Question

In John Donne's "Holy Sonnet 14" which begins with "Batter my heart, three-personed God," what sort of relationship with God does the speaker ask for?
To what sorts of things does he compare that relationship? What might explain the speaker's use of such surprising, even violent comparisons?

Accepted Answer

In John Donne's "Holy Sonnet 14," the speaker asks for a passionate relationship with God.  Donne's use of figurative language, primarily extended metaphor, compares his heart to a "usurp'd town" which he would like to see violently overthrown by God's power.  He compares reason to a viceroy who would try to defend the gates, but sees his heart as a willing captive.
The surprising, even violent comparisons reveal the speaker's ardent desire to have God's presence in his life. A passive, or even gentle approach would not be enough to draw the speaker away from the enemy.  Donne's forceful diction reinforces the urgency and passion of the speaker to know God.

Answer

Donne uses forceful and startling comparisons in his Holy Sonnet 14 to show the strength of his conviction in his quest to know God intimately. The initial four lines beg God not to hold back in his reshaping, in breaking down and building up the author anew, so as to better serve God. Donne wants to be rid of his old self, who God has treated, up until now, with kindness.

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.

Donne wants to give himself over to God completely, and uses a metaphor of a town that has been taken by another, but Donne will allow God to enter instead.

I, like an usurp'd town to another due, Labor to admit you

The last five lines of the sonnet are the most shocking and pleading. The exhortations draw on what is clearly sexual imagery. He says he is—

betroth'd unto your enemy

who can be none other than the devil. Donne symbolically casts himself in the position of a woman married to a man she doesn't want, a man harmful to her. In order to escape, a stronger man has to break the chains that bind.

Divorce me, untie or break that knot again, Take me to you, imprison me, for I, Except you enthrall me, never shall be free,

Donne wants to be in the arms of God, for only there can he find freedom. When he says, "divorce me," he means he wants God to grant him a divorce from evil. He doubts himself left to his own devices, fearing his love and attachment to the impure things of the world. The last line is paradoxical—the only purity or chasteness he will ever find will come from being violently taken over by God.

Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.

Donne uses such strong, almost profane language because what's at stake is so high—his very soul. Donne's Holy Sonnet 14 is a desperate cry to God, and in it, he uses the most forceful and striking images he knows, to make clear his heart's intent.

Holy Sonnets

In John Donne's "Holy Sonnet 14" which begins with "Batter my heart, three-personed God," what sort of relationship with God does the speaker ask for? To what sorts of things does he compare that relationship? What might explain the speaker's use of such surprising, even violent comparisons?

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