"The Canonization"

John Donne was forced by the king to become an Anglican priest, but he was a man who loved a woman so much that he married her secretly against her father's approval and had twelve children with her. This conflict between the spiritual and physical is seen in the title, which seems like it refers to the official declaration of a saint, but is actually a poetic attempt to make his love seem sacred.

Here are all the word lists to support the reading of Grade 12 Unit 3's texts from SpringBoard's Common Core ELA series: The Right to Love, The Canonization, Othello, The Moor in English Renaissance Drama, Othello on Stage and Screen
12 words 8 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. chide
    scold or reprimand severely or angrily
    For God's sake hold your tongue, and let me love,
    Or chide my palsy, or my gout
  2. contemplate
    think intently and at length, as for spiritual purposes
    Observe his honor, or his grace,
    Or the king's real, or his stampèd face
    Contemplate
  3. approve
    judge to be right or commendable; think well of
    what you will, approve,
    So you will let me love.
  4. litigious
    inclined or showing an inclination to dispute or disagree
    Soldiers find wars, and lawyers find out still
    Litigious men, which quarrels move,
    Though she and I do love.
  5. taper
    stick of wax with a wick in the middle
    We're tapers too, and at our own cost die
  6. hearse
    a vehicle for carrying a coffin to a church or a cemetery
    We can die by it, if not live by love,
    And if unfit for tombs and hearse
    Our legend be, it will be fit for verse
  7. chronicle
    a record or narrative description of past events
    And if no piece of chronicle we prove,
    We'll build in sonnets pretty rooms
  8. canonize
    declare (a dead person) to be a saint
    And by these hymns, all shall approve
    Us canonized for Love.
  9. invoke
    request earnestly; ask for aid or protection
    And thus invoke us
  10. reverend
    worthy of adoration or respect
    You, whom reverend love
    Made one another's hermitage
  11. epitomize
    embody the essential characteristics of
    (So made such mirrors, and such spies,
    That they did all to you epitomize)
  12. pattern
    something intended as a guide for making something else
    Countries, towns, courts: beg from above
    A pattern of your love!
Created on Fri Mar 06 13:10:34 EST 2015 (updated Fri Mar 06 16:41:37 EST 2015)

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