'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'oerthrow 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 captived, and proves weak or untrue,
Yet dearly I love you, and would be loved fain,
But am betrothed unto your enemy,
Divorce me, untie, or break that knot again,
Take me to you, imprison me, for I
Except you enthral me, never shall be free,
Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.'
John Donne, Poems and Devotions (Edited by Robert Van de Weyer), p.51.
