“Holy Sonnet XIV†by John Donne reflects some of the same language in the Book of Jeremiah
Holy Sonnet XIV
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,
Labour to admit you, but O, to no end;
Reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend,
But is captiv’d, and proves weak or untrue.
Yet dearly I lov e you, and would be loved 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.
As I read Donne I think about ho w my God never agrees with my “flesh.†He never puts my discomfort before His purposes! Donne no doubt felt the same hand of God that I have, and Isaiah (“Woe is me a man of unclean lips!†Isaiah 6.) (J. P. Stobaugh, BRITISH LITERATURE (Nashville, TN: B&H Publishers, 2005)