Batter My Heart
Poetry
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John Donne
Batter My Heart Themes
Religious Doubt: In this poem, the speaker is having religious doubt. He is struggling to restore his faith in God. He is unable to return to God on his own. He feels stuck between two sides: God and sin. He loves God and wants to be close to Him. But he also feels tied to sin. He feels he is married to the enemy. He wants God to save him from this and break that sinful connection. This theme show...
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Batter My Heart Literary Device
Figures of Speech
Apostrophe
An apostrophe means speaking directly to someone who is not present or to something that cannot respond. In this poem, the speaker talks directly to God as if God is right in front of him.
Example:
“Batter my heart, three-person'd God”
The speaker is talking to God with strong emotions, asking Him to enter his heart.
Metaphor
Comparing two different things without usi...
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Batter My Heart Quotations
“Batter my heart, three-person'd God,”
The speaker is asking God to hit his heart. This means he is asking God’s help. He is struggling with religious doubt. He wants to restore his faith in God. But he cannot do it by himself. So he is asking God to help him.
“I, like an usurp’d town to another due,
Labor to admit you, but oh, to no end;”
The speaker compares himself to a city that has been tak...
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