Batter My Heart

BATTER MY HEART, JONNE DONNE
This poem is in the middle between the second and the third period, that’s because Donne talks about the physical and spiritual love related with women and God. The main theme is the religious one, the poet talks to God about how he thinks he could save his soul form sin.
1° STANZA
The speaker begins by asking God to attack his heart as if it were the gates of afortress town. The speaker wants God to enter his heart aggressively and violently, instead of gently.
Lines 1-2
Batter my heart, three-person'd God; for you
As yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend;
* The speaker begins by asking God (along with Jesus and the Holy Ghost; together, they make up the "three-personed God") to attack his heart as if it were the gates of a fortresstown.
* The poet talks directly to God, he uses an imperative as he were his friend.
* He asks God to "batter" his heart, as opposed to what God has been doing so far: just knocking, breathing, shining, and trying to help the speaker heal.
* Those actions are nice and all, but Donne wants something a little more intense.
* First of all, none of the verbs are particularly active.God asks to come in by knocking, which is nice, but he also just breathes and shines, two things that he might do out of necessity — not choice. When we breathe, it's normally not because we choose to, and the same applies to things that shine.
* The "mending" seems nice, but note that Donne says "seek to mend," and not just "mend." Does God really "seek to" do anything? Doesn't He just do it,if he's all-powerful?
Lines 3-4
That I may rise, and stand, o'erthrow me, and bend
Your force, to break, blow, burn, and make me new.
* Lines 3-4 continue much like lines 1-2, with the speaker asking God to treat him violently.
* He asks God to "bend your force," which may mean to "make use of your power."
* More importantly, even though it takes him four full lines, the speakerfinally gets to the point of why he's telling God to do all this. His goal, as he puts it, is to "rise" and "stand" and become "new."
* A quick note on the language here: read these lines aloud, and notice how the word "o'erthrow" makes you take a big pause and change the rhythm of your speaking, and how violent and intense those alliterated b-words are ("break, blow, burn"). These words geta lot of attention verbally, and it's a cool example of words' sounds reflecting their meaning. Onomatopeia
* So, what about the specific actions? Are they particularly significant? Well lots of scholars think that the three verbs mirror the set-up of a "three-personed God" (the Christian notion of the Trinity). Thus, they associate the Father with power as he knocks but ought to break, theHoly Ghost with breath as he breathes but ought to blow like a strong wind, and the Son with light as he shines but ought to burn like fire.
* These actions make some sense as representative actions of each part of God.

2° STANZA
Donne uses a remarkable simile-"like an usurpt town"-to describe his pathetic sinful condition of slavery to sin and how his conscience and reason have beencompletely overwhelmed by Satan and from now he cannot set him free. The only way he can be saved is, the Triune God should "batter"-smash through-the gates of the captive town, his heart and release him from the clutches of Satan and save his soul. He wants God to completely smash him into smithereens and then rebuild his new life all over again.

Lines 5-6
I, like an usurp'd town, to another due,Labour to admit you, but O, to no end.
* Here comes the explanation of that whole "battering" business. The speaker compares himself to a town that is captured or "usurped." Line 1: Here the speaker refers to a battering ram, as if God should break down the walls of a city. That's why "batter my heart" is a metaphor.
* The phrase "to another due" suggests that the town belongs to...