The Ultimate Spiritual Plateau
The Ultimate Spiritual Plateau: An Analysis of John Donne's Holy Sonnet 10 In John Donne's "Holy Sonnet 10," the speaker finds himself in an intense struggle to obtain the ultimate relationship, which is to have God in his life. He feels distant from God because of his sins and finds it difficult to accept being saved as a sinner and being free from sin. The speaker wants God to enter his life, but feels unworthy due to his sinful past. The moral and religious qualms of the speaker are manifest during the sonnet, which seem like an avowal between lovers. These convictions of guilt, which stem from his sexual emotions, are what induce a desire for a relationship with God. Donne conveys the struggle between the base reality in which we are firmly planted, and our need to raise above our earthly confines, with the help of God, towards salvation. The first quatrain shows the speaker's aversion towards his mortal body and soul. Like a veteran crusader's armor, the speaker's heart is badly in need of repair, "Batter my heart...for You / As yet but knock, breath, shine, and seek to mend..." (1-2) The language, though not quite onomatopoeic, reflects the process of repair and maintenance. Craftsmen manipulate materials to change
It sanctifies "chastity" rather than annihilating it. " (13-14) Donne's choice of words is imperative in ascertaining the sexuality of the poem. The physical properties of these primary materials remain unaltered. In the John Donne's "Holy Sonnet 10" the speaker is a man who desperately needs the ultimate relationship with God in his life. The speaker seems so keenly aware of his sins and wrongdoings, that it is imperative that God saves him from his sinful ways in an intense and brutal manner. Since he is "betrothed unto [God's] enemy", (10) he needs for God to break his tie to Satan, and to "imprison" (12) him so that he will be less susceptible to the Devil's temptation. "Except You enthrall me, never shall be free,/ Nor ever chaste, except You ravish me. Despite his unsavory human qualities, the speaker has a profound love of God, "Yet dearly I love you, and would be loved fain. " (9) However, since the speaker is inherently flawed, he feels betrothed to Satan. The speaker asks God to purify him, to help him escape Satan's grasp, but at the same time he wants to be spiritually raped. However, repair isn't what the speaker wants because his mortal defects are too great. The speaker begs God to break the divine wedding knot, a simile for human weakness. For the craftsman, to 2"knock, breath, shine, and. " (14) The speaker can not claim he will never be virginal, unless he has been raped since it is contradictory in ever regard.
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Acceptance Essays
