BATTER MY HEART

BATTER MY HEART

1. Batter my heart, three-person'd God ; for you As yet but knock ; breathe, shine, and seek to mend ; That I may rise, and stand, o'erthrow me, and bend Your force, to break, blow, burn, and make me new.

   • Right now, the speaker feels like God smiles a little too kindly on him, is a little too friendly and caring. In order to be "made new," he needs God to break him down completely; in order to rise up, he needs God to knock him over. There are a lot of contradictions and words with double meanings in this poem. Donne also subverts the typical sonnet meter. Instead of iambs (pairs of stressed and unstressed syllables), he uses many lines of stress after stress: your FORCE to BREAK, BLOW, BURN and MAKE ME NEW. This pounding beat is an aural reinforcement of the poem's message - he wants God to break him down.
   • Addresses god with a violent tone.
     • The speaker is begging for a desperate plea of spiritual renewal.

2. But am betroth'd unto your enemy; Divorce me, untie or break that knot again,

   • Yet dearly I love you, and would be lov'd fain,
     • Here, the speaker uses the imagery of marriage. He loves God and wants to be with him, but is completely given over to God's enemy (sin, vice, evil, etc). The speaker asks God to break those bonds so that he can be free to come back to God.
   • ‘Break, blow, burn’ – alliteration and onomatopoeic qualities. Paradox of violence – doing harm to something to then renew it. ‘Usurped by the enemy’ – a dominant conceit.

3. Take me to you, imprison me, for I, Except you enthrall me, never shall be free, Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.

   • This last part gets really interesting. The speaker can't be free unless he is imprisoned and "enthralled" (another term for being held captive) by God. He can't be chaste unless he is "ravished" (a nicer word for "raped") by God. The speaker is asking for violent intervention from God to wipe him clean, make him new, set him free in faith. Those interesting words also have another meaning - enthrall and ravish can also refer to powerful feelings of astonishment and joy. Donne's word choice is very deliberate. The speaker believes in a God that is powerful, strong, even violent when needed, but that still causes an enormous sense of wonder in His faithful.
   • Overall, i think it's saying that there is three sides to God. one ravishing, one imprisoning and one defending...
     • the poem is about his relationship with God. He sees him as the almighty but still feels week for human desires as he fights with no end and asks for his strength to continue. He sees God as his only possible salvation from all the tyranny and worldly temptations

4. I, like an usurp'd town, to another due, Labour to admit you, but O, to no end. Reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend, But is captived, and proves weak or untrue.

   • Now the speaker switches to a "conceit" - an extended, elaborate metaphor. He compares himself to a town that's been conquered by another force. He wants to let God in to reclaim this town, but his reason (the voice of God in his mind) is too weak, or has been deceived. "I can't do this by myself," the speaker is saying, "I need a violent, conquering God to get me out of this."

5. Uses the form of a Petrarchan and Elizabethan sonnet. Uses the structure to express his feelings.

   • The first stanza is a quatrain and presents a sense of emotional comments and the second explains why he needs gods help. ‘Yet dearly I love you’ alludes to another change in tone. The final couplet contains powerful sexual imagery.
     • After the death of his wife in 1617, Donne fell more and more under the shadow of a terrible spiritual gloom. He is conscious of his sinful nature and conveys his feelings in the language charged with sentimentality. The use of metaphor is extensive, compare himself with a pot and god with a tinker. Also compares himself with a town and his soul with a usurped town. He confesses that this town is inhabited with devils. God should shatter and reshape him.
     • Amazing sincerity, intensity and earnestness. Sadomasochism and captivation. An epiphany and wantonness to be reborn – reincarnation. Asking god to shatter and reshape him. Wants forgiveness and purity to be restored again. It is 14 lines long and the theme is conventional and traditional. He wants to be reduced to the bottom of the great chain of being and then rise again.

6. Donne is well known for his famous metaphysical conceits. ‘Ravish me’- the speaker is imagining himself as a woman. Triplicate – a three person’ed god suggesting biblical imagery.

   • ‘Overthrow’- make him free from sin. ‘A usurped town’ – duty to serve god but he is occupied by the devil. Rhyme scheme: ABBA ABBA CDC CDC. Deviating from a holy to sinful path

7. The speaker is pathetic and wanting punishment, some regard him as feminine as women are seen as the lesser sex – ‘like a damsel in distress’. He is demanding that god hears him and divorces him. He is ‘betrothed to the enemy’ which is Satan. Verbs – divorce, untie, take, break, imprison and enthral – all contrast each other. Desire is signified with the repetition of me x5. Reinforced by the rhyme free.

8. Donne is a metaphysical poet, which means he uses metaphysical conceits - " the most heterogeneous ideas yoked by violence together. " I'll translate: Donne catches the reader's attention by using a bizarre or outrageous comparison, causing you to think about something you'd otherwise dismiss. In this case, Donne is saying that if God just offers the grace of salvation, sinful mankind will turn it down -- sex, drugs and rock & roll are more fun than sermons, duty and righteousness & rigor. Being a clergyman, Donne is flirting with the idea of Predestination and Irresistible Grace: if God wants to save you, he re-configures your spiritual hard drive so that virtue is effortless and sin is repellent.

9. Themes of... Religion Morality Fate Death { Memento mori - "remember that you have to die" - common literary motif }