'Batter My Heart, Three-Personed God'

Question 1

_____ my heart, three-______ God, for you
As yet but ___, breathe, ____, and seek to ____;

Answer 1

Batter my heart, three-personed God, for you
As yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend;

Question 2

That I may __, and stand, _____ me, and bend
Your ___ to break, blow, burn, and ____ me ___.

Answer 2

That I may rise, and stand, o’erthrow me, and bend
Your force to break, blow, burn, and make me new.

Question 3

I, like an ______ town, to another ___,
______ to admit you, but Oh, to no __.

Answer 3

I, like an usurped town, to another due,
Labour to admit you, but Oh, to no end.

Question 4

Reason, your _____ in me, me should _____,
But is _____, and proves weak or ____.

Answer 4

Reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend,
But is captived, and proves weak or untrue.

Question 5

Yet ____ I ___ you, and would be loved ___,
But am ______ unto your enemy:

Answer 5

Yet dearly I love you, and would be loved fain,
But am betrothed unto your enemy:

Question 6

_____ me, untie or break that ___ again,
Take me to you, ______ me, for I,

Answer 6

Divorce me, untie or break that knot again,
Take me to you, imprison me, for I,

Question 7

Except you _____ me, never shall be ___,
Nor ever ____, except you ____ me.

Answer 7

Except you enthrall me, never shall be free,
Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.

Question 8

What type of poem is this?

Answer 8

It is a holy sonnet

Question 9

What is presented in John Donne’s holy sonnet?

Answer 9

It presents the speaker’s personal crisis of faith.
Donne claims that he can only overcome his sinful nature if he is forced by God in the most violent ways imaginable.
He wants God to make him a new person by using his power (bend your force).

Question 10

How is this poem unconventional?

Answer 10

The poem boldly compares God’s divine love to a rough, erotic seduction. It is an intimate and unconventional poem that introduces the powerful, sensuous language of secular love poetry in the treatment of a profoundly religious theme.

Question 11

What does secular mean? Explain secular love.

Answer 11

Secular: not connected with religious or spiritual matters.
Secular love is reduced to desire and carnal impulse (“it can’t be wrong because it feels so right” attitude)

Question 12

Describe the introduction of the poem.
Batter my heart, three-personed God, for you
As yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend;

Answer 12

The force of this powerful opening sets a determined tone that is maintained all through the poem as the speaker orders God to attack his heart.

God has previously attempted mild efforts to cleanse his heart. He has knocked, breathed, shined and tried to repair (mend) him. God’s effort to purify his heart were not adequate.

Question 13

What is the importance of ‘knock’ in the first few lines?

Answer 13

‘knock’ represents a polite request to open the door. This follows the scriptural idea that God knocks on a person’s door and he/she must let him in.

Question 14

How does the speaker want God to approach his heart?

Answer 14

the speaker does not want his deity to hesitate at the door, but to slam into his heart as if it were the gates of a fortress town. The poet is challenging God to enter his heart, not gently, but aggressively.

Question 15

How is the pounding rhythm in the introduction created?

Answer 15

The fearsome knocking of a battering ram echoes from the heavily stressed verb and pounding rhythm.

Question 16

What is the conceit present in the first half of the poem?

Answer 16

The metaphor of God attacking the doors of a usurped town suggests the reluctance of a woman to yield to a lover’s advances (common in courtly love poetry). This is a shocking conceit when presented in this religious context.

Question 17

Explain:
That I may rise, and stand, o’erthrow me, and bend
Your force to break, blow, burn, and make me new.

Answer 17

The speaker wants to suffer by being beaten down in his present life so that he will be deserving of the everlasting salvation that is promised after death. He wants God to make him a new person by using his power (bend your force).
This quote ties into the first line where God is depicted as a gentle craftsman. This forceful paradox is used to ask God to rebuild him spiritually. (‘o’erthrow me’ and ‘make me new’).

Question 18

How do lines 2 and 4 contrast eachother?

