If poisonous minerals, and if that tree,
Whose fruit threw death on else immortal us,
If lecherous goats, if serpents envious
Cannot be damn’d; alas; why should I be?

These lines come from John Donne’s Holy Sonnet commonly titled “I” or by its opening, “Thou hast made me.” Donne (1572–1631), writing in the early 17th century amid intense personal religious anxiety, repeatedly explores sin, judgment, and the hope of divine mercy. In this sonnet the speaker argues with God in a characteristically “metaphysical” manner—using legalistic and logical turns—to question why humans are liable to damnation when natural things (poisonous minerals, animals driven by instinct) and even the Edenic tree that occasioned the Fall are not morally accountable. The poem reflects Donne’s preoccupation with conscience and salvation during his mature devotional period.

The speaker’s reasoning hinges on moral agency: minerals, animals, and the tree in Eden can cause harm, even death, yet they cannot be “damn’d” because they lack rational choice. The anguished question—“alas; why should I be?”—turns that logic inward, implying that human culpability is uniquely terrifying precisely because humans possess will and knowledge. Donne’s list also subtly shifts blame away from the self (toward nature and circumstance) only to expose the inadequacy of such excuses before divine justice. The effect is both argumentative and penitential: the poem dramatizes a mind seeking mercy while recognizing that human freedom makes sin a spiritual crisis.