BATTER MY HEART (HOLY

SONNET 14) INTRODUCTION

In A Nutshell
Holy Sonnet 14 is one of John Donne's series of Holy Sonnets. No one is sure when he
wrote them, but some guess it's around 1618. Holy Sonnet 14 is one of his most famous
and often-studied poems. In fact, if you only read one of Donne's poems, this is
probably the place to go, since it's got a clever extended metaphor (a "metaphysical
conceit" if you want the fancy term), and it covers the major recurrent theme in
Donne's poetry a possibly conflicting passion for both carnal and divine love.

Donne wrote this poem at an important time in his life, as he was just ordained in the
Church of England. Donne has an interesting relationship with religion. He was born a
Roman Catholic, and being Roman Catholic in late 16th century England guaranteed
persecution. As a young man, Donne didn't seem particularly interested in religion, but
he soon realized that the path to a successful life could be found in the Church of
England. As he became more involved in the Church, he became considerably more
focused on his own spirituality and relationship with God. If you're inclined to read
the poem biographically, Holy Sonnet 14 represents the peak of Donne's conflict
between secular and religious lives, and his efforts to reconcile his newfound sacred
love with the more familiar, earthly variety.

WHY SHOULD I CARE?

It's something you hear all the time: folks love God. On the surface that sounds great,
but think about it for a second: what does that really mean?

If you've ever stopped to ponder the difference between love of the Divine, and love of,
say, Twinkies, or maybe your main squeeze, then this is thepoem for you. John
Donne is wondering along these lines in his poem, trying to find a way to swap
common, earthly love for the more spiritual kind.
Wait a minute, you might say, don't we love everything with the same heart? Can one
sort of love be better than another? Well, this is precisely the question that Donne is
wrestling with. He seems to see a love of God as the purest kind of affection (more
perfect than your fondness for Twinkies even), and yet there is a whole host of more
worldly things to love that get in the way of this higher love (Hit it Steve!).

Really, this is something that we all struggle with. Even for those of you who aren't
religious, we bet that you have some kind of ideal or goal in your life that is beset with
distractions and sidetracks. Just what does it take to reach the next level (besides mad
joystick skills, yo)?

That's question that we'll all ask at some point in our lives, which is what makes
this poem so worthwhile. Don't be put off by the old-timey language and religious
metaphors. Donne was onto something that we can all relate to, whichnot unlike a
Twinkie, friendsis pretty sweet.

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BATTER MY HEART (HOLY

SONNET 14): TEXT OF THE
POEM
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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.

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BATTER MY HEART (HOLY

SONNET 14) SUMMARY
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The speaker begins by asking God (along with Jesus and the Holy Ghost; together, they
are the Trinity that makes up the Christian "three-personed God") to attack his heart as
if it were the gates of a fortress town. The speaker wants God to enter his heart
aggressively and violently, instead of gently. Then, in line 5, the speaker explicitly likens
himself to a captured town. He tries to let God enter, but has trouble because the
speaker's rational side seems to be in control.

At the "turn" of the poem (see the "Form and Meter" section for more on the importance
of the sonnet form and, specifically, the "turn"), the speaker admits that he loves God,
and wants to be loved, but is tied down to God's unspecified "enemy" instead, whom we
can think of as Satan, or possibly "reason." The speaker asks God to break the
speaker's ties with the enemy, and to bring the speaker to Him, not letting him go free.
He then explains why he wants all of this, reasoning with double meanings: he can't
really be free unless God enslaves and excites him, and he can't refrain from sex unless
God carries him away and delights him.

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SECTION I (LINES 1-6)

SUMMARY
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Get out the microscope, because were going through this

poem line-by-line.
Lines 1-2
Batter my heart, three-person'd God; for you
As yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend;

The speaker begins by asking God (along with Jesus and the Holy Ghost;
together, they make up the "three-personed God") to attack his heart as if it were
the gates of a fortress town.
If you are caught up on the word "batter," note that back in medieval times, in
order to break down the door of a fortress or castle, you'd have to use a battering
ram. It's a huge pole of wood, possibly with a ram carving on the front.
He asks God to "batter" his heart, as opposed to what God has been doing so
far: just knocking, breathing, shining, and trying to help the speaker heal.
 Those actions are nice and all, but Donne wants something a little more intense.
Scholars focus a lot on these verbs, and the words are certainly stressed in the
line (notice how you accent these verbs and pause between them when you read
the poem out loud), so let's break them down a bit.
First of all, none of the verbs are particularly active. God asks to come in by
knocking, which is nice, but he also just breathes and shines, two things that he
might do out of necessity not choice. When we breathe, it's normally not
because we choose to, and the same applies to things that shine.
The "mending" seems nice, but note that Donne says "seek to mend," and not
just "mend." Does God really "seek to" do anything? Doesn't He just do it, if he's
all-powerful?
So, what about the specific actions? Are they particularly significant? Well lots of
scholars think that the three verbs mirror the set-up of a "three-personed God"
(the Christian notion of the Trinity). Thus, they associate the Father with power
as he knocks but ought to break, the Holy Ghost with breath as he breathes but
ought to blow like a strong wind, and the Son with light as he shines but ought to
burn like fire.
These actions make some sense as representative actions of each part of God,
but other scholars argue that, based on the Bible, it isn't clear which member of
the Trinity should be understood to do which of the actions. The confusion about
which aspect of God does what appears to be purposeful.
If the speaker wants to make things easier, he can very well put the verbs in the
traditional order in which the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost are normally
described.
But, the Trinity isn't the only way to read those verbs. Some scholars point out
that these terms (especially when combined with the other series of three verbs
in line 4) all make sense in the context of metal- or glass-blowing (the process of
shaping glass and metal objects). In this way, scholars see the speaker as
making God into a craftsman who can, like a glassblower, "blow" life into the
object (the speaker).

