by John Donne
(1572 - 1631)
Batter my heart, three person'd God; for you
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 loved faine,
But I am betroth'd unto your enemie:
Divorce mee, untie, or break that knot againe;
Take mee to you, imprison mee, for I
Except you enthrall me, never shall be free,
Nor ever chaste, except you ravish mee.
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 loved faine,
But I am betroth'd unto your enemie:
Divorce mee, untie, or break that knot againe;
Take mee to you, imprison mee, for I
Except you enthrall me, never shall be free,
Nor ever chaste, except you ravish mee.
This is Donne's poetic explication of the Christian confession "we are in bondage to sin and cannot free ourselves." It was also the inspiration for naming the Trinity Test Site where the world's first atomic bomb was exploded. When clergy abuse their parishoners, this is the sensibility that gets damaged.
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