A Restoration of Power: Metaphor, Simile, and Imagery in Donne's "Batter My Heart"

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A Restoration of Power:

The Use of Metaphor, Simile and Imagery in John Donne's "Batter My Heart"

In most world religions, deities, though almighty, are belittled and given human qualities as a way for human understanding. Unlike the typical attributing of human emotions and responses to a divine being, John Donne's Batter My Heart, takes the anthropomorphosis further by conveying God as three distinct figures: an inventor, a ruler, and a lover. However, though Donne's use of figures, such as metaphor and simile, humanize God, his use of violent imagery recovers the reverence of God's powerful divinity.

The poem opens abruptly as the speaker demands the "three personed God" (1), or the Christian Trinity, to "Batter [his] heart" (1) in order to "make [him] new" (4). The speaker's imploring plea for God to "o'erthrow" (3) and "break" (4) him, materializes the speaker, presenting a metaphor that compares him to an inanimate, factory product of God, the inventor. Like an inventor's creation, the speaker can be dismembered and rebuilt by his creator to produce an improved model. The speaker's longing wish to "rise, and stand" (2) exposes the hopelessness of his current state, and creates the image of a crumpled man, overwhelmed with the weight of his past.

On the other hand, the second quatrain introduces a simile that compares the speaker to a town that has been seized from God, the rightful ruler. The claim that he "Labor[s] to admit" (6) God "to no end" (6) suggests the speaker's guilt in his failed attempt to caste the occupier, sinful temptation, from his "town" (5), or life. He appears to struggle internally, toggling between a life of righteousness and a life of desire. Aware that he should revere Go...

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... of purity through ravishment, initially appears blasphemous, but on reflection demonstrates the speaker's difficult acceptance of a righteous life, and exposes a fearful reverie for the domination of God in his life.

Granted that Donne's personification of God reduces the deity from an almighty force to a human archetype, divinity is not undermined. The metaphoric figures of inventor, ruler, and lover, each retain specific skills and purpose, but can not compare to the Christian suggestion of God's role and strength. However, the presentation of striking, violent imagery charges the poem with a sense of power and complete domination, and allows the image of God to transcend his designated human forms. Through the projection of life's frailty, powerlessness in captivity, and sexual

assault, Batter My Heart forces the image of an all-powerful deity.

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