Lines 3-4
That I may rise, and stand, o'erthrow me, and bend
Your force, to break, blow, burn, and make me new.

Lines 3-4 continue much like lines 1-2, with the speaker asking God to treat him
violently.
 He asks God to "bend your force," which may mean to "make use of your power."
More importantly, even though it takes him four full lines, the speaker finally gets
to the point of why he's telling God to do all this. His goal, as he puts it, is to "rise"
and "stand" and become "new."
This can work in two ways. First, there's the born-again angle, where the speaker
asks to have a moment of religious epiphany. He wants to recognize God's
power, but he worries that the only way God will get through to him is by doing
something violent and completely overthrowing his life.
On the other hand, "make me new" is probably a reference to the Christian idea
that true happiness and salvation come only after death, and that, in order to get
into Heaven, earthly life must be a continual act of suffering. That may be why
our speaker wants to be abused and broken in the earthly world so that he will
be worthy for the afterlife.
A quick note on the language here: read these lines aloud, and notice how the
word "o'erthrow" makes you take a big pause and change the rhythm of your
speaking, and how violent and intense those alliterated b-words are ("break,
blow, burn"). These words get a lot of attention verbally, and it's a cool example
of words' sounds reflecting their meaning. Onomatopoeia anyone?

Lines 5-6
I, like an usurp'd town, to another due,
Labour to admit you, but O, to no end.

Here comes the explanation of that whole "battering" business. The speaker
compares himself to a town that is captured or "usurped."
The phrase "to another due" suggests that the town belongs to someone else,
but it's tricky because we don't know who this "someone" could be.
Whose was it originally, and who took over? The likely possibility is that it was
originally God's, and it was subsequently taken over by another, but that doesn't
help us figure out who the "other" is.
In any case, the speaker wants to let God in, but he's unsuccessful so far.
These lines are interesting in part because, unlike anywhere else in the rest of
the poem, Donne actually uses a simile here instead of a metaphor. Instead of
saying, "I am a usurped town," he leaves more room between himself and the
town by only saying that they're similar.
What's the big deal? Well, it suggests that the speaker is conscious of how
unrealistic his requests are. Where, in the first few lines he directs God to
 overthrow, break, blow, and burn him, it's not until this line that we know he's
being metaphorical (instead of actually wanting to be broken, burned, and so
forth).
The "oh" in line 6 is another linguistic choice worth mentioning. There are two
ways we might see this:
First, we can read it as the only moment of truly honest self-expression in the
poem, where the speaker lets his words go without careful control. In other
words, the "oh" is the only word in the poem that isn't actually a word it's more
of a sound, a sigh, or an exclamation. It's a different kind of language, and one
we don't see elsewhere in the poem.
If we read it as a sigh, it might lend this line some extra emotional pull if he
seems sad that he can't let God in.
On the other hand, you might think the "oh" is theatrical and overly dramatic, like
a "woe-is-me!" moment.

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SECTION II (LINES 7-14)

SUMMARY
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Get out the microscope, because were going through

this poem line-by-line.
Lines 7-8
Reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend,
But is captived, and proves weak or untrue.

Our bet is that these are the trickiest lines in the poem for you. Us too. They're
weird, but it helps to put them into simple English: "Reason, my local ruler who
works for you, should be defending me, but he was captured, and revealed
himself to be weak or unfaithful."
We assume that the "you" to whom Reason is supposed to report is God.
The whole idea guiding these lines is that God gave us reason (rationality) to
defend ourselves from evil, but now the speaker's reason seems to have turned
on God (or is just incapable of warding off evil), so the speaker is having trouble
showing his faith in God.
As we discuss in the "Speaker" section, the sense of entitlement is interesting.
Check out the back-to-back "me's" and the "should" in "Reason your viceroy in
me, me should defend." It's all about the speaker's self-interest, and he sounds
like a spoiled little kid: "Me! Me! You should defend me!"
And, if we zoom out a bit, why on earth is he treating his ability to reason as if it
were a real person? The answer may be: so that he can pass the buck and
blame this other person (who's really God's responsibility, according to the
speaker).
If you think about it, the speaker actually blames God, through his representative
(Reason) for the speaker turning over to the enemy's side.

Lines 9-10
Yet dearly I love you, and would be loved fain,
But am betroth'd unto your enemy;

When you get to line 9 of a sonnet, you know that you have to do a little extra
work, since the ninth line of a sonnet traditionally marks the "turn" in the poem,
where the problem set up in the first 8 lines begins to move towards a solution.
To be honest, though, this line doesn't make for much of a turn at all. The simile
of the fortress ends here (until it's picked up again at "imprison"), but this line, like
those before it, mainly furthers the development of the speaker's desired
relationship with God.
He hints at no solution, but the line does mark a shift in tone. The speaker seems
to be a bit more candid and personal here, and he abandons some of the similes
 and metaphors that he uses before. "Yet dearly I love you" is the most
straightforward line we've had so far.
"And would be loved fain," though, is a continuation of the kind of self-
centeredness we see in lines 7-8. He's saying "I'd be happy to be loved," just like
you'd tell a friend "I'd be happy to help" he makes it sound a little like he's doing
God a favor.
What's more, the speaker quickly drops the straight-talk, and goes back into
another metaphor: he says he's "betroth'd," or engaged to marry, the "enemy."
This word "enemy" is troublesome, because we don't know who it is. There's no
one right answer here, but our speaker may be referring to Satan.
The question is, why did the speaker choose the metaphor of a wedding
engagement? Why didn't he just say, "I'm under the Devil's control, so help free
me?"
Perhaps an engagement implies that the speaker is cool with the whole thing and
isn't forced into this relationship with the enemy. Unlike in lines 5-8, where the
speaker blamed Reason for losing touch with God, here he seems to suggest
that it is actually kind of his fault, since he agrees to an engagement with the
"enemy."

