Batter my Heart Imagery, Aural and Rhythm

"Batter my Heart" by John Donne is a plea to God by the narrator. He feels imprisoned by his own sinful nature and describes himself as taken to the "Enemy" of God, namely Satan. The sonnet conveys separate yet related concepts and emotions in three 'partitions' that are created as a result of the sonnets tightly structured form. Donne expresses spiritual transformation in passionate language, figures of speech, (visual imagery) sounds, (aural imagery) and rhythm …

…He realizes that he is pleading with an invisible and intangible deity that is too 'evolved' to communicate on our level, but believes that it is necessary and that one must 'beg' for His acceptance if needs be. Like the many self-help books of our era, this poem could be seen as John Donne's fanatics guide on conducting a proper relationship with the Lord -abandoning one's worldly freedom through absolute devotion for a greater cause.