Response to “Batter My Heart”
“Batter My Heart” is a poem written by John Donne. The gist of it is that the poet tries to strengthen his relationship with God. He believes that he is weak in faith because he cannot be free of his sins. Therefore, he asks God to enable him to break his sins by breaking him down and thus he will be in a proper spiritual relation with God. This poem is full of contradictions. For example, the poet asks God to break him down in order to be “made new”. He also needs God to knock him over in order to rise him up. He also cannot be free unless he is a prisoner and “enthralled” by God. All of that is to make him new and set him free in faith against all powerful feelings of joy. In my opinion, this poem is somehow related to us as Muslims despite some lines and words. I mean that this poem could mean repentance in our Islam, that is, when we do wrong, we soon pray to God to forgive us and ask Him to enable us to get free from these sins` chains. We pray to strengthen our relation with Him, for there is no refuge and no escape except to Him.
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