Lines 11-12
Divorce me, untie, or break that knot again,
Take me to you, imprison me, for I,

Line 11 continues the train of thought in line 10, asking God to help him get out of
this close engagement with the enemy. He wants God to help him break the
wedding "knot" he tied when he was "betroth'd," and take him away from the
enemy.
What's absolutely key here is the word "again" does it mean this isn't the first
time the speaker needed to ask God for help in getting away from the Devil?
All of a sudden, we learn that these pleas to God may be a frequent occurrence.
This can have a major impact on our understanding of the poem. The speaker
begins to look less like a poor guy who's all-of-a-sudden blurting out his love for
God the only way he knows how -- and more like a con-artist who makes it seem
like he's desperately in need, when, in fact, he's been down this road a number
of times.
But, instead of thinking that the speaker has wanted a wedding knot broken
before, we might read "again" as referring to another time when God had to
 break a knot. (As if the speaker were saying, "Sorry, God, you have to go through
that whole knot-breaking thing again.")
By this logic, "again" could be a reference to the moment in Genesis (in the Old
Testament) when God expels Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden because
they follow Satans advice. This way, when the speaker says, "Divorce me, untie,
or break that knot again," he seems to say "either divorce/untie me from Satan,
or you'll have to break the knot between us, just as you did with Adam."
In line 12 (and on into line 13), the speaker seems to bring back the castle siege
metaphor one last time with "imprison," and rekindles the earlier debate about
who had captured (or imprisoned) the town in the first place.
Here, again, the speaker refuses to make things clear, first asking God to
imprison him, but only so that he can be free. This all goes back to the Christian
idea that a human must to suffer in order to get to Heaven, and reminds us again
that violence and aggressive behavior aren't necessarily bad things in this poem,
so long as God is in the drivers seat.

Lines 13-14
Except you enthrall me, never shall be free,
Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.

These last two lines make it clear that the speaker loves those paradoxes and
double meanings that we struggle with all along. Both lines take the form of "If
you don't ______, I can't be ______," but the speaker fills in that first blank with
double entendres (words or phrases with two possible meanings).
The first can be read as "If you don't excite me, I can't be free." If we read it that
way, it's possible that "excite" has sexual connotations, and this makes sense in
light of the following line.
But, we can also read line 13 as, "If you don't enslave me, I can't be free." Back
in the day, "enthrall" would also mean "enslave," so we should be aware of that
possibility.
We can read line 14 as, "If you don't fill me with delight, I will never be able to
refrain from sex." Like "excite" in line 13, "fill me with delight" in this reading might
carry some sexual connotations.
Confusing, right? These lines leave us with some major paradoxes, refusing to
pin down exactly what the speaker wants from God.
 As we see it, it seems that the speaker wants better access to God, and having
been unsuccessful in the past, demands that God reveal himself forcefully and
powerfully.
In other words, the only way the speaker and his stubborn "reason" will be
convinced of God's power is to see an epic example of it. What's more, the
speaker desperately wants to be convinced, so he can be saved.
Still, it's hard to make the last line fit, mainly because you can't
reallybecome chaste. Either the speaker is and always has been chaste, in which
case he wouldn't have to worry about it, or he's had sex but now wants to
abstain.
But, if he wants to abstain, is more sex really the prescription?
And, if he wants this divine sexual encounter so much, then wouldn't that
contradict the idea that it is "rape"?
In the end, then, we might come to the conclusion that talking about God in
human terms and metaphors actually doesn't make sense. The kinds of rewards
and interactions that God can provide simply can't be described properly in
human language, and that's why the speaker gets so caught up in paradox and
mixed metaphors.

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THE BESIEGED TOWN

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Symbol Analysis
The besieged town is the dominant symbol in the poem, and it's a confusing one. The
speaker likens himself to a town that has been taken over, but he wants God to attack
the town in order to capture it. Actually, if we're being technical, when the speaker says
he's "like an usurp'd town," he actually makes a simile, but by using the simile
throughout the rest of the poem without making an explicit comparison elsewhere, we
can safely call the whole thing an extended metaphor.

So, aside from the request that he be attacked (if he's the town, is it really such a good
thing if the town is assaulted?), there's also the confusion about who "usurped" this
town in the first place. We might think it's the "enemy" from line 10, but that's not helpful
because we don't know who the enemy is, unless it's just that general enemy of God,
Satan. The real problem, as we see it, is the line: "Reason your viceroy in me, me
should defend, / But is captived, and proves weak or untrue" (lines 7-8).

First of all, why is reason described as a viceroy, when the speaker just compared
himself to a captured city? Wouldn't that make reason the force in control of the town
(since a viceroy is a local ruler)? And, if reason is in charge of the town, does that mean
God is the one who usurped the town, since reason is God's viceroy? Or, is reason the
original viceroy of the town, before the town got captured? Either way, it's interesting
how the speaker sets up his desire for more attention from God as a battle in which God
fights against him. The whole thing is a bit confusing, but it could be intentional, working
well with the theme that the speaker doesn't really know whom he's addressing (see
"Lines 1-2" in the "Detailed Summary").

Line 1: Here the speaker refers to a battering ram, as if God should break down
the walls of a city. That's why "batter my heart" is a metaphor.
Lines 4-7: The speaker describes himself as a captured town, using a simile.
Though he tries to let God in, reason, the figure of power in the town, won't help.
Lines 12-13: The speaker brings up the siege metaphor one last time, saying that
he wants to be imprisoned (as one would be in a captured town) in order to be
freed. And, yes, that's a major paradox.

