For you, Oh God, tested us; you refined us like silver.
Psalm 66:10
Batter my heart, three-personed 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, burn and make
me new.
-John Donne (1572-1631)
1 comment:
Very cool poem, thanks for posting. I find Donne interesting because he is such a split personality - going by Jack early on and then John. He alternated between the coarse and the divine (as this poem indicates). He must have recognized this in himself-- his last poem says as much. Look it up if you haven't read it. It'll blow your mind. It's called "Hymn to God, My God, In My Sickness". At one point it reads,
"We think that Paradise and Calvary,
Christ's cross and Adam's tree, stood in one place ;
Look, Lord, and find both Adams met in me ;
As the first Adam's sweat surrounds my face,
May the last Adam's blood my soul embrace."
What a powerful phrase to describe us all: "find both Adams met in me". Thanks for the reminder about John/Jack. I'll have to read more of his work.
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