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THE SONNET
John Donne's Holy Sonnets #14
Batter my heart, three-personed 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 usurped town, to another due,
Labor to admit you, but O, to no end;
Reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend,
But is captived, and provves weak or untrue.
Yet dearly I love you, and would be loved fain,
But am betrothed into 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 chaste, except you ravish me.
The Exposition
The Holy Sonnets #14
Line 1-2 - The first image is of God beating his heart. The Bible says that a broken and contrite spirit God will accept. Donne says that cannot
break his own heart, so he asks God to break his heart for him. The second line speaks of God's knocking at our hearts. The reference comes from Revelation 3:20. God says that He stands at the door and knocks, yet Donne wants God to break down the door of his heart so that he could be saved.
Line 3-4 - here Donne is saying that in order to stand firm in faith, God would have to subdue him and overthrow him. This is a parallel to Jeremiah 18, the story of the potters house. Line four has many Scriptural references in it. The first is the word "break". This is a reference from Jeremiah 23:29. The Bible calls God's word a "hammer that breaks the rock into pieces."
In Ezekiel 36:26, the Bible calls the heart a stone. The second image of blowing is from Ezekiel 37:5 where God says that He will cause breath to enter into us and we would live. The next image "burn" is from Malachi 3:2-3. God says that He is "like a refiners fire" and that He would purify us like gold and silver. The fourth image of "make me new" is a reference to 2 Corinthians 5:17. It says that if any man be in Christ he is a new creation.
Line 5-8 - Line 5&6 speaks of the imagery of a sieged city taken in battle. Donne says that he has been taken by the enemy, as a city would be taken, yet he longs for God to come in. However, the struggle in his soul is so great that he cannot let God in. In line 7&8, he says that reason should give him the strength to defend his "city", his heart, yet it is weak and untrue, which means that his reason may be fallible.
Line 9&10 - He says that he loves God and he knows that God loves him, he cannot accept that love because of his union with sin. Here Donne says that because of his union with sin, the nature of man, he has become married to the enemy. This is not a literal marriage, but figurative. As time goes by, the married couple begins to take on each others traits. He has, through the union with sin, has taken on the traits of the enemy.
Line 11 - Here he asks God to write him a bill of divorcement so that he can be free from his "vows" to sin. He mentions "break that knot again."
This refers to the time when Adam had perfect union with God in the garden before sin entered and corrupted the human nature.
Line 12 - 14 - Here Donne asks God to take him and imprison him. This is not a representation of slavery, but of total freedom. Zechariah 9:14
speaks of prisoners of hope. This is hope is the hope of eternal salvation. Imprisonment also speaks of being totally consumed by God's presence. One is held captive by His holiness and beauty. Psalms 16:11 says that "in His (God's) presence is the fullness of joy, and at His right hand are pleasures forevermore."
The Bible also says that "where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty (2 Cor 3:17). The last line is a very interesting paradox, "Nor ever chaste, exceptYou ravish me." Here, I believe, he is speaking of the truest form of love, the union between two souls. He says that he would never be pure in his spirit, unless God consumes him with holy passion.
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