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 THE UNHAPPY ENGAGEMENT /
AFFAIR WITH GOD
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Symbol Analysis
In another metaphor that runs through this poem, the speaker describes an unhappy
and inconvenient engagement with the "enemy," presumably the Devil. Where before,
the speaker sets up God as an attacker, here, he wants God to be a home-wrecker.
Strangely, he seems to want God to break up a marriage, even though we imagine God
as a pretty staunch supporter of the institution. This metaphor, then, works more as an
apology and plea for forgiveness, whereas the siege is more of a plea for liberation from
forces the speaker can't control.

Line 5: The phrase "to another due" resonates with "betroth'd unto your enemy"
as part of the same engagement metaphor. To be "due" can mean to be owed, or
it can refer to a pledge to be married.
Lines 9-11: The main point here is that the speaker describes an engagement
with this enemy that he hopes God (the one he actually loves) can help him
escape. Since he doesn't actually plan to marry the Devil, this is a metaphor.

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ROMANCE WITH GOD

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Symbol Analysis
So, in classic Metaphysical Poet tradition, Donne doesn't make anything super-explicit,
but it's hard to read this poem without noticing some sexual overtones. "O'erthrow me,
and bend Your force" and "[I] labour to admit you" are examples of moments that carry
sexual weight.

Plus, the final line of the poem is hard to ignore: "Nor ever chaste, except you ravish
me." The speaker seems to try to give a more specific flavor to his demands here at the
end of the poem. How about this: in struggling to make what he really wants concrete,
the speaker finally admits his thoughts through the entire poem the closest he can
come to describing what he wants from God is through the metaphor of being ravished
by God.

Lines 3-4: "o'erthrow me, and bend / Your force" might be a part of the sexual
metaphor.
Line 6: "Labour to admit you" may be similarly part of the sexual metaphor.
Line 13: To "enthrall" someone means to put them in captivity or slavery. But, the
word can have some sexual overtones, if it refers to being under someone's
erotic power.
Line 14: "Ravish" carries the connotation of taking advantage of someone, even
if it also means the less sexual "fill with delight." This is where the sexual
metaphor is most prominent.

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 CONTRADICTIONS
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Symbol Analysis
This poem is chock-full of contradictions. Why? Because what the speaker wants is
fundamentally a contradiction a physical manifestation of a being (God) who doesn't
really exist in physical terms. Plus, there's the fact that, in the speaker's version of
Christianity, eternal happiness can only come through earthly suffering.

But there's also another reason, which we think is just as important: the contradictions
give the whole poem a feeling of instability and insecurity, which suggests that the
speaker really doesn't know what he wants, and certainly doesn't know how to say it.
Ever played Taboo or Catchphrase, or some game where you have to describe an
object without using that word or related words? What's the easiest way to do it? Use
the opposite (not salt butpepper!). We think that's sort of what's going on here. Since
the speaker can't figure out what he wants to say, he throws together a lot of opposites
to try to approximate it.

Lines 2 and 4: "knock; breathe, shine, and seek to mend," and then "break, blow,
burn, and make me new" set up a series of contradictions. The speaker gets one
thing, but says he'd rather have the opposite. But, would he? Is being broken,
blown, and burned actually what he wants?
Lines 3-4: We see a double feature of contradictions here. First, "overthrow" is
the opposite of helping someone "rise" and "stand," but the speaker gives us a
bonus contradiction here by using enjambment. He asks God to bend his force,
but, since "bend" shows up at the end of line 3 and not the beginning of line 4, it
looks like he's saying, "So that I may rise and stand, overthrow me and bend
me." Intense stuff.
Lines 7-8: Nothing tricky here, just Reason did the opposite of what the speaker
thinks it should. By refusing to allow the speaker to submit to God, Reason acts
irrational which is a paradox.
 Lines 11-12: Untie me so as to imprison me? Sounds like a contradiction.
Lines 12-14: Welcome to Contradiction City. The speaker asks to be imprisoned,
delighted, and raped so that he can be free and chaste.

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ANALYSIS: FORM AND METER

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A Sonnet with very irregular iambic pentameter

This poem takes the form of a Petrarchan sonnet. We know this because the poem is
composed of 14 lines, the three quatrains (groups of four lines) followed by a rhyming
couplet (two lines) at the end, and the regular rhyme scheme. As for the rhyme scheme,
the poem looks like this: ABBA, ABBA, CDCD, EE, with an unusual rhyme at the end of
line 12: "enemy" with "I."

This history and tradition of this form are important to this poem. Until Donne writes this
sequence, sonnets were almost always about a speaker's love for a woman. Instead of
writing a little love song to a lady, Donne decides that this would be an appropriate form
for speaking to God. Think about that for a second Donnes speaker attempts to
address God exactly as if he is telling a woman that he thinks she's beautiful. On one
hand, there's an intimacy and genuine affection for God here, but on the other hand,
you can also construe this as serious disrespect for God. This tension between an
earthly, physical attraction and a more sacred, spiritual form of love, so perfectly
represented in the context of the sonnet form, is central to the poem's meaning.

Now, the other cool thing about sonnets, and one always worth keeping in mind, is that
sonnet tradition dictates that the 9th line is a sharp "turn" in the poem, where the
speaker's language, style, or content is expected to change. What's more, it's often the
case that the poem presents a problem before the turn, while the poem works out a
solution after the turn. Now, with that in mind, check out line 9: here the metaphysical
conceit (see "Calling Card") switches from the speaker-as-fortress to a much more
personal, less abstract metaphor of a lover who is engaged to someone else.

Finally, there's the meter. The poem is in iambic pentameter (five groups of an
unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable). As a quick look over the poem will
show, this clearly isn't what's going on for every syllable, but the effects of changes tend
to be case-specific. Take the first line for instance: "Batter my heart" starts the poem
with a strongly stressed first syllable, where a more regular iambic meter would start
unstressed. Here, the idea is that Donne starts with a bang this poem, like the action
that the speaker asks for, is aggressive and unusual.

