Batter my heart, three-person'd God

In the first four lines of the poem, the speaker voices his need of being violated and forcefully remade by God, in order to get the promised salvation; his soul cannot be repaired, and it must be destroyed completely. This process of conversion is often associated with the Calvinist doctrine of Total Depravity; in the words of the Cambridge theologian William Perkins: "he that will beleeve in Christ must be annihilated, that is he must be bruised and battered to a flat nothing..."[14] The act of suffering to gain life after death is typical for Calvinists, especially Puritans.[15][16] This religious group was known for their extreme doctrines regarding subjecting oneself to God, one of them being a process called "humiliation" which included a masochistic and self destructive belief that "[t]he will had to be crushed before it would be, or while it was being, taken over by God."[17] In the first quatrain, there is an aura of expectation present, disclosed by phrases "as yet" and "That I may rise," that adds to the progression and longed for continuity of "past, present and future actions."[18] Bellette notices that "[t]here is also a similar logical order in the placing of parallel [subordinating] elements within the strong government of 'for' and 'that.'" [18]

In the next four lines, the speaker compares himself to a seized ("usurp'd") town that fails to let God in, and tries to communicate "that he himself is trying to admit God back (…) but 'to no end' (i.e., he is not able to accomplish the task)."[19] The desperate tone is strengthened by the sad "O". The faculty of Reason, personified as God's "viceroy" that rules inside the speaker-town, is a gift from God that was supposed to protect the speaker from Satan and temptation[19] but fails to do so, as it is described to "prove weak or untrue." The wording of the poem suggests that Reason is less powerful than sin, which is why the latter imprisoned Reason and claimed it was traitorous.[19] Ray takes into consideration Donne's other Christian works and comes to the conclusion that "the role of faith is quite essential to ward off sin" because "reason alone cannot do it."[19] He highlights the theme of the necessity of God's intervention in a man's life and God's importance in saving people's souls by saying that "God's grace and power are essential."[19]

Bellette contrasts his analysis of the first quatrain with noting the breakdown of the previously described logical order in this quatrain, saying that "the sense of no purpose" is evident in the disproving phrase "but O, to no end."[18] He argues that the monotone “but” is the most prominent element here and forms "the tone of the second half of the poem, in which forward progression is repeatedly checked by the 'yet,' 'but,' 'except' sequence which seems to make every thought double back on itself," and to surround closely the speaker – as well as the reader – with a constantly tightening barrier.[18]

In lines 9 and 10, the speaker expresses how much he loves God and wants to be loved back but is "wedded" to the enemy; here, Satan. Ray acknowledges that there is a shift in the "emphasis to another conceit or motif" and that the speaker starts seeing and addressing God in a more intimate tone, expressing the "wish to be reconquered by Him in terms of love, sexuality, and marriage," and positioning himself in the passive, feminine mode.[19] The belief that the soul is feminine was common in Christian culture, as pointed out by Ray.[19] In his article, he sees this metaphor at work in Holy Sonnet XIV, and he describes this "feminine soul" in the sonnet as "feel[ing] that she has been forced into a marriage with the conqueror and usurper Satan (i.e., sin)," further observing that the speaker himself states in the poem that he is "betroth'd unto your enemy."[19] The absence of any expression of submissiveness or prayer is noticeable, which goes against what is often expected in more traditional poems of devotion dealing with this subject.[20] From the line "Yet dearly I love you, and would be lov'd fain" up until "Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me," the usual attempt of carrying a sonnet to its resolution by a sequential argument collapses, which is a result of "syntactic units becom[ing] smaller and increasingly antithetical, ending in the hopeless oppositions of 'except' and 'never'" in the final lines.[20] Bellette, who describes this process of argumentative dissolution, notices that it resembles what is happening in another Holy Sonnet, "As due by many titles I resign."[20]

In the last four lines, the speaker wants God to divorce him from Satan ("untie, or break that knot"), and take him prisoner. Just as in the first four lines of the poem, an instance of the Calvinist conversion theme can be observed here. This motif has been noted by Stachniewski, who observed that the "Calvinist conversion involved God's simultaneous and irresistible seizure of all the faculties."[17] Accordingly, the speaker’s situation can only be resolved by the divine rape.

The speaker uses two paradoxical descriptions to characterize his relationship with God: being enthralled but still free, and being ravished but still chaste. It has been argued that both statements are applicable to both the military and the amorous interpretation.[5] Ribes, who makes this argument, suggests that in the military interpretation, the only solution for a town to be free is to enthrall it, which in this case would mean physically bringing it into bondage. Following this example, the amorous interpretation further supports the idea of the speaker using the point of view of a woman, who can be free only if God enthralls her, which would here mean enslaving her emotionally.

Ribes then states that "[t]he woman can only be chaste if God ravishes her."[21] The double meaning of the verb "to ravish" provides grounds for a twofold interpretation. The earthly and more common meaning of the verb would be "to rape"(OED) or "to carry away by force,"[22] and it can be instantly connected to the amorous interpretation, where the relationship between the speaker and God is very physical and sexual. The second meaning, more spiritual and theological, would be "to fill with ecstasy or delight"(OED). According to Stachniewski, the conclusion is that the second meaning of "to ravish" can describe the soul's spiritual seduction, which again establishes the importance of the role of God in salvaging souls.[23]

Like in other Sonnets (such as "Wilt thou love God as he thee" or "As due by many titles I resign"), paradoxes and the use of linguistic contradictions suggest that God and his ways are not simple or easy to explain.[23]