"Batter my heart, three-personed God" is a poem that's title contains no illusions. The affections of the speaker are constantly being battered back and forth, back and forth, by what the reader can only assume is God, or the three-in-one Trinity.
Just like the Trinity, the verbs that describe the Trinity's actions come in threes. "Knock, breathe, shine", "break, blow, burn", and other combinations. The more interesting factor of these verb combinations, and all the other verbs in the poem, is that they often contradict each other. On one hand we have "batter", "knock", "break", "burn", "ravish", "untie", and "imprison". On the other hand we have "breathe", "shine", "enthrall", "defend", "rise", and "admit". My conclusion from these verbs, and the last few lines of the poetry that involved love, chastity, and captivation, is that the speaker is comparing their relationship to God with a love affair through their many paradoxes.
The speaker finds it difficult to love God sometimes. God is constantly laying burdens and challenges on the speaker (the negative verbs). Life and God have broken the speaker down. Yet the speaker still yearns for God. God has captivated, and enthralled the speaker. No matter how difficult loving God can be, the speaker still indulges in the divine paradox.
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