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ANALYSIS: SPEAKER
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So, there seems to be a normal way in which people address God and ask him for
things, and then there's our speaker's way. The normal approach tends to show respect
and humility. An example of this is the Lord's Prayer: "Our Father, which art in Heaven,
Hallowed [holy] be thy Name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, On earth as it is in
Heaven."

But our speaker appears to refuse this approach. He just tells it straight-up, no-holds-
barred. Evidence? He starts with a direct command to God ("Batter my heart"). Some
Christians would tell you commanding God to do something (as opposed to asking
nicely for it) amounts to sacrilege. There's a sense in the whole poem that the speaker
thinks he deservesGod's attention, which has been lacking, and the speaker goes on
and on, maintaining this sense of entitlement: "Reason your viceroy in me, me should
defend" (line 7). Note the two "me's" back to back there, and then that word "should."
Everything in this poem is about what the speaker wants and deserves. What's more,
instead of confessing to abandoning God in favor of the enemy, the speaker blames it
all on "Reason," this personified mental faculty given by God. Realistically, can reason
really betray someone? Isn't he just betraying himself, and then trying to pass the buck?

But, somehow, he doesn't come off as a totally arrogant, presumptuous jerk. Instead,
we think, the speaker seems like a guy who's tried for a long time to get God's attention
in normal ways with no success. Like a middle-schooler with a huge crush on someone
for a couple years, the speaker here finally just has to blurt out everything he's been
thinking in a very short space of time.

And, that's also why he wants God to treat him so violently he's gone so long without
God's attention that he craves it with incredible intensity. In line 6, we see an interesting
moment of lament when he says, "but oh, to no end." Here, the speaker seems pathetic,
and his other commands start to look more like passionate begging. In fact, we might
actually think of the speaker here as self-consciously theatrical. At the most basic level,
this is a man who's anguished by unrequited love.

However, there's a huge problem with that reading. Check out the end of line 11: "break
that knot again." Unless we're missing something, or the speaker just needed a rhyme
with "fain," we find out here that God has, in the past, helped the speaker remove
himself from a relationship with the enemy. It seems like the speaker goes through all of
this intense, emotional fuss to get God to reveal his presence more forcefully even
though God has already done it for him in the past. Why all the drama? Why make
himself sound like "a guy who's tried for a long time to get God's attention in normal
ways with no success?"

Perhaps the answer, as we just mentioned, is that the speaker is self-consciously

theatrical, being provocative just for the sake of the experience of being highly
emotional and provocative. Another possibility is that "again" doesn't actually refer to
himself, but to another time when God had to break a knot. Some scholars argue that
the "again" is an allusion to the moment in Genesis when God expels Adam and Eve
from the Garden of Eden because they follow the Devil's advice.
By this logic, when the speaker says, "Divorce me, untie, or break that knot again," he
means "either divorce/untie me from the Devil, or you'll have to break the knot between
us, just as you did with Adam." If we run with that theory, we should be able to keep up
the theory of the pathetic, desperate lover.

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ANALYSIS: SETTING
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Where It All Goes Down

You know those stories set in medieval times with dragons and jousting, where there's a
damsel in distress locked up in a tower, set to marry someone she doesn't love, but
then she somehow gets a note out to a knight in shining armor, who comes and
rescues/sleeps with/marries her? Well, if you call the guy she doesn't love the "enemy,"
the knight in shining armor "God," and the damsel "the speaker of this poem," you'd
have a good feel for the setting of this poem.

It begins with the loud, fearsome "knocking" of the battering ram against the big wooden
door of a besieged city. If you've seen the battle scene at Helm's Deep for Lord of the
Rings: The Two Towers, you know what this looks like. Thump, thump, thump. Inside
the town, the viceroy Reason is squabbling with the other leaders about whether to let in
God. Reason has become deranged, and he doesn't want to open the gates, even
though it would be the rational thing to do, because, well, it's God. You can imagine the
speaker bound, gagged, and tied up with rope in some broom closet inside the town. If
he weren't bound, he would run out to open the gates. God is like a dashing knight, and
the speaker can't wait to rush out into his big, godly arms. We'd better stop before we
start swooning...
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ANALYSIS: SOUND CHECK

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To talk about the sound of Holy Sonnet 14, it's helpful to have a fancy word in tow:
plosives. Plosives (think "explosive") are the kinds of sounds that we make by using
something in our mouth (or lips) to stop the flow of air, and then suddenly release the
air, making for an explosive sound. The letters t,k, p, d, g, and b are the basic plosives
in English. These letters often have a hard, violent sound, when compared to, say, h or
the vowels.

Now, take a look through the poem, and check out how often the speaker uses plosives.
Check out line 4: "to break, blow, burn." That word "break" comes up again in line 13,
when the speaker says, "Divorce me, untie, or break that knot again." Go ahead; say
"break" out loud. Really. Hear how violent it is, both at the beginning and the end?
Whenever the speaker is talking about how he wants God to treat him, the sonic quality
of the language becomes violent and intense.

There's actually one cool exception: in the last line, when the speaker asks God to
"ravish" him. That word there is interesting because its connotations are violent, but
instead the speaker uses a softer, more whisper-like sound. It's almost as if, by the end
of the poem, the speaker can be more intimate with God instead of yelling, he
whispers that second syllable of "ravish," savoring the idea.

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ANALYSIS: WHAT'S UP WITH

THE TITLE?
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Holy Sonnet 14 is part of a larger series of Holy Sonnets that Donne published in the
early 1600s. This happens to be the 14th, which isn't all that important. The significant
part here is that Donne adopts the sonnet form, which was previously concerned mainly
with the speaker's love for a woman. In turning the traditional object of love away from a
woman and toward God, Donne demonstrates his fixation with blending earthly and
sacred forms of love.

