The poem opens with a forceful command addressed to a "three person'd God". This phrase is typically used to describe the Trinity which is a Christian idea that God is simultaneously the father, son and holy spirit. One critic states that this choice of words establishes the "Lover" in such a way that he is not a specific individual. "The phrase three person'd God," for example, identifies the male lover addressed in Trinitarian terms, themselves derived by accommodation from the earthly family" (Kerrigan 352). Due to the fact that this is a holy sonnet, Donne must carefully represent God in order to maintain the religious theme of the poem. If, for example, he used the phrase "God our father" the sexual aspect of the poem would have been interpreted as some bizarre wish for incest. Another perspective has also arisen from the first three words of the poem, "Batter my heart." To establish the theory that this poem is about a divine rape, it has been mentioned that the word "heart" was also "Elizabethan slang for the vagina" (Payne 2). Although this is a valid fat, the idea that Donne's intention was for the reader to think of a vagina seems a bit unlikely. The speaker is ultimately asking God to force himself into his or her life. The sexual undertones are present but not necessary for a full understanding of the poem. "The sexual imagery, seemingly so out of place in a 'holy' sonnet, is there precisely because Donne recognizes the double truth of love, the fact that love is both resistance and attraction" (Cathcart 162). Because this is a holy sonnet, the sexual motif has been embodied by the Christian deity.
As the first quatrain continues, the speaker's language could be sexual or violent as he implores God to "'o'erthrow' and 'break' him, like some sort of tinker's creation" (Payne 1). In this interpretation, the first four lines seem to indicate a violent struggle rather than a romantic interlude.