here the most seven important short questions from The Canonization written by John Donne in English Literature. This is a wonderful poem written by the poet to enrich the English poetry.
Short Questions- The Canonization
1. What is the meaning of the word ‘Canonization”?
Ans. The word ‘Canonization’ means the formal recognition of a man as a saint by the Christian church. In Donne’s poem the use of the word for the lovers implies that the lovers are as holy as the Christian saints and that their love is worthy to be emulated. In this poem Donne exalts love to a divine plane. The lovers are devoted to each other as a saint is devoted to God. The use of this religious term serves as a metaphysical conceit.
2. ‘And we in us find the Eagle and the Dove’ – What do the ‘Eagle’ and the Dove’ stand for?
Ans. The Eagle and the Dove are the symbols of strength and gentleness. In The Canonization each of the lovers are dove and eagle. Whereas ‘Dove’ stands for female principle – meek, gentle and inactive qualities, the ‘Eagle’ represents the virile principle of active nature. The lovers are, at another level the two birds, one killing the other.
3. Explain the ‘phoenix riddle”?
Ans. The Phoenix riddle’: The Phoenix is a mythical bird in which the male sex and the female sex coexist in a neutral form. Only one piece of this bird remains alive at one time. After a long span of time when it burns itself to death another bird is born out of its ashes. This riddle of two-in-one existence of the Phoenix is, Donne argues, applicable to the lovers. In The Canonization the lover and the beloved form a single entity combining both the sexes. The new bird that emerges out of the old one is, evidently, the spiritual love followed by the physical one. This metaphysical conceit very aptly points to the absolute togetherness of the lovers and the permanence of their love.
4. What does the expression ‘sonnet’s pretty rooms’ mean?
Ans. Sonnet’s pretty rooms: Sonnets is here used in the sense of love poetry and ‘stanza’ in Italian means ‘room’. Through this ‘clever conceit [as Mr. Reeves terms] Donne seeks their ultimate refuge in the immortalities as of love-lyric which will, like ‘a well wrought urn’ ‘half-acre tomb’ eternalise their love. In short, Donne wants to immortalise love in and through poetry.
5. ‘We are tapers too, and at our own cost die’ – What is the embeded image here?
Ans. The image pointed out in this line from Donne’s The Canonization is that of self-sacrifice. A taper, that is, a candle burns at the cost of its own life. In other words, forfeiting its own life a candle gives light to others. Similarly, spiritual lovers, fret themselves on this mundane world on going to achieve archetypal dimension in love. But as their love gets this monumental dimension, it can direct new lovers to the right path. This directive force of spiritual love is identical to the candle’s benevolent act of offering light to
others.
6. “And by these hymns all shall approve/ Us canonized for love’. What are referred to by ‘hymns’ here?
Ans. The expression ‘hymns’ here refers to the sonnets written glorifying the love of the lovers. As the readers and lovers of the coming generations will read the sonnets immortalizing their spiritual love they will worship them as canonized saints of love.
7. “As Well a Well Wrought Urn…” – Can you name the critic who has used the underlined phrase as the title of his book?
Ans. The critic is Cleanth Brookes. He uses this phrase for the title of his critique The Well-Wrought Urn.
NOCTURNAL UPON ST. LUCY’S DAY- QUESTIONS ANSWERS