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ANALYSIS: CALLING CARD

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Metaphysical conceits, and a conflict between sacred and
profane love
"Metaphysical conceits" aren't too strictly defined, but the general idea is that the poet
makes use of a clever and unusual extended metaphor throughout much or all of a
poem. An extended metaphor, by the way, is just a regular metaphor (directly
comparing two things that aren't immediately related) that carries on through more than
one sentence. So, in Holy Sonnet 14, the idea of the speaker as a city barricaded
against God's advances is a metaphysical conceit. Check out Donne's poem "The Flea"
for an even better example.

As for the conflict between sacred and profane love, check out "In A Nutshell" for more
on Donne's history with religion. The basic idea, though, is that Donne is really into
physical, earthly love, but also really into God and holiness. As you can imagine, these
often run into conflict, and Donne likes to write poems that play with this tension.

Let's zoom out a bit. How do the metaphors and the issue of loving God work together?
Well, check it out: the metaphors are somewhat strange, even though they're supposed
to make the speaker's relationship with God easier to understand by comparing it to
other things we know and recognize (war, sex, and an engagement). But, the problem is
that the actual action he wants God to take is no clearer to us at the end of the poem
than at the beginning. Does he actually want God to ravish him? Probably not, right?
So, what does he want? The metaphors, instead of making it easier to understand
what's going on, just make figuring out what he really wants much more confusing.

And, why make it so confusing? That's where the issue of loving God comes up. The
huge problem he must deal with is that he's trying to define a sacred, spiritual
relationship, but the only tools at his disposal are the language we use and the lives we
lead here in the non-sacred world. The Bible makes a big point of this: the language
God uses is not the language we can use, so the kinds of comparisons Donne can
make are inherently limited. Our words and metaphors just can't describe what happens
when you get close to God. Donne writes about something he really can't express, and
that struggle is a big calling card for all of his poetry.

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ANALYSIS: TOUGH-O-METER
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(4) Base Camp

This poem is a great example of a poem that allows you to get from it as much you put
into it. If you just want to read this poem with a general lens, it's not all that tough. There
are a few moments of tricky word-choices and grammar, but a quick trip to the
dictionary will give you a coherent, sensible poem about a guy who wants God to make
himself known much more forcefully. If you want, though, you could bring this poem up
into the 6 or 7 category by asking some tougher questions. Have at it, Shmoopster!

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ANALYSIS: BRAIN SNACKS

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Brain Snacks: Tasty Tidbits of Knowledge

Donne was related to Sir Thomas More, the famous English author, scholar, and
politician. (Source)
Phrases like, "death be not proud," "for whom the bell tolls," and "no man is an island"
are all from Donne's work.

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ANALYSIS: SEX RATING

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Exactly how steamy is this poem?

R
In keeping with its metaphysical style, our speaker never makes anything totally explicit,
but he pretty clearly raises the idea of a violent sexual encounter with God. He closes
the poem by wishing that God would "ravish" him to establish his chastity. It's a
paradox, but the word choices here suggest a sexual encounter.

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BATTER MY HEART (HOLY

SONNET 14) THEME OF
RELIGION
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The subject of Donne's Holy Sonnet 14 is religion, even if it's masked by love, sex, and
general mayhem. At the most basic level, this is a poem in which a man asks for
forgiveness and salvation from God, but he expresses his frustration that God hasn't
revealed himself forcefully enough. The speaker, though, is unclear on what the
forgiveness and salvation will entail, and how to make sure that God's message gets
through to him.

Questions About Religion

1. Do you think the speaker believes God to be capable of the things for which he
asks?
2. Is this a uniquely Protestant poem, or could it apply just as well to other branches
of Christianity, or even other religions?
3. Can you see different treatments of different members of the Holy Trinity
anywhere in the poem?
4. What does the speaker mean by "bend / Your force?"
5. What's up with the rhyme scheme in the third quatrain (group of four lines)? How
come "enemy" and "I" make such an unusual rhyme?

Chew on This
Try on an opinion or two, start a debate, or play the devils advocate.
The speaker of Holy Sonnet 14 is more interested in worshipping himself and his own
rhetoric than any sort of higher spiritual authority.

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 BATTER MY HEART (HOLY
SONNET 14) THEME OF LOVE
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Complicating the speaker's desire for salvation is the fact that he loves God in more
than just the regular spiritual way. He seems interested in marital and sexual forms of
love, as well. The bottom line is that he's unsatisfied with the kind of love where one's
relationship with God is one-sided worship. He wants to feel loved back, and he's not
sure how God can manifest that love.

Questions About Love

1. How do the ideas of marriage and divorce work in Holy Sonnet 14? Does either
involve love?
2. Which does the speaker want more: salvation or affection?
3. Why do you think the speaker isn't satisfied with a God who will only "knock,
breathe, shine, and seek to mend?"

Chew on This
Try on an opinion or two, start a debate, or play the devils advocate.
The speaker's love for God is an easier, more natural expression for him than his plea
for abuse. His language flows much more calmly and easily in the lines of the sonnet
where he expresses his love directly.

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 BATTER MY HEART (HOLY
SONNET 14) THEME OF SEX
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Sex in this Holy Sonnet 14 is a metaphor our speaker uses for the way in which God
might demonstrate his love for the speaker. The speaker really wants a close, reciprocal
relationship with God, and one of the only ways he can imagine a relationship like this
working is through an encounter of a sexual nature.

Questions About Sex

1. What does "chastity" mean in this poem?
2. Given that Adam, Eve, and Jesus are all born without involving sex, why can't the
speaker separate God from the idea of sex?
3. Look closely at the meter and phonetics (sound qualities) of the moments when
the speaker talks about sex. Anything interesting?
4. Sex is generally considered something enjoyable for both people. Rape is more
about violently satisfying one person's desire at the expense of another. Which
does the speaker want?

