Explore the ways in which the individual's relationship with God is presented in 'Redemption' by George Herbert and 'Batter my heart' by John Donne.

While both poems support the more loving and compassionate God of the New Testament, Donne's portrayal of the individual's relationship with God retains a violence that is conspicuously absent in Herbert's poem. The strong imperative of Donne's title and opening 'Batter my heart', reinforced by its trochaic metre, dramatically conveys the forcefulness of an ardent lover and introduces Donne's conceit of one's relationship with God as a passionately sexual one. The intensity is carried through the largely monosyllabic first quatrain - rhythmically contained by interspersed caesurae and to the overall sonnet form (exemplifying the romantic theme) - breaking into a climax with the asyndetic listing of the plosive verbs 'break, blow, burn'. Its imagery of destruction contrasts with the softer yet no less emphatic imperative 'make me new'. There is desperation about the rapidly-shifting cadence of Donne's poem that imbues his commands with an unsettling persuasiveness. By contrast, Herbert's use of spondees (e.g. 'rich Lord', 'Not thriving', 'long since') slow the pace of 'Redemption' to the gentle lightness of an informal conversation. Such implications of informality are perhaps ironic when we consider Herbert's extended metaphor: the soul's seeking for salvation represented as a tenant seeking a new lease from his lord. The hierarchical conceit establishes God's superiority; some distance is implied by how the speaker has to be 'resolved to be bold' before meeting his Lord. Herbert's hierarchy metaphor would have resonated more with his contemporaries, for whom classes were distinctly stratified, social mobility unlikely, and belief in the Great Chain of being common. They would have recognised the 'tenant' allegory as an inversion of and biblical allusion to 'The Parable of the Wicked Tenants' (Luke 20:9-17). God as the 'rich lord' might then have had a more elevated symbolism than for most 21st century readers; nevertheless, the conceit remains effective since an understanding of social hierarchy is universally relatable, just as Donne's apparent sexualisation of God continues to shock readers today.