Protesting Religion Through Prayer

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Protesting Religion through Prayer John Donne is directly speaking to God in Holy Sonnet XIV. This kind of direct communication can be classified as a type of prayer because it makes direct references to religion, religious texts, and also includes direct requests aimed towards God. Donne is basically a daring sinner pleading with God for redemption in a risky way. He doubts his existence and is therefore using clever literary devices such as paradoxes and extended metaphors to protest and criticize purity and the rules of religion as well as to showcase his complex frustration. Donne is challenging God and testing his tolerance by speaking with him and using words such brutal and unpleasant words as “batter”, “overthrow”, “bend”, “burn”, “imprison”, “enthrall”, and “ravish”. Prayer is a form of protest in Holy Sonnet XIV because Donne is telling God that he does not want his assistance in conquering the evil within him because if he attains his help, then he will forever be in debt and must abide by his strict rules and will become a prisoner. The first two lines of the poem begin Donne’s bold protest to be saved and purified. The lines state, “Batter my heart, three person’d God; for, you/As yet but knocke, breathe, shine, and seeke to mend”. Donne intends for the first sentence to include the image of God beating his heart because it references the fact that God still accepts broken souls that are also remorseful. Although this image seems to have no controversial elements, a closer interpretation says otherwise. Donne is playing with the Christian belief of broken and repentant spirits going to heaven as he has the audacity to suggest that God break his heart so he can by default be accepted and become righteous. The mere fact that Donne has the nerve t o more or less mock God and religion is a form of protest. Donne’s brashness is continued in the next
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