This sonnet by John Donne portrays God as a three-personed being who is knocking to enter the speaker's heart. The speaker asks God to overwhelm and transform him using force so that he may rise up, stand strong, and be made new. However, the speaker's heart resists admitting God due to its captivation by the enemy of God. The speaker declares his love for God but acknowledges being bound to God's enemy instead. He asks God to divorce and untie him from this binding so that God may imprison and enthrall him instead, as that is the only way he can become truly free and chaste.
2. John Donne’s Holy Sonnet XIV
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.
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.
Yet dearly I love you, and would be loved fain,
But am betroth'd unto your enemy ;
Divorce me, untie, or break that knot again,
Take me to you, imprison me, for I,
Except you enthrall me, never shall be free,
Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.
3. For Monday: read (online,
encyclopedia, library, etc.) more
about 2 or 3 of your
questions. What’s the
heart of the matter
here? Finding topics/
questions with sources
(this means literary or
historical will be
easier)
