in direct address to God. The expression "three-person'd God" refers to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit of the Christian Trinity. Donne invites God to approach him more aggressively—to batter, break, blow, and burn rather than merely knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend. Donne is pleading with God to force his way into his spirit, because God's gentle entreaties have not been sufficient.

Donne begs God to take this more violent approach to captivating him because, he explains, reason has become an enemy that makes it difficult for him to listen to God's voice. To usurp something is to seize and hold it when it doesn't belong to you. Donne is like a "usurp'd town"; in other words, a town given over to the enemy. More directly, he confesses that he is "betroth'd unto your enemy." "Betrothed" is an archaic word meaning "engaged." Donne tells God that he loves Him, and he wants God to forcibly take him and draw him close, because he does not feel that he has the power to break free from the enemy of reason and draw close to faith in God on his own.

This poem is, of course, a prayer to God.  In it, the speaker is asking God to make him (the speaker) good -- to make him the way God wants him to be.

In this poem, the speaker has decided that he, by himself, cannot be what God wants him to be.  He is not strong enough, himself, to break away from Satan.  Because of this, he wants God to force him to be good.

You can see this in the images he uses.  He asks God to "batter" or break down his heart -- to be forceful.  He asks God to defeat him like a town that is taken in battle.  He even asks God to "ravish" him -- a word that usually was used to mean rape.

So this speaker is asking God to take control of his life and save him from his own bad ways.

In the poem Donne uses the conceit, or elaborate metaphor, of the speaker's sinful heart as a besieged city. The speaker, who resides in this city, isn't asking for mercy or clemency from God; he wants him to come and ram down the doors of his sinful heart and overpower him. Donne also uses the metaphor of the speaker as a maiden betrothed to God's enemy and therefore in desperate need of being saved, hence the overwhelming sense of urgency about the poem—the air of crisis that hangs over almost every line.

Donne uses vigorous language to drive home his point. He uses verbs such as "o'erthrow," "break," "imprison," "ravish," and, of course, "batter," all of which convey the impression of God as some kind of conqueror. The speaker adopts the characteristics associated at the time with women. In keeping with the prevailing misogynist standards, he is weak and feeble, unable to free himself from the grip of his betrothed—sin—without God's help. He is every bit as dependent on God for his salvation as a woman at that time would've been expected to be on her husband.

In the final couplet the speaker expresses the paradox that he can only be free once God enthralls him—that is, imprisons him—and can only be chaste once God has ravished him. It's as if, having been freed from the besieged city of sin, the speaker willingly desires to submit himself to the complete domination of the Almighty, as he knows he lacks what it takes to live a sinless life on his own.