| John Donne (1572–1631). The Poems of John Donne. 1896. | | | Divine Poems
Holy Sonnets | | XIV. “Batter my heart, three-person’d God” |
| | | BATTER my heart, three-person’d God; for you | |
| As yet but knock; breathe, shine, and seek to mend; | |
| That I may rise, and stand, o’erthrow me, and bend | |
| Your force, to break, blow, burn, and make me new. | |
| I, like an usurp’d town, to another due, | 5 |
| Labour to admit you, but O, to no end. | |
| Reason, your viceroy in me, me should 1 defend, | |
| But is captived, and proves weak or untrue. | |
| Yet dearly I love you, and would be loved fain, | |
| But am betroth’d unto your enemy; | 10 |
| Divorce me, untie, or break that knot again, | |
| Take me to you, imprison me, for I, | |
| Except you enthrall me, never shall be free, | |
| Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me. | |
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