"Batter My Heart, Three-Personed God" Paradox

The speaker in John Donne’s sonnet “Batter My Heart, Three-Personed God” essentially expresses a desire to grow closer in his relationship with God by turning away from sin and embodying goodness. While this desire may be the central theme of many religious poems, however, the speaker’s approach in asking God for guidance on his endeavors for goodness is fairly unusual. Consequently, the sonnet establishes a paradox which is developed throughout the course of the sonnet and is revealed in its entirety in the last two lines of the poem. Instead of simply asking God to purify his heart in order to make him more holy in mind and deed, the speaker requests that God batter his heart; in other words, he asks God to strike him repeatedly. Furthermore, the speaker insists, “That I may rise and stand, o’erthrow me, and bend your force to break, blow, burn, and make me new” (Donne, 840). Ultimately, the speaker is essentially asking God to beat him into submission. While the speaker may be seeking the same spiritual strength and relationship with God as many others do, the speaker separates himself from others by realizing that the only way for him to personally avoid sin is to be so broken and beaten down that God could reshape his heart and make him anew. The irony in the speaker’s request of God can further be seen in his statement that “…Dearly I love you and would be loved fain, but am betrothed unto your enemy” (Donne, 840). With the assertion, the speaker suggests that, while he truly loves God and desires to have a close relationship with him, he bitterly has to admit that he cannot escape the grasp of sin, which is in direct opposition to God. With this in mind, the paradox that is present in this poem is brought to completion with the last two lines of the poem, in which the speaker expresses that, in order to be free of evil, he wishes for God to imprison him, and in order to be made chaste, he wishes for God to “ravish” him. While it may seem like a contradiction to seek freedom through imprisonment and chastity through enthrallment, a certain amount of truth does exist in the speaker’s request. The speaker is fully aware of his own weakness and therefore understands his own limits; he knows that he will be incapable of ever being free of sin and imperfection unless the God of Goodness himself would make his heart pure by force. Therefore, Donne’s sonnet ultimately presents a paradox in the idea that, in order to be rid of evil and full of purity, the speaker desires to be broken, beaten, and imprisoned in order to be made new.