#11: Divine Contradictions

Batter my Heart, Three-Personed God, for You
John Donne (1572-1631)

Batter my heart, three-personed God, for You
As yet but knock, breate, 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 usurped town to another due,
Labor to admit You, but Oh! 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 betrothed 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.

Questions:
1. In the last line of this sonnet, to what does Donne compare the onslaught of God's love? Do you think the poem is weakened by the poet's comparing a spiritual experience to something so grossly carnal? Discuss.
2. Explain the seeming contradiction in the last line: in what sense can a ravished person be chaste? Explain the seeming contradictions in lines 3-4 and 12-13: how can a person thrown down and destroyed be enabled to rise and stand; an imprisoned person be free?

"Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama". Kennedy & Gioia, 503.