sigune | All right, a poem...

I saw

junediamanti's poem, which apparently means I have to post one myself... Fine! Here goes:

Holy Sonnet XIV

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'erthrow me, and bend
Your force to break, blow, burn, and make me new.
I, like a usurped town, to another due,
Labor to admit you, but O, 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 enthrall me, never shall be free,
Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.

-John Donne

This is one of my absolutely favourite poems, and somehow I found myself thinking of it last week. It is a religious poem, but written with uncommon passion - it burns like fire, and I adore whispering it or better, reading it aloud when I'm alone in my room :-). In English literature class we were told how Donne took the cloth but found it impossible to renounce his passion for women. It touched me that Sonnet XIV speaks precisely the language of sex in its attempts to escape from it.
This is probably very cheap literary exegesis, but I can never be very rational and clear-headed about things I adore. This sonnet - ah, powerful stuff. It is to be savoured and experienced. I don't care much about the rest.

You who stumble across this, get thee hence and post a poem!