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John Dunne And George Herbert

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Throughout the history of metaphysical poetry, poems that were characterized by their speculation about topics such as love or religion, John Dunne and George Herbert have been known to be two of the most prominent. Despite having different styles, there are certain aspects of their poetry, which is very similar. Both reflect their emotions into the meter, rhyme scheme and rhythm of their poems, thus creating a more established meaning of their work. Good examples of this are Dunne’s Batter My Heart and Herbert’s The Collar, as both have very similar meanings. The narrators in both poems are struggling with their faith to God, but even though their individual conflicts are different, they finish by submitting to God in a certain way, Herbert’s more than Donne’s. At the start of Donne’s Batter My Heart, the persona declares his need and desire to be made new by God, ‘bend your force to break, blow, burn and make me new’, despite knowing he must be completely destroyed to be made new, shown by the tri-colon of aggressive verbs. Donne’s passion to his subject is shown in the next metaphor as he describes his barbaric sin as if he were a ‘usurped town, to another due’ and ‘betrothed unto your enemy’, both of these also show reference to Satan, Gods enemy. The narrator accepts his craving for God’s redemption so he asks him to ‘divorce me, untie or break that know again’, the use of another tri-colon, except this time of marriage references, places emphasis on his closeness
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