o'erthrow me, and bend Your force to break, blow, burn, and make me new." (3-4) Here, Donne's language echoes his knowledge of alchemy: the science of changing lead into gold. To "break, blow, [and] burn" would transform existing materials into completely new ones. The speaker seeks not mere metamorphosis, but a violent rebirth. Furthermore, the alliteration and assonance of the words "batter... breath... bend... break, blow, [and] burn" paint the sound of a deeply seated object being struck by a blunt instrument, or a priest striking his breast in furious prayer.
             In the second quatrain, a complication arises when the speaker says he is "to another due." (5) There is another character in the poem that has seized him by force, "like an usurped town.&quo
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