Batter My Heart By John Donne

The book Black Hearts is written by Jim Frederick and tells the story of all the controversial accounts one infantry unit ran into while on deployment in Baghdad, Iraq. The book is a documentation, captured accounts and events written down to tell the crazy story these soldiers went through. The specific unit Frederick writes about and what Black Hearts is about is 2nd brigade of the 101st airborne infantry division. “Black Hearts” was the unofficial insignia of 2nd brigade. Frederick covers one platoon in particularly and their ethical dilemmas they encounter while on deployment. 1st platoon, Bravo Company, 1-502nd Regiment is the unit the book covers. Many things on deployment unfold poorly for this platoon such as having little

Donne’s poem warns that the woman that the man seeks is not necessarily worth catching. That idea is seen in lines

Sara Josephine Baker was the first woman to serve as a top administrator at the New York Board of Health. Though Baker’s memoir, Fighting for Life, people will be able to approach the process of how Baker became a pioneer of public health in New York city from an unknown inspector through historical descriptions of New

In “Valediction Forbidding Mourning,” the third stanza (lines 9-12) compares the married lovers separation to an earthquake. The idea brings panic and fear to mind and is thought to be catastrophic. Donne then says “Though greater far, is innocent.” (line 12), meaning that while the thought seemed so devastating, in reality it is just an innocent small rumble, or “bump in the road,” that doesn’t have damaging lasting effects. In “Because I Could Not Stop for Death,” the sunset is an important metaphor.

The beauty of John Donne’s holy sonnet 14 is in its language. John Donne is an interesting character who uses metaphors anyhow he pleases and finds a way to make it work. The beginning of the poem depicts a man hopeless without God’s help, a man trying to change his ways but finds no success and asks God to change in a way I find quite terrifying. The use of violent and erotic language (i.e Batter, Force, Labor, Captive; and erotic words: i.e ravish, love, knot etc) set the tone of the sonnet, and it remains constant all through. Before diving into the content of the poem, we look at the form of the poem. This poem has a Petrarchan form, and an Elizabethan structure. I know this because it has 14 lines, the rhymes, and the ending couplet. The poem rhymes like: ABBAABBA – CDCDEE. Also we look at the iambic pentameter. The beginning of the poem looked like it would be in iambic pentameter: Batter my heart, We can see here the poem starts with “Batter” which has a stressed syllable, followed by “My” which is unstressed, and “Heart” which is stressed, but then, that’s followed by “three-personed God” which breaks the iambic pentameter. The same can be seen on Line two. I think the essence of starting a poem this way was to start with an aggressive tone in order to prepare the reader for the story ahead.

Donne’s poem is written in the traditional 14-line format of a sonnet, “which was the vogue… in England at the end of the sixteenth century” according to authors Kennedy and Gioia in Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry , Drama and Writing ( 574). Donne lived from 1572-1631 (Kennedy 744). “The sonnet owes much of its prestige to Petrarch,” (Kennedy 574) an Italian poet. “English poets …(eventually) worked out their own rhyme scheme,” (Kennedy 574) which would explain why this isn’t a true Patrarchan sonnet. Donne’s penned work naturally breaks his thoughts and the poem into three quatrains and a couplet. His thoughts come to a conclusion after lines 4, 8 and 14 with the use of periods, as well as a question mark for line 12, noting the end-stops. The rhyme scheme in American English is abba, abba, cddc ae, but if spoken with an English accent, the final couplet could reasonably be interpreted as aa, which would appear to be more likely.

Contemporary literary theory has thoroughly debunked the traditional view of the artist as a divinely inspired, completely original and creative individual. This view has been replaced with the more apt view of the author as a product of his or her environment and the existing discourses of the society in which he or she lives. In this new attitude toward the writer as a product of society, the author is considered, according to Dr. James E. Porter, as somewhat of a quiltmaker who takes various traces of the existing cultural intertext (the collected writing and debate of a society) and combines them in new ways to create new discourse (34). Differences in these new discourses of various

This expression of doubt and the lack of emotion mitigated by Donne in his poetry can be seen as John Carey’s view on this topic. The different developments which their poetic works underwent throughout both poets career is also another point which must be considered.

As yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend;” (lines 1-2) the speaker begins to ask God to “batter” into to his hear, so he can be forgiven from sin. He uses the word batter because he wants something more intense, because he doesn’t feel anything from just Gods, “knock, breath, or shine”. Having these three verbs in the poem, can correlate to two things throughout this poem. It can correlate to the Holy Trinity, Father, son , and holy spirit or it can foreshadow for later in the poem towards line 4, when it describes God as a craftsman, a glass blower.

Donne only uses four sentences for each little section of the poem, each of the little sections starts out talking about something different. For example the first little section talks about how the woman should live with him and be his love and what pleasure he will receive when he catches the woman. Donne illustrates that by using the metaphor that he is the fish and she is the bait he is trying to catch. The second section Donne says “warmed by thine eyes more than the sun” saying the beauty of the woman is that of the sun. The third section talks about “Channels” and that the men swim threw the channels and will take any path to win the

By making many references to the Bible, John Donne's Holy Sonnets reveal his want to be accepted and forgiven by God. A fear of death without God's forgiveness of sins is conveyed in these sonnets. Donne expresses extreme anxiety and fright that Satan has taken over his soul and God won't forgive him for it or his sins. A central theme of healing and forgiveness imply that John Donne, however much he wrote about God and being holy, wasn't such a holy man all of the time and tried to make up for it in his writing.

Near the end of the poem, Donne makes an unlikely comparison between the couple and a draftsman's compass. This is one of his most famous metaphysical conceits because the two elements which are being compared appear completely different, and yet, amazingly, Donne is able to connect them. He explains that his wife is his "fixed foot" that leans towards him as he roams and straightens again as he returns, but remains his center. Her firmness is what makes his circle complete, "[a]nd makes [him] end where [he] begun"(line 36). The imagery of the circle and the spheres in this poem solidify the eternity of their love and the knowledge that the speaker will always return to the place where he began. Donne's comparisons create an image of celebration rather than mourning.

John Donne was an exceptional English poet of the early seventeen hundreds. He seemed to be a man of mostly sonnets and erotic literature. Most of his work is made up of poetry filled with religion, love and of course sexual activity. Donne was very different compared to his contemporaries and colleagues. He was known for a lot of dynamic language that was bold and vibrant, and was extremely creative with his metaphors. Donne’s poetry typically encompassed an abrupt opening followed by one contradiction and paradox after another. He strived to break the mold of what the English society thought about sonnets. It seems that way because many of his poems do not follow the typical structure. One poem in particular that seems to represent Donne exceptionally well is Holy Sonnet 14.

The central theme, introduced quite early within the poem, is the helplessness of death. Throughout the poem the speaker belittles death and approaches it with such bravery and poise. Donne confronts death by saying it is not in any regard “mighty and dreadful” (2), but rather brings “much pleasure” (7). Death is personified in the poem, and in this regard, possess no greater power over man. The speaker of the poem is Donne himself. He uses his literary tools of rhetoric and poetic devices to belittle death. Throughout the poem, the speaker comes across as being slightly arrogant, but he refuses to show weakness. His arrogance shows that he is not afraid of death as he demands death not to be proud. Donne takes the association of death and sleep, and reinvents this comparison to a greater effect. He describes sleep as being “pictures” (5) of death and death is no more different or more frightening. He extends this metaphor throughout the poem. In the second last line of the poem he

I shall now talk about how religion relates to Donne’s poetry. His life passed during a major change of religion in England the king wanted all control of the church so he could divorce his wife, he declared himself head of the Church of England. My first poem that relates to religion is ‘The Flea’ in this poem Donne is trying to convince a woman to sleep with him by using religion to sanctify him sleeping with her for example when he says ‘Where we almost, nay more, than married are…our marriage bed, and marriage temple is[2]’, he makes the bed seem holy and that g-d wants them to sleep together this may of reassured her as it connects g-d and the church together to make everything alright and holy . This poem proves that Donne is a very