Chew on This
Try on an opinion or two, start a debate, or play the devils advocate.
While the identity of God breaks down from the first line, the speaker uses the whole
sonnet to build consistently toward a sexual, rather than spiritual, resolution.

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BATTER MY HEART (HOLY

SONNET 14) THEME OF
VIOLENCE
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Violence is a way in which the speaker of Holy Sonnet 14 imagines God manifesting his
love. God's more gentle efforts to remind the speaker of his presence haven't done the
trick, so the speaker demands more extreme gestures like breaking, blowing, and
burning.

Questions About Violence

1. Does the speaker assign a value judgment to violence and warfare? Are they
good or bad things?
2. Why does the speaker want God to be so violent?
3. Can sex and violence be separated in this poem?

Chew on This
Try on an opinion or two, start a debate, or play the devils advocate.
The meter and phonetics of the concluding couplet suggest that sex is a gentler and
more intimate act than the violent imagery around it would suggest.

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 BATTER MY HEART (HOLY
SONNET 14) THEME OF
WARFARE
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Warfare makes up the major extended metaphor of Holy Sonnet 14, as the speaker
presents himself as a captured fortress city. He calls upon God to storm the walls and
retake the city. What's curious about this metaphor is that, if the speaker is the city and
God is the attacker, God is going to have to do some major damage to the speaker in
order to save him. Questions of what it means to be an attacker or a victim dovetail with
the notions of rape and ravishment in the poem.

Questions About Warfare

1. Does the speaker assign a value judgment to violence and warfare? Are they
good or bad things?
2. Who's in charge of this fortified town? What can that tell us about the poem as a
whole?
3. Why does imprisonment seem like such a bad thing in the beginning of
the poem, but such a desirable thing at the end?

Chew on This
Try on an opinion or two, start a debate, or play the devils advocate.
Holy Sonnet 14 can be seen as a reworking of the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, as
the speaker begs forgiveness to ward off the destruction of the two cities.

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BATTER MY HEART (HOLY

SONNET 14) RELIGION QUOTES
See more famous quotes from poetry

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How we cite our quotes: (line)

Quote #1
Batter my heart, three-personed 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. (lines 1-4)
As discussed in the "Detailed Summary," the verbs "knock, breathe shine" and "break,
blow, burn" all might apply to the three members of the Holy Trinity (the "three-personed
God"). In fact, each of them seems to plausibly apply to more than one member of the
Trinity, perhaps suggesting that Donne isn't sure whom to address, or just knows they
will all work together.

Religion
Quote #2
Batter my heart, three-personed 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. (lines 1-4)
It takes him four full lines, but the speaker finally gets to the point of why he tells God to
do all this. His goal, as he puts it, is to "rise" and "stand" and be made "new." Now this
works in two ways. First, the speaker asks to have a moment of religious epiphany in
his life so that he can rise up and live a virtuous life. That is, he wants to recognize
God's power, but he worries that the only way God will get through to him is by doing
something violent and overthrowing his life as he knows it.

On the other hand, "make me new" may be a reference to the Christian idea that true
happiness and salvation only come after death, and that, in order to "rise" and get into
Heaven, you have to suffer in your earthly life: "Except a corn of wheat fall into the
ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. He that loveth
his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal."
(John 12:24-25). That's why the speaker wants to suffer in the earthly world, so that he
will be worthy of the afterlife.

Religion
Quote #3
But am betroth'd unto your enemy, (line 10)
The easiest way to unpack this idea of an "enemy" is to use the religion angle. Who's
the bad guy whenever you're talking to God? Well, there are two options: first, if you feel
really guilty, it could be you, and so the speaker could suggest that he cares more about
himself than about God. Then, of course, there's the big daddy of bad guys, the Devil,
who might sucker the speaker into an agreement.

Religion

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How we cite our quotes: (line)
Quote #4
Divorce me, untie, or break that knot again, (line 11)
The "again" might refer to that other major moment when God needed to untie people
and break their knot: when he banishes Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden for
eating from the Tree of Knowledge.

Religion
Quote #5
Take me to you, imprison me, for I,
Except you enthrall me, never shall be free,
Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me. (lines 12-14)
Check out the "Detailed Summary" and the second "Quote" in this section for more on
this, but remember that in many branches of Christianity, suffering in life is a key step
for getting into Heaven. This all comes from the Bible, and especially the passage:
"Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it
bringeth forth much fruit. He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in
this world shall keep it unto life eternal." (John 12:24-25).

Religion

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BATTER MY HEART (HOLY

SONNET 14) LOVE QUOTES
See more famous quotes from poetry

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How we cite our quotes: (line)

Quote #1
Batter my heart, three-person'd God; (line 1)
Check out how much the speaker packs into those first three words. "Batter" gives us
the violence and warfare angle, but "heart" is an even more interesting word choice. If
the speaker's just gunning for eternal salvation, you'd think he'd say, "Batter my soul,
three-person'd God," because it's the soul that really needs to get turned around in
order for him to get in to Heaven. What's the heart got to do with it?

Well, we admit that "heart" can be a metaphor for "soul," but there's so much more to it.
The heart, of course, is actually part of your body, and in the context of love, "heart"
tends to have a more down-to-earth connotation than the more spiritual "soul." When
the speaker uses "heart," then, he shows us quickly that this poem isn't just going to be
about a spiritual conversion. This is a physical, corporeal kind of love.

Love
Quote #2
Yet dearly I love you, and would be loved fain, (line 9)
Here, at the turn, the speaker finally admits his love, but that second clause is a bit odd.
He says he would be happy if God loves him, but don't you think it would make more
sense to say, "Yet dearly I love you, and hope you love me"? Isn't it a little
presumptuous to say, "Sure, I'd be happy to be loved - lay it on me"?

