Secular And Religious Themes In John Donne's Holy Sonnet 14

John Donne is known for two very different forms of poetry: secular and religious. Although he penned poems such as The Flea, in which the speaker attempts to seduce a woman into sleeping with him, Donne also penned many religious works as well. These works include nineteen Holy Sonnets that depict the speaker’s conflicting emotions as he questions and accepts his spirituality. Within these works, particularly within Holy Sonnet 14, Donne holds true to the artistic and poetic devices that are employed throughout his literary creations. Donne is known for his elaborate metaphors, unique diction, and perpetual motion and change between ideas. Within the fourteen lines that comprise Holy Sonnet 14, Donne successfully captures the attention …show more content…
The first four lines, “Batter my heart, three-personed 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,” provide readers with the theme of the work: the speaker’s desire for God to forcefully bring him back to a place of spirituality. Within the first line, the speaker reveals that he is addressing the “three-personed God” (1). In other words he is speaking to the trinity: God the Father, God the Son (Jesus), and God the Holy Spirit. Although this could be read as merely a way of identifying the recipient of the poem, it is more likely that Donne chose to remind readers of the trinity in order to draw attention to the kind and merciful nature of God. By doing so, Donne forces readers to remember the selfless act of both God and Jesus in His dying upon the cross. However, Donne does not employ this idea to highlight God’s mercy, but to order God to change His methods in dealing …show more content…
/ Divorce me, untie or break that knot again (9-11). As the speaker continues to address God, it feels as if these three lines have a different tone than the rest of the work. Whereas the first eight lines seemed entirely confrontational and demanding, here the speaker seems to be bittersweet. It is almost reminiscent of a plea of rescue to a forbidden love, which in this case is known to be God. This idea is presented as the speaker begins by flattering the recipient (God) by stating how dearly he loves it and would gladly be loved in return. He then continues to inform his recipient that their love cannot be because he is wed to another, providing the aforementioned conflicting love. However, this comparison highlights more than just the melancholy and tragic tone of the speaker; it is also an important highlighting of the biblical relationship between God and humanity as a whole. On numerous occasions within the Bible, humanity is said to be the bride of Jesus Christ. Donne uses this idea to demonstrate how the speaker has failed to draw closer to God and convey that it is God’s role to save him. Rather than being the bride of Christ, the speaker says that he is betrothed to Satan, God’s enemy. He continues to entreat God to help him divorce Satan and “untie or break that knot again” (11).