The Holy Paradox in Donne's Batter My Heart
The great paradox of the Christian faith lies in the condition that in order to be truly free, the soul must first be rescued from the bondage of sin, then recaptured and completely conquered by God. One of the most profound expressions of this paradox is to be found in John Donne' poem, "Batter My Heart" (Meyer 882). Donne expresses this spiritual transformation in intensely passionate language, using rhythm, figures of speech, and sounds to convey this theme.
The poem opens with a bang as the speaker addresses God as "three-personed God" (1), hence the Christian God, with a desperate demand. The opening line uses iambic pentameter meter with a rhythm that suggests the sound of someone beating on a door, with the "bam, pa, pa, bam" sound, repeated: "Batter my heart, three-personed God," (line 1, italics mine). The poem begins with alternating trochaic and iambic feet, which make the drumbeat rhythm, and enhance the tone of desperation in the voice. The urgency of the plea is expressed by the direct command, which suddenly ends with a caesura. This is followed by the opening line's enjambment that rushes the plea forward into the next line to explain this urgency. The rhythm then changes to a slower tap, tap, tap, ta tap, ta tap as the speaker tells God that He has been gentle and kindly, "for You/ As yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend" (1-2). The spondee stresses on the third foot of the line suggest a deliberate knock, knock, knock, yet the verbs reveal God's quiet, but persistent concern, which the speaker suggests has been too easy, thus far: God, as Holy Spirit, breathes, shines, and mends. The verb "knock" in line two could well refer to Revelation 3:20: "...
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...s most notably in Bemini's seventeenth century statue of "The Ecstasy of St. Theresa." She is portrayed reclining in an attitude of total submission, with an angel standing over her, which is very reminiscent of Donne's poem.
John Donne's use of the language is masterful in several ways. He is able to convey the spiritual theme of a sudden violent act of God in order to convert a seeking, but weak human soul. He does this by using the carnal act as a metaphor for the mystical work of the Holy Spirit. He also uses human experience as a way to interpret the mystical experience, which would otherwise be inexpressible.
Works Cited
Meyer, Mchael. The Compact Bedford Introduction to Literature. 5th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2000.
"Ravish." The Compact Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary. 2 vols. London: Oxford University Press, 1971.
Donne, John. “Hymn to God, my God, in My Sickness.” Poems of John Donne. vol I. E. K. Chambers, ed. London: Lawrence & Bullen, 1896. 211-212.
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