Batter my heart...

I really didn't like this poem at all until we talked about it in class, honestly. Speaking of such, I'm glad we finally have a poem that's actually about God because I feel like our class attempts to relate things to God during discussions which are completely unrelated to God...just sayin'. Anyway, the paradox in the poem is that the speaker wants God to take away his freedom so that he can be free from sin. By forcing the speaker to stay close to Him, God would keep the speaker from Satan's grasp. The word "ravish" sort of killed the whole poem for me, though. That word makes me think of Candide and how Cunegonde (what an ugly name) was "ravished" by the Bulgarian soldiers. Contrasting "ravish" and "chaste" didn't help either as far as the comparison goes. Other than that, I like the poem a lot, and I especially like the words used in the first quatrain to represent God, the Spirit and Jesus. It made sense as soon as I saw the words on the board, and I think it gave me some insight on how better to interpret poetry in general.