The Speaker

The speaker of the poem is a Christian believer who wants to restore his relationship with God by effectively prostrating himself at God's feet. He admits that he is a sinner and that the only way to cleanse himself of this state is for God to "batter" his "heart" (1). The speaker uses this metaphor of violence to emphasize that the road to Christian salvation is a difficult one, and that the desire to be assaulted by God is really the desire to be worthy of God's love.

God

God is the central character in the poem. The speaker refers to God as a "Three-personed God," alluding to the Holy Trinity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The speaker describes this God in both violent and tender terms, seeing God as a destructive force as well as a lover. In many ways, the speaker's complex portrayal of...