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The Holy Sonnet - Batter My Heart

             The setting of the Holy Sonnet 14, "Batter My Heart," is assumed to be set during late 16th to early 17th century England. During that time, England faced the same afflictions as the rest of Europe; political, economic, and social tension made worse by religious division (England in the 16th and 17th Century). John Donne was offered the position of Anglican priest and shortly thereafter he wrote the holy sonnet "Batter My Heart" among other poems. In "Batter My Heart" the speaker uses the violent action verb "batter" which indicates an imperative need and personal struggle with his relationship with God. This short essay will briefly touch the subject of theme and point out some of the unique uses of metaphors, paradox and allusions of the poet's writing.
             II. Themes.
             a. Love.
             i. It would appear that the speaker desires God in a way of carnal desires; he seems interested in marital and sexual form of love. However, that is not necessarily the case in the speaker's cry to God to be "ravished."Some Christians of today are as the Sadducees of Jesus' time in that they "are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God. At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven" (NIV, Matt. 22:29-30). The term "ravish" is synonymous to the term "enrapture" which means to fill with delight. It is used to describe a powerful and overwhelming emotional effect on someone such as "by the music; scenery that entranced us; a painting that ravished the eye; thrilled by their success; transported with joy" (Merriam-Webster's Dictionary). Another word of significance that can be applied is the Hebrew word "yada" which means "to know" (Brown, Driver, Briggs and Gesenius). The highest level of "yada" can be obtained with intimate direct contact as with marriage, but when applied in context with this poem is suggests intimate and direct contact with God in prayer.


Essays Related to The Holy Sonnet - Batter My Heart

1. Sonnet XIV

In describing the opening and closing of the poem, Steir states: "They rely on the conception of total spiritual dependence on God, on the need for man to be utterly regenerated by God-'made new'-not merely aided and assisted by him" The poem opens by asking God to "batter my heart". The word "heart" in Donne's time had a sexual connotation according to Craig Payne, "heart, also being Elizabethan slang for the vagina". ... The "Holy Sonnets" must be looked at in relation to Donne's life. ... It was once thought that the "Holy Sonnets" were composed after Donne had becom...

  • Word Count: 752
  • Approx Pages: 3
  • Grade Level: High School

2. John Donne's "Batter My Heart, Three Person God"

Violent imagery in a holy sonnet: Batter my heart, three-personed God In John Donne's "Batter my heart, three-personed God ," the speaker is in despair about his ability to be chaste. ... He asks God to use a battering ram to knock down the gate to the town, his heart. ... In other words, God has knocked upon his heart, the gate to his walled fortress, asking for a response. ... The poem is a sonnet with three quatrains, or four-line stanzas, and a rhyming couplet. ...

  • Word Count: 750
  • Approx Pages: 3
  • Grade Level: High School

3. John Donnes Ideas on Love And Salvation

" Thy firmness makes my circle just and makes me end, where I began". ... In the holy sonnet batter my heart Donne uses violent paradoxes to explain more complex issues. ... In the sonnet Batter my heart Donne uses images of evil and torture. ...

  • Word Count: 820
  • Approx Pages: 3
  • Grade Level: High School

4. A Matter of Forced Salvation:

Batter my heart, three person'd God; for, you As yet but knocke, breathe, shine, and seeke to mend; That I may rise, and stand, o'erthrow mee' and bend Your force, to breake, blowe, burn and make me new. ... "Batter my heart," a holy sonnet by John Donne, uses sexual imagery to describe the speaker's acceptance of God's will. ... Another perspective has also arisen from the first three words of the poem, "Batter my heart." ... An argument could be created that "Batter my heart" has nothing to do with Christian principles. ... "The battered heart becomes the attack...

  • Word Count: 2802
  • Approx Pages: 11

5. A Three-Personed God by John Donne

Batter my heart, three personed God, for You As yet but knock, breathe, shine and seek to mend. ... John Donnes' Batter my heart, three-personed God, for You the sonnet begins with the speaker 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. ... The first line of "Batter my Heart, three- personed God, for You" begins with "batter my heart, three-personed God, for You as yet but knock, breathe, shine and seek to mend.... The three-personed God refers to the trinity, which...

  • Word Count: 1898
  • Approx Pages: 8
  • Grade Level: High School

6. Shakespeare vs. John Donne

However he did use it when he wrote his nineteen Holy Sonnets. For example, Holy Sonnet ten uses the regular Italian sonnet pattern with iambic pentameter. "Batter my heart, three-personed God; for you [ ] (Donne, 10, I)." ... "And in some perfume is there more delight Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks (Shakespeare 130, vii-viii)." ... This is where the Holy Sonnets were derived from. ...

  • Word Count: 2289
  • Approx Pages: 9
  • Grade Level: High School

7. Analysis of John Donne

Transforms confines of iambic pentameter form of sonnets - Strong lined - Violent changes in tone: 1. ... Sonnet 3. ... When it became clear that preferments would be open to him only if he entered Holy Orders, Donne was ordained in the Anglican church in 1615. ... Love Songs and Sonnets: In fact Donne is unusual, if not unique, for his era in that courtly love hardly appears in his poetry at all. ... In contrast Donne expresses an enormously wide range of feelings in his Songs and Sonnets, all relating to the experience of real love, but varying from the heights of ecstasy to the dep...

  • Word Count: 7662
  • Approx Pages: 31
  • Grade Level: High School

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