As yet but knocke, breathe, shine, and seeke to mend;

That I may rise, and stand, o'erthrow mee' and bend

Your force, to breake, blowe, burn and make me new.

I, like an usurpt towne, to' another due,

Labour to' admit you, but Oh, to no end,

Reason your viceroy in mee, mee should defend,

But is captiv'd, and proves weake or untrue,

Yet dearely' I love you, and would be lov'd faine,

Divorce mee, 'untie, or breake that knot againe,

Take mee to you, imprison mee, for I

Except you' enthrall mee, never shall be free,

Nor ever chast, except you ravish mee.

"We do not come to Donne as we come to Shakespeare, whose space in history are in our blood and bones. Donne is surely not all we are and have been; he does not revive the memory of our whole selves" (Cathcart 1). In other word, John Donne's poetry is unfamiliar to the average reader. many people may understand the work of Shakespeare, for instance, only because it is frequently performed and studied. The study of Donne is different in terms of the ambiguity encountered in his work. many of his poems will logically support a vast number of interpretations. "Batter my heart,

The poem opens with a forceful command addressed to a "three person'd God". This phrase is typically used to describe the Trinity which is a Christian idea that God is simultaneously the father, son and holy spirit. One critic states that this choice of words establishes the "Lover" in such a way that he is not a specific individual. "The phrase three person'd God," for example, identifies the male lover addressed in Trinitarian terms, themselves derived by accommodation from the earthly family" (Kerrigan 352). Due to the fact that this is a holy sonnet, Donne must carefully represent God in order to maintain the religious theme of the poem. If, for example, he used the phrase "God our father" the sexual aspect of the poem would have been interpreted as some bizarre wish for incest. Another perspective has also arisen from the first three words of the poem, "Batter my heart." To establish the theory that this poem is about a divine rape, it has been mentioned that the word "heart" was also "Elizabethan slang for the vagina" (Payne 2). Although this is a valid fat, the idea that Donne's intention was for the reader to think of a vagina seems a bit unlikely. The speaker is ultimately asking God to force himself into his or her life. The sexual undertones are present but not necessary for a full understanding of the poem. "The sexual imagery, seemingly so out of place in a 'holy' sonnet, is there precisely because Donne recognizes the double truth of love, the fact that love is both resistance and attraction" (Cathcart 162). Because this is a holy sonnet, the sexual motif has been embodied by the Christian deity.

The next two lines also work to support the female adulterous image by use of the words "divorce," "untie," and "knot." Because the speaker wants to break her loyalty to the devil, she asks to be divorced from him and "imprisoned" by God much like a woman in love with another man would want a divorce to free herself from obligation to another man. Although Craig Payne is a critic who formulated an interpretation that generally focuses on sexual imagery, he describes these lines in a manner that is free of sexual remarks. "The poet, as a fallen human... pleads for God to progressively 'break the knot' of attachment to the enemy, 'imprison' the poet 'enthrall' him (or her, since the soul is typically feminine in Elizabethan poetry) into freedom" (1). The idea of freedom does, in fact, take the form of a paradox within these lines as well as the rest of the poem. Although the speaker wants to gain power over God, he also strives to form a relationship that would cause him to abandon his individual identity (Guibbory 142). The liberation that the speaker begs for seems confining yet desirable at the same time.

" a holy sonnet by John Donne, uses sexual imagery to describe the speaker's acceptance of God's will. To what degree should critics focus on the suggestive language used to describe God forcing the speaker to serve Him? Critics have explicated this poem by putting varying degrees of emphasis on these images. Some have totally denied the presence of sex in the "holy" sonnet while others have looked at it from a Freudian perspective and transformed the speaker into a sadomasochist with an Oedipus complex. No matter how the poem is interpreted, it is important to remember that it was not intended to be a secular poem. However, Donne's use of language often diverts the reader's attention away from its primary meaning.

"Mysteriously, our love for God is linguistically and psychologically inextricable from our lust" (Kerrigan 362). These words appropriately summarize the most frequently discussed couplet which ends Holy Sonnet XIV. "For I / Except you enthrall mee, never shall be free, / Nor ever chast, except you ravish mee" (12-14). Seen as a divine rape, a lover's wish, or a sadomasochist's fantasy, these lines undoubtedly reveal a parallel between sexual and religious contentment. Although the entire poem can be s

Some topics in this essay:
Sonnet XIV, Wanninger NP, Trinity Christian, John Donne, Christianity Cathcart, God Kerrigan, Craig Payne, God Guibbory, William Kerrigan, Oh Reason, holy sonnet, sexual imagery, holy sonnet xiv, batter heart, religious theme, sonnet xiv, theme poem, john donne's, poem sexual, sexual aspect, divine rape, john donne's holy, enthrall mee free, chast ravish mee, nor chast ravish,