Imagery

The poem “Batter My Heart” by John Donne does not use imagery extensively as it is more focused on particular elements of the speaker’s relationship with God. However, the poet still uses a number of vivid images, such as the siege of a town (ll. 5-8) and the speaker imprisoned and ravished (ll. 12-14).

Another key image is “three-person’d God” (l. 1). The idea of God being three things (persons or hypostases) in one is key to the Christian faith: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Here, Donne describes God as “three-person’d”, at once making reference to one of the greatest divine mysteries of Christianity, and perhaps hinting that his relationship with God is similarly mysterious. The term “person’d” also suggests an image of God as a physical being with a body, which is important for making Donne...