Not New, but Timeless

I've probably posted this before. If not, I should have. But I came across it again today, and had to post it (again). It might be my all-time favorite poem--and prayer. If you haven't read it before (I realize not everyone is an English geek like me), don't rush through it. Absorb the analogies--a city, a marriage--and the paradoxes, and really let it soak in.

“Batter My Heart, Three-Person’d God,” by John Donne

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 usurp’d town to’another due,
Labor 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 lov’d 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.