I find it very interesting how John Donne uses marriage/sex to compare his relationship with the world and with God. God being purely spiritual cannot engage in such physical acts. Indeed it is almost sacrilege to imagine a carnal relationship with God. As religious poetry it is almost entirely opposite of Traherne’s The Preparative. While Traherne mentions the body being dead and the meditative inward eye to promote the idea of the mortification of the flesh. Donne uses extremely physical imagery such as breathe, break, burn and ravish. Traherne’s language is flowery and flowing, with many fancy words, Donne has a reputation of being a rough and violent poet. Stylistically this may explain the difference. However, I believe Donne’s poetry serves the purpose of reconciling the purely spiritual nature of God and the purely physical nature of the world whereas Traherne’s poem aspire to the spiritual nature of God. Donne uses the Earthly institution of marriage to illustrate to the worldly masses the relationship of God, sin and themselves. The reason that Donne uses betrothed instead of married is because the people will spend eternity in hell if they do not turn to God, however they still have the chance to turn away from sin. Donne then invites God to ravish him to show that God’s dominance over him is far greater than sin. While Donne is merely promised to sin, God has the power to  completely overwhelmed and dominate him.