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,
Labour to admit you, but O, to no end.
Reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend,
But is captived, and proves weak or untrue.
Yet dearly I love you, and would be loved 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.
1) What kind of God is suggested by the words "batter", "break", knock, overthrow? What does "three-personed God" mean?
2) With which God might the verbs "knock" and "break" be associated? The verbs "breathe" and "blow"? The verbs "shine" and "burn"?
3) What is the effect of the altered word order at the end of lines 7 and 8? how should they be written?
4)Explain the words "enthrall"(13) and "ravish"(14) to resolve the paradox in the last two lines? To what extent is this a paradox? Support your answer.
This is your entrance ticket to class 10/17/13!
1. Donne talks about the aggressive nature of God with this specific vocabulary. He wants God to enter into his heart and become the aggressor in his sinful life. This "violent" and demanding God could possibly force him to turn his sinful life around, and that's what he wants. Luke 22:42 "….nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done."
ReplyDeleteThe three person God is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
2. Donne talks talks about the same aggressive God. These words create a sense of invasion inside of Donne's heart.
The words breathe and blow could be related to God's son, Jesus. I say this because Jesus was created in the image of man therefore concluding that Jesus had to breathe to live.
Shine and burn could be related to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit could be described as a faint glow by God's side.
3. The speaker has shown trouble in showing his faith in God and shifts his voice from pleading to selfish. He also blames "Reason" (as personified in this poem) for losing his connection with God.
The words "enthrall" and "ravish" as used in the solution of the poem have sexual connotations. He almost confuses the readers because he goes from talking about this love of God to talking about something sexual. It makes readers question the true intention and the true meaning of the sonnet.
Try to move beyond the obviously sexual language. What is he suggesting about the nature of salvation/rapture? How would you characterize this experience? Why must it be forceful?
Delete1. By these words that Donne is using he suggest that he wants the Old Testament God that lives in a non-forgiving world. He wants God to punish him for the sins that he has already done. By the three-personed god he means the trinity which is the father, the son, and the Holy Spirit.
ReplyDelete2. These verbs that Donne talks about could be associated in different ways. “Knock and break” is the ventful God who beats you down, “Breathe and Blow” is the son, Jesus came and gave us the breath of life, and “Shine and Burn” is the Holy Spirit which shines eternally from when the day you were born.
3. The shift is that when he changed the way he was ending, he changed the way he was feeling towards God saying basically he loves God but God makes him weak from time to time.
4. Enthrall meaning to be enslaved and to be ravished meaning to destroy. The contradiction is that he is asking to free him but he won’t ever be free unless you enslave him forever and that he wants to be forgiven but you have ravish him first so it is a contradiction because how can you be free when your locked up forever and how can you be forgiven when your dead. God is a contradiction and could never be properly explained in the human language
could he mean something else by three person - literally? I added a question to 4 so bring these to class on Thurs.
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ReplyDeleteSalvation and rapture are competing with each other. He wants to be reborn and forgiven and made hole but by his actions he is ashamed he know that the holy spirit dwells with in him and he's kind of confused on were to go even though he knows the right thing to do. it seems as if he fears the Wrath of GOD. He want to be forgiven for his sins but doesn't want to face the consequence. This experience for him is over whelming because he is faced with a choice of either one could benefit him. this is forceful because he shows how he contradicting himself and how he is paying for his mistakes through state of mind and actions.
ReplyDelete1. A powerful, strong God, one that can change. I take "three personed" God to mean that he is powerful, more superior than us.
ReplyDelete2. Strong God and change? "breathe and blow" - efforts; make new "shine and burn" - change
4. enthrall - get the attention of ravish - carry off