"Batter my heart, three-personede God" by: John Donne

In this poem, the speaker is praying directly to God for forgiveness for his sins and betrothal to God's enemy, the devil. When the speaker asks God to "knock, breathe, shine... break, blow, burn," he is asking for all 3 components of the Trinity in order to bring him away from the devil. Through a paradox, the speaker tells God that he wants Him to break him down in order to build him back up. The speaker wants God to break down all of his evil acts. He says "I love you... but am betrothed unto your enemy." Here, the speaker is saying that although he loves God the most, he is most close to and "betrothed" to the devil. He tells God that unless He "ravishes" him, he will never be chaste and free of sin. He wants God to take everything away so that he can follow God and go away from the devil.

"Much Madness is divinest Sense" by: Emily Dickinson

When I first read this poem, I was extremely confused (as is the case with ALL Emily Dickinson poems). Now, I realize that this poem contains multiple paradoxes. One that the speaker uses is "much madness is divinest sense." Here, the speaker is saying that in order to be sane, one must be mad. They must go against what the majority thinks and think for himself in order to be sane. This paradox functions to show the difference between what the speaker thinks and what society thinks. The speaker is telling the reader that in order to be sane, they need to go against the norm and think for himself. I agree with the speaker because if a person always follows society and the majority, they will never be able to think for himself.

Entry #3

Paradox, page 23- "He loved her but he hated her."

While this statement may seem contradictory, it does reveal a truth. When i first read this, I was thinking that it is impossible to love and hate a person at the same time, but then I started to ponder about it. Sometimes, a person does things that make you so angry with them and you swear that you will never talk to them again and yet you still go back. People on the outside will have their own opinions and they will think you are wrong, but for some reason, you hate this person for what they do but love them for who they are.

I believe that this is how Jimmy Cross feels about Martha. He loves the image he has of her and the way she makes him feel, but hates her for distracting him away from his work and causing him pain. This paradox is effective because every reader can relate to what he is feeling with this one statement. They know that while he is in love, he also feels a deep hate for her. In a way, it seems that he loves to hate her and hates to love her. His emotions are confused and instead of trying to work them out, he turns away from his fantasies and becomes a soldier again.