Batter My Heart, Three Person’d God | Holy Sonnet 14 by John Donne Summary Analysis
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Batter My Heart, Three Person’d God is the first line of a deeply religious poem by John Donne that he wrote in the latter half of his life. It is also known as the Holy Sonnet 14 as it is the 14th religious sonnet out of the 19 Holy Sonnets that John Donne wrote. All these religious poems were published posthumously as a part of Poems in 1633.
John Donne wrote this poem in a mixed structure of Petrachen sonnets and Shakespearean or English sonnets. The poet begins in Petrachen structure of ABBA ABBA but concludes the poem in a quatrain blended over a rhyming couplet (CDCD CC). In continuity, it appears as a combination of an Octet and a Sestet with rhyming scheme ABBA ABBA CDCD CC.
Themes:
John Donne was a Catholic by birth but later on, he changed to the Anglican faith. He wrote these 19 Holy sonnets during the time of his transition from Catholicism to Anglicanism. He had a lot of doubts and confusion that he depicted in his writings. In this poem, the poet is addressing to Trinitarian God (Three Person’d God). The poet expresses a feeling of ‘Absence of God in his heart, body, and soul. The poet is suffering the ‘Agony of Religious Doubt.’ It is not like he is not convinced of God’s existence, but the poet is failing to feel the goodness and purity of God in his sinful corrupt life. John Donne had spent a lot of time in amorous acts and affairs. But after his beloved wife’s death, he lost interest in worldly relations and turned towards the path of God.
For the poet, religion is a matter of the heart. For Donne, passion is central to faith and he wants God to enter in him passionately. The poet needs to feel the passionate love of God to feel His purity in himself. The poet describes this need for the passionate love of God in erotic terms. He wants God to seduce him forcefully, consensually, and ravish him physically. To ravish here literally means to rape. Considering God as the only male, and thinking of himself as a female, the poet Begs God to take him forcefully. Since his original faith in Catholicism is now dwindling, and the poet realizes that whatever his past actions were, were sinful, he needs God to purify him. This purification cannot be gentle. The divine love needs to enter in him forcefully.
Imagery and Conceits:
John Donne expresses his mental and psychological situation in this poem by using two imageries that may appear as two main discourses of the poem. In the first case, the poet compares himself to a fallen beleaguered city that has been captured by the enemy Satan. As a captured, enslaved city, the poet begs God to attack and dethrone the Devil from his existence. Thus Donne offers military imagery in the first octet or first two quatrains and asks God to fight a battle against the Devil residing in his heart and body (which is the city).
A city is a common noun that expresses, the gentleness of civilization. Thus, if we personify ‘city’ it will appear as feminine gender. In the second discourse, Donne personifies this city representing his heart, soul, and body. This city is such a woman who has been forcibly married to someone she didn’t want. She is married to the Devil, Satan. The woman begs the man she always desired and loved to take her forcibly and free her of the marital bond in which she has been captured by the Devil. So here in the last six lines of Sestet, Donne offers marital imagery.
Donne presents himself as a lady who always loved and desired God but was unfortunately married to his lover’s enemy. He begs his lover (God) to devise a divorce between him and Satan. Satan has corrupted his body and mind and his rational faculty also failed to save him against evil. Thus, the poet asks God to treat him forcibly even if it appears as a punishment. Since he is under the Enemy's rule as a city and as a lady, he begs God to attack, ravish, and ravage him to win him over again. The poet further needs assurance that once God captures him, He must keep him in strict bondage or imprisonment to ensure his freedom from Satan. It appears paradoxical as the poet asks to be imprisoned by God to feel real freedom.
Summary of Batter my Heart
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,
Labor to admit you, but oh, to no end;
Reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend,
But is captiv'd, and proves weak or untrue.
In the opening Octet, the poet expresses his demands to the three person’d God or Trinitarian God (God, Jesus, and Holy Ghost). In the first line, the poet begs God to attack his heart as if it is the door of a fortress captured by the enemy. Unlike gentle knocking, battering means to break down the door.
In the second line, the poet says that in past, God tried to gently knock his heart, and cure and mend him, but that didn’t work. It is a religious idea that God knocks at everyone’s heart and they must let God in to gain the light of truth. However, the poet failed in this gentle endeavor.
In the third line, the poet says that he is fallen but he needs to rise and stand again. The poet wants God to forcibly enter into him. He asks God to ‘overthrow’ his current existence and bring upon a forced change to make him new again. As a city, the poet begs God to enter forcefully and demolish all the structures constructed by Evil (bend, break, blow, burn). Donne uses alliteration in line 4.
In the fifth line or the beginning of the second quatrain, the poet presents the first metaphor as a strong conceit. He compared himself with a fallen city captured by an enemy ruler.
The poet says that he belonged to God but the Devil has usurped his existence. In the sixth line, the poet says that he tries hard to ‘admit’ God but fails. ‘Admit’ here may mean ‘to accept.’ So the poet suggests that though he wants to believe in God, his faith is dwindling. However, the poet is presenting a conceit comparing himself to a city. So ‘Admit’ here may also mean ‘to let God in.’
In the seventh line, the poet compares Reason or rational faculty as the viceroy or representative of God. Reason leads a man to believe in God and defends a person against evil thoughts. However, the poet says that in him, the city, Reason has been captivated or overpowered by Satan, and thus, it appears weak and untrustworthy, his reason has sided with the Evil. The poet suggests that his soul is badly damaged by Satan and it needs to be recreated by God.
Yet dearly I love you and would be lov'd 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.
In the Octet, Donne offered military imagery and compared himself as a fallen beleaguered city captured by the enemy Satan. He asks God to attack this city to overthrow the Evil tyrant and demolish all structures formed by Satan that have impurified the poet’s existence. In the following Sestet, he changes the conceit and personifies that beleaguered city to offer marital imagery. Donne introduces a Volta in the opening of Sestet (9th line). A volta is a turn or transition in the main argument of a sonnet. The tone of the poem now becomes more desperate and full of passion. The poet says that as always, the poet dearly loves God which never faints or diminishes. But, despite his incessant love for God, the poet has been forcibly married to Satan, God’s enemy.
In the 11th line, the poet continues the marital imagery and wants God to devise the poet’s divorce from Satan (untie or break the knot of marriage). Here, the poet is bringing upon the idea of Genesis and the Fall of men.
In the 12th line, the poet demands God to imprison him and take him away from the influence of Satan and never allow him to be free from the imprisonment of God as, in this prison, he finds freedom from Satan. He wants God to take his chastity and rape him, impregnate him with God’s divine love.
So this is it about Batter My Heart Three Person’d God. We will discuss other major religious works of John Donne before concluding this playlist
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