Love
Quote #3
But am betroth'd unto your enemy;
Divorce me, untie, or break that knot again, (lines 10-11)
There's a lot in these two lines, but from the love angle, we'll just point out that a
betrothal is an unusual metaphor for the speaker, since people don't often get engaged
without mutual consent. You'd think the speaker could say "captured" or something else
to suggest that he is conned into a deal with Satan. As it is, this is a big admission he
willingly falls into the enemy's hands. It's also interesting that, at some point, he agrees
to marriage with the Devil, but he doesn't really agree to marriage with God, so much as
to a different kind of encounter.

Love

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How we cite our quotes: (line)

Quote #4
Take me to you, imprison me, for I, Except you enthrall me, never shall be free,
Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me. (lines 12-14)
Considering what we saw in the "Quote" above (lines 10-11), it's interesting that, at
some point, the speaker agrees to marry the Satan, while here, he doesn't agree to
marriage with God so much as a more sexual encounter. Shouldn't Satan be the one
who "imprisons?"

Love

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BATTER MY HEART (HOLY

SONNET 14) SEX QUOTES
See more famous quotes from poetry
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How we cite our quotes: (line)

Quote #1
o'erthrow me, and bend
Your force (lines 3-4)
One could read these lines as a description of a lead-up to sex.

Sex
Quote #2
Labour to admit you (line 6)
This line could be interpreted sexually.

Sex
Quote #3
Except you enthrall me, never shall be free,
Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me. (lines 13-14)
Finally, we get to the part of the poem where it is difficult to ignore the sexual
connotations. Even if enthrall ("fill with delight") doesn't convince you, "ravish" probably
does. See the "Detailed Summary," the "Sex Rating" section for more.

Sex

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 BATTER MY HEART (HOLY
SONNET 14) VIOLENCE
QUOTES
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How we cite our quotes: (line)

Quote #1
Batter my heart, three-person'd God (line 1)
Check out the first "Quote" from the "Religion" theme for the other side of this, but
"batter" is an interesting word choice. When you batter a gate or door, the whole point is
to demolish it and make it useless for its intended purpose. On one hand, the word
suggests that the speaker wants his heart completely destroyed, and on the other, he
also suggests that his heart is designed to keep God out. But, could that be true? If God
has created his heart, as the speaker surely believes, why would God design it to keep
God out?

Violence
Quote #2
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. (lines 2-4)
Here's the best expression of the speaker's wish for brutal violence against him. The
speaker wants God to "break, blow, burn" and "o'erthrow" instead of "knock; breathe,
shine, and seek to mend." Fair enough instead of being timid and curative, God
should be violent and destructive. So, here's the key question: what does he actually
want to happen? Does he really want his physical heart to be battered? Because that
would be bad news.

So, one imagines the speaker is using a metaphor he doesn't want to be physically
broken, but does that mean that he wants his soul to be broken? That is, where should
God direct all of this violence? If the answer is his soul, what does that mean? We don't
have an answer, and that's in large part because it doesn't seem like the speaker has
an answer either. He knows he wants somesort of reminder from God, but he doesn't
quite know how to put it.

Violence
Quote #3
Take me to you, imprison me, for I
Except you enthrall me, never shall be free, (lines 12-13)
Here, the speaker seems to bring back the castle siege metaphor one last time, but this
is important to the violence theme, as it presents such an obvious contradiction. How
God's imprisonment can lead to freedom is the same kind of question that we've been
asking along: "Why does the speaker want God to be violent towards him?" This all
reminds us again that violence and aggressive behavior aren't necessarily bad things in
this poem, so long as it's God who does them.

Violence

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How we cite our quotes: (line)
Quote #4
Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me. (line 14)
 Nothing too profound here, but we wanted to point out that "ravish" doesn't imply some
simple friendly romp through the hay. "Ravish" implies that this sex (metaphorical or
otherwise) is violent or aggressive.

Violence

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BATTER MY HEART (HOLY

SONNET 14) WARFARE QUOTES
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How we cite our quotes: (line)

Quote #1
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. (lines 5-8)
See the "Detailed Summary" for more, but it's worth noting here that it's hard to tell who
the good guys are and who the bad guys are. To whom is the town due, and who
usurped it in the first place? If reason is God's viceroy, did God capture it, or did some
other party take it away? We'll see this issue again in the next quote of this section, and
it's a major thematic strain in the poem.

Warfare
Quote #2
But am betroth'd unto your enemy, (line 10)
When we try to understand wars, it is central to recognize the identities of the parties at
war. But, in the battle over the speaker's soul, we can't figure out who's fighting against
God. This can be frustrating for us as readers, although we suspect this is the same
crisis that the speaker suffers: he doesn't know who has captured him, and he also
doesn't know who exactly to get in touch with to help him, as evidenced by his confusion
over the nature of the Trinity. (See the discussion of the "three-personed God" in the
"Detailed Summary" and "Quotes" in the "Religion" theme).

Warfare
Quote #3
Take me to you, imprison me, for I
Except you enthrall me, never shall be free, (lines 12-13)
Here, the speaker seems to bring back the castle siege metaphor one last time, and
rekindles the debate we had earlier about who captures (or imprisons) the town in the
first place. Again, the speaker refuses to make things clear: first asking God to imprison
him, but only so that he can be free. This passage reminds us again that violence and
aggressive behavior aren't necessarily bad things in this poem, so long as it's God
who's doing them.

Warfare

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 BATTER MY HEART (HOLY
SONNET 14) QUESTIONS
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Bring on the tough stuff - theres not just one right answer.
1. What's up with all the contradictions and stark oppositions?
2. Does the speaker think that God is omnipotent, or all-powerful?
3. Why does our speaker use other metaphors, like a wedding engagement, instead
of just sticking with the fortress town?
4. What does our speaker actually want God to do in simple, practical terms? Can
we even answer this question?

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