This is my favorite. Probably because I had heard it before (as many probably have):
Holy Sonnet #14
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.
I, like an usurped town, to another due,
Labor to admit you, but oh, to no end,
Reason your viceroy in me, me should defend,
But is captived, and proves weak or untrue.
Yet dearly I love you, and would be loved fain,
But am betrothed unto your enemy:
Divorce me, untie, or break that knot again,
Take me to you, imprison me, for I
Except you enthrall me, never shall be free,
Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.
Thanks John!
Didn't know this quote came from him:
No man is an Island, entire of itself;
every man is a piece of the Continent,
a part of the main.
Meditation XVII
every man is a piece of the Continent,
a part of the main.
Meditation XVII
Here is a John Donne website that is packed: http://www.luminarium.org/sevenlit/donne/
(Many of his poems are in audio form under "works.")
2 comments:
We just studied this poem in Timothy's Smarr Lit program this afternoon. We were looking at consonance and cacophony, especially the sound "b" which is considered to be the most cacophonous sound in our language and often connotes violence -- look at all the b's in this poem, and how many of them are violent verbs! :)
Wow! Thanks for pointing that out to me. I have always loved this poems. I never connected that is was John Donne. I had to go back in time to Medieval Poetry because Allen Ginsberg left such a bad image in my mind!
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