SpokenVerse | Batter My Heart by John Donne (read by Tom O'Bedlam) @SpokenVerse | Uploaded April 2012 | Updated October 2024, 3 hours ago.
"Three-personed God" refers to the Holy Trinity: God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost. Reginald Huber might have been thinking of this sonnet in 1826 when he wrote the hymn
"Holy, holy, holy, merciful and mighty!
God in three Persons, blessed Trinity!"
The Holy Ghost is often depicted as a white dove.
It has been suggested that The Holy Trinity might be considered by Muslims to be "a dishonest compromise between polytheism and monotheism"
I thought it was Aldous Huxley who said that but it was Abinger Harvest in about 1936 - I had to look it up - how did we manage before Google?
aaoldbooks.com/en-uk-us/Abinger_Harvest/page_010.asp
Words have changed meaning somewhat in four hundred years:
fain means willingly or eagerly.
usurped means taken over or occupied by force.
a viceroy is a representative.
a thrall is a slave, so to enthrall is to enslave.
to ravish means to carry off by force or enrapture. In modern usage it's a milder word for rape, used to mean seduction e.g. "you looking ravishing".
(Q. What's the difference between rape and seduction? A. Salesmanship...er don't take this too literally)
The Fresco is Holy Trinity by Luca Rossetti da Orta, about 1738 in St. Gaudenzio Church at Ivrea, Torino.
The Adoration of the Trinity by Albrecht Durer, (1471-1528)
Batter my heart, three person'd God; for you
As yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend;
That I may rise, and stand, o'erthrow me, and bend
Your force, to break, blow, burn and make me new.
I, like an usurped town, to another due,
Labour to admit you, but Oh, to no end,
Reason your viceroy in me, me should defend,
But is captiv'd, and proves weak or untrue.
Yet dearly I love you, and would be loved fain,
But am betroth'd unto your enemy:
Divorce me, untie, or break that knot again;
Take me to you, imprison me, for I
Except you enthrall me, never shall be free,
Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.
"Three-personed God" refers to the Holy Trinity: God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost. Reginald Huber might have been thinking of this sonnet in 1826 when he wrote the hymn
"Holy, holy, holy, merciful and mighty!
God in three Persons, blessed Trinity!"
The Holy Ghost is often depicted as a white dove.
It has been suggested that The Holy Trinity might be considered by Muslims to be "a dishonest compromise between polytheism and monotheism"
I thought it was Aldous Huxley who said that but it was Abinger Harvest in about 1936 - I had to look it up - how did we manage before Google?
aaoldbooks.com/en-uk-us/Abinger_Harvest/page_010.asp
Words have changed meaning somewhat in four hundred years:
fain means willingly or eagerly.
usurped means taken over or occupied by force.
a viceroy is a representative.
a thrall is a slave, so to enthrall is to enslave.
to ravish means to carry off by force or enrapture. In modern usage it's a milder word for rape, used to mean seduction e.g. "you looking ravishing".
(Q. What's the difference between rape and seduction? A. Salesmanship...er don't take this too literally)
The Fresco is Holy Trinity by Luca Rossetti da Orta, about 1738 in St. Gaudenzio Church at Ivrea, Torino.
The Adoration of the Trinity by Albrecht Durer, (1471-1528)
Batter my heart, three person'd God; for you
As yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend;
That I may rise, and stand, o'erthrow me, and bend
Your force, to break, blow, burn and make me new.
I, like an usurped town, to another due,
Labour to admit you, but Oh, to no end,
Reason your viceroy in me, me should defend,
But is captiv'd, and proves weak or untrue.
Yet dearly I love you, and would be loved fain,
But am betroth'd unto your enemy:
Divorce me, untie, or break that knot again;
Take me to you, imprison me, for I
Except you enthrall me, never shall be free,
Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.
