The Flea and Batter My Heart, Three-Personed God were written by which poet?

The Flea and Batter My Heart, Three-Personed God were written by which poet?

• A. George Herbert
• B. John Donne
• C. Joseph Conrad
• D. James Joyce

Answer: (B)

John Donne, a central figure among the Metaphysical poets, authored both The Flea and Batter My Heart, Three-Person’d God. The Flea relies on a witty, extended conceit—the idea that a tiny bite from a flea can symbolize a union of bodies and souls—to argue for intimacy in a clever, argumentative voice that Donne is known for. Batter My Heart, Three-Person’d God is one of his Holy Sonnets, a fervent prayer that treats God with direct apostrophe and bold paradox, asking to be reshaped and renewed by divine power. George Herbert also wrote devotional verse, but these two particular poems are not his. Joseph Conrad and James Joyce are novelists, not poets, so they did not write these poems either.

John Donne, a central figure among the Metaphysical poets, authored both The Flea and Batter My Heart, Three-Person’d God. The Flea relies on a witty, extended conceit—the idea that a tiny bite from a flea can symbolize a union of bodies and souls—to argue for intimacy in a clever, argumentative voice that Donne is known for. Batter My Heart, Three-Person’d God is one of his Holy Sonnets, a fervent prayer that treats God with direct apostrophe and bold paradox, asking to be reshaped and renewed by divine power.

George Herbert also wrote devotional verse, but these two particular poems are not his. Joseph Conrad and James Joyce are novelists, not poets, so they did not write these poems either.