Redemption of a Battered Heart

This sonnet is among Donne’s best known works. The praying speaker invites God to “batter” his heart. This seems an odd request, but the speaker acknowledges that in order to be made “new” God must “break, blow, burn” him, a reference to MALACHI 3 : 2-3, where God is a refiner of precious metals, in control of the fire that shapes the lives of believers.