Batter my heart, three-personed God
-- Speaker (Line 1)

Importance: In the opening line of the poem, the speaker implores God, in the form of the Holy Trinity, to "batter [his] heart," establishing the poem's central metaphor of violence and redemption. That the speaker asks the divine to assault his heart specifically suggests that his request is part of his moral restitution.

That I may rise and stand, o'erthrow me, and bend / Your force to break, blow, burn, and make me new.
-- Speaker (Lines 3-4)

Importance: As the speaker continues his argument in favor of God's assault, he imagines that he is briefly able to "rise" and stand upright. However, the speaker immediately follows this thought with a request for God to "knock" him back down and destroy him. The speaker suggests that this intense destruction is purposeful and necessary, ending his series of violent verbs with the phrase, "make me new."

I, like an usurp'd town to another...
-- Speaker (Lines 5-6)