The Use of Metaphor, Simile and Imagery in John Donne's "Batter My Heart"

In most world religions, deities, though almighty, are belittled and given human qualities as a way for human understanding. Unlike the typical attributing of human emotions and responses to a divine being, John Donne's Batter My Heart, takes the anthropomorphosis further by conveying God as three distinct figures: an inventor, a ruler, and a lover. However, though Donne's use of figures, such as metaphor and simile, humanize God, his use of violent imagery recovers the reverence of God's powerful divinity.

The poem opens abruptly as the speaker demands the "three personed God" (1), or the Christian Trinity, to "Batter [his] heart" (1) in order to "make [him] new" (4). The speaker's imploring plea for God to "o'erthrow" (3) and "break" (4) him, materializes the speaker, presenting a metaphor that compares him to an inanimate, factory product...