Answer 18

A series of strong alliterative verbs convey the poet’s intense emotional conviction.
The speaker proposes that the Father ought to break him (instead of ‘knock’), the Holy Spirit ought to blow him like a strong wind (instead of ‘breathe’) and the Son ought to burn him like fire (instead of ‘shine’). He should be made new instead of being mended. Only then, God can make him free from sin.

Question 19

What sense is given about the speaker in the first quatrain?

Answer 19

The underlying sense of entitlement is insidious. Donne is convinced he deserves all God’s attention and is hurling bitter complaints and demands at his diety.
He seems to show neither respect or humility but he is also pinning all his hopes on divine intervention to rid him of sin.

Question 20

What is the symbol that dominates the second quatrain? Why is it this?

Answer 20

The symbol of a besieged town. Donne sees his helpless soul as ‘usurped’(taken by force) from God, its rightful ruler.

Question 21

What does the speaker wish to happen in the second quatrain?

Answer 21

He wishes now for God to reclaim what is rightfully his.

Question 22

Who is the enemy in the second quatrain?

Answer 22

Is it Satan or himself?

Question 23

How do the tones of the first and second quatrain contrast each other?

Answer 23

The poet’s tone becomes less imperative and more apologetic (it transitions).

Question 24

What is the metaphysical conceit present in the 2nd quatrain?

Answer 24

Donne here creates a great metaphysical conceit by comparing one’s soul to a town that can be occupied either by God or by the devil.

Question 25

Explain Labour to admit you, but Oh, to no end.

Answer 25

The speaker has been longing to find God’s graces and has ‘laboured’ to admit him. The ‘oh’ expresses the speaker’s regret that he is unsuccessful to let God in.

Question 26

Reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend,
But is captived, and proves weak or untrue.

Answer 26

His conscience lacks willpower and strength (‘reason’ is proving ‘weak or untrue’)
for the speaker, Satan or devil has overtaken him, reason has failed. It is as if reason has been captivated by the devil or it is weak or unfaithful in his case and thus cannot defend him.

Question 27

How is the language of unrequited love used here?
Reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend,
But is captived, and proves weak or untrue.

Answer 27

He uses it to express his personal dilemma, caught between life’s temptations and spiritual renewal.

Question 28

What amrks the crucial turning point in the poem? What changes?

Answer 28

The poet’s candid admission (‘Yet dearly I love you’) at the start of the sestet. Donne exchanges the clever metaphysical comparisons for a more direct, personal approach.

Question 29

Explain:
Yet dearly I love you, and would be loved fain,
But am betrothed unto your enemy:
Divorce me, untie or break that knot again,

Answer 29

This confession is reminiscent of courtly language in romantic poetry as he requests to be loved back in return.
The problem at hand is that he is engaged to marry God’s enemy, Satan.

Question 30

Explain:
Take me to you, imprison me, for I,

Answer 30

The horrifying reality of eternal damnation returns Donne to the frantic demand that God should do whatever it takes to unravel this nuptial knot.
The castle siege metaphor returns as Donne wishes to be ‘imprisoned’.The initial problem established in the octave is drawing to a solution.

Question 31

Explain: the importance of ‘ravish’ in
Except you enthrall me, never shall be free,
Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.

Answer 31

Unless God enslaves (enthrall) him in love, he shall never be free from the hands of Satan. Similarly, he will never be pure (chaste) unless God ‘ravishes’ him. Ravish has two meanings, a sexual undertone is most widely accepted here. If that meaning is taken, God’s divine love is compared to an erotic seduction.
The word ‘ravish’ has a violent intent yet the tone is soft as though Donne deeply relishes the idea of spiritual unity with God.

Question 32

What is the conclusion of this poem?

Answer 32

Sinners must first be broken before being made whole again in God’s love.

Question 33

What is the paradox in the closing lines?

Answer 33

The dramatic paradox is shoacking as he asserts that he can only ever be holy/chaste if God will ‘ravish’ him. He aknowledges his absolute dependence on God to forcibly save him from his own human weakness.