Language and style

To better understand John Donne and the poem “Batter My Heart” you should also address the language and the style of the text, which will give you a more in-depth image of the way the poet conveys his ideas.

Playing with the language

The poet plays with language in two main ways in the poem, by creating unusual metaphors and by paradoxes which create ambiguity.

The second quatrain can be seen as an extended metaphor in which the poet and his relationship with God is presented as the invasion of a town fortress. The poet is the town, and God the invader. Interestingly, the poet wants God to act as an invader.

The end sextet is filled with ambiguity because the speaker asks God (who we prefer to imagine as a benevolent, forgiving figure) to act as a jailer and a rapist in order to make the speaker feel free and pure. Because of the paradox of these ideas, this part of the poem has often been deemed ambiguous. This is because “enthrall” (l. 13) can mean both ‘excite’ and ‘enslave’ while “ravish” (l. 14) can mean both ‘rape’ and ‘delight’. So, God may not be seen as a jailor and a rapist, but as someone who incites (excites) and delights the speaker, making him thus free.

Equally, the identity of the ‘enemie’ (l. 10) remains unknown, leaving readers to assume it might be the Devil, reason or simply temptations, while the use of ‘againe’ (l. 11) suggests the speaker has strayed away from God other times as well.

As you can see, there are many points in the poem which create playfulness through ambiguity, because many of the words the poe...