The Bard of Heaven//An Analysis of Poems by George Herbert

DISCLAIMER!

What you are about to read is an essay I've previously written for a course in university. Please do not plagierise this work and ask me for permission if you wish to use any information from it.

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Poetry and religion are important factors of cultural life which are bounded together in a relationship more important than we could ever imagine . For centuries, great poets have written works that express their devotion and serve as messengers for God and Heaven. Among these poets is George Herbert one of the most significant religious poets of his time. Mostly known for his collection titled "The Temple: Sacred Poems and Private Ejaculations" which was published posthumously after his death in 1633, is made up of 160 poems which are intentionally arranged to portray the concept that the believers of Christ’s body is a “temple of the Holy Ghost” . These poems are designed to link the believer’s “temple” with the Church of England, where he was a priest. The Temple is split into sections, one of these being The Church which is meant to serve as a sort of spiritual autobiography of the Christian view that the speakers within these poems place themselves in a meaningful pattern meant to serve and honour God . By analysing some of the poems from The Temple, it will become clear how Herbert views his relationship with God and his loyal faith.

The Altar is the first poem in The Church. This poem is intentionally laid out to look like an altar, a table in Christian churches in which bread and wine are given as a sacrifice during services. The Altar, like some of his other poems including Easter Wings act as a unity of sight and word and call to attention to the objects they are meant to imitate, to become the very things they represent . It is suggested that the placement of these poems indicate that they are intended to be given as sacrifices to God and Heaven.

The first two lines of the poem are written in an iambic pentameter which appears again in lines 15 and 16, which can be used to add emphasis. Throughout the poem appears these words in all caps: “ALTAR”, “HEART”, “SACRFICIE” and “ALTAR”. The words serve as the main themes presented. Herbert directly addresses God to inform him that he is raising an altar made of his heart which is held together with his tears. He describes the altar as being broken, suggesting that although the speaker is imperfect, although the altar is broken, he still asks for God’s blessing.

The lines begin to get smaller at line three and four, creating the shape of the altar. These lines make references to Biblical verses; Exodus 20.25; “And if thou wilt make me an altar of stone.” and Deuteronomy 27.5-8; “Build there an altar to the LORD your God, an altar of stones. Do not use any iron tool on them.” In these verses, God commands that the altars must be made of stone and no iron tools are allowed to be used. Not only is Herbert’s altar made of stone, but as he states in line four; “No workman’s tool hath touched the same.” Indicating that Herbert has used only what God has given him and done what God has commanded of him. This line could also be interpreted as meaning that no workman’s tool can change the heart that God has carved for us, in essence, Herbert’s heart is exactly how God intended it to be.

In line 14, Herbert is telling us that he wants the words of The Altar to praise God, whether be in life or death . Herbert is directly addressing God in the final two lines of the poem, where he is calling for God’s blessing for his sacrifice: his heart and the poem.

The poem’s metaphor of building the altar out of the Herbert’s heart is used to call the readers as well to give their hearts as a sacrifice to God, to make altars out of their own hearts. Herbert also reflects on how God does not want a perfect sacrifice, what he wants is spontaneous love.

The Flower represents George Herbert’s relationship with God and how nature’s changing of the seasons is constantly impacting his life and emotions. The goal of the poem is to compare both himself and God to the seasons and flowers. Herbert compares spring, a time where life returns to nature and everything is renewed to God’s pleasure, while winter which is lifeless, and barren relates to God’s anger and displeasure towards humanity.

The opening of the poem shows the speaker directly addressing God and celebrating the return of spring. The speaker expresses his pleasure of the rotation of seasons from winter to spring, something he credits as being God’s doing. The first stanza conveys how the speaker’s emotions changes with the seasons. As the world moves on from winter, his “grief melts away” like the snow. The snow melts away “as if there were no such cold thing”, as if the speaker’s grief and God’s anger was never there to begin with.

The speaker compares his heart with a flower that shrivels in the winter and blooms again in the spring in the second stanza. He celebrates that his shrivelled heart has recovered and bloomed again, he also expresses his surprise as if he didn’t believe that it could happen. Imagery appears in line 11 which allows the reader to imagine the speaker’s heart as a flower which has gone underground to the mother-root.

In stanza three, the speaker, although struggling in the wintertime, acknowledges the power that God has and the wonders he creates upon the Earth. Consonance is used in the second line to add more rhythm and a rhyming effect to the poem. Lines 19 to 21 explain that God’s word is above all else and it is God who sees all.

Stanzas four and five expresses the speaker’s longing to get into Heaven. The speaker states that when he reaches Paradise, he will not have to worry about withering flowers or the changing of seasons, because in Paradise, spring is endless, and the flowers never wither. He looks forward to this time and every spring he makes effort to do the best he can for God so that one day he can enter Heaven:

“Oh that I once past changing were,

Fast in thy Paradise, where no flower can wither!

Many a spring I shoot up fair,”

A simile is used in the second line of stanza five, where Heaven is compared to a personal treasure, something so special to the speaker. The speaker goes on to explain that his path to Heaven is only a temporary one, one that only last during the spring and shrivels again when winter comes. He believes that it is God’s change in attitude on humanity which brings on winter around the world.

The final stanzas discuss the speaker’s growing age and God’s purpose in the changing of seasons. The speaker is no longer a young man, he has aged and witnessed countless deaths in which he has both lived through and written about, this causes him to believe that it is time for him to “relish versing”, return to writing once again. Since the change in nature, he is no longer the person he was in winter. In fact, he is so overwhelmed by the change he’s experienced that he does not the person he once was during the cold season.

The poem closes with the speaker claiming that there is a purpose in the changing of seasons and that we have to spend our lives trying to prove to God that our place is in Heaven.

Presented in the form of a sonnet, Sin (I) which stems from the biblical story of the original sin in the Garden of Eden, observes how in everyday life people are tempted by sin and the only way to protect ourselves from it is through confession, repentance and caution.

The sonnet begins with the speaker explaining how humanity is protected is well protected against sin which is credited to the Lord. The speaker also shows how adults such as teachers and parents on their knowledge of God and aim to guide children towards the word of God and the Bible. They then go on to discuss how there are “millions of surprises” and countless ways to protect oneself against temptation and sin which can be done through religious observance and having an awareness of sin and its consequences.

Herbert demonstrates in the last lines that although people may have been vigilant when it comes to religious guidance and observance, we are all sinful at heart and are always at risk of giving in to temptation and sin.

The final poem in The Temple, Love (III) tells the story of a speaker’s encounter with the divine and personified Love, created as a metaphor and a form of God. Although Love keeps insisting that the speaker s for dinner, who refuses and claims that they are unworthy of being in Love’s presence. Love III depicts the love expressed between God and man as an intimate communion as well as the soul’s acceptance into heaven .

Stanza one of the poem shows Love calling to the speaker, wanting to interact with them and invite them to supper. The speaker wants to refuse Love’s invitation, as they feel guilty and ashamed of their past sins. This sets a nervous and guilty tone in the stanza. The poem uses an ABABCC rhyming scheme to bring together the longer pentameter and shorter trimeter lines which was done to mirror God’s sufficient and longer love and humanity’s smaller, more restricted love. A dialogue structure is used throughout the poem which creates an evocative and powerful narrative.

The speaker in the second stanza debates with Love, as they are claiming their unworthiness of being in Love’s presence, Love replies and reassures them that they are indeed worthy. Although the speaker shies away and seems to be resistant of Love, who makes physical holds the speaker’s hands. There is a contrast between Love’s smile and the speaker’s eyes which are unable to look at Love, who reminds them that God created those eyes and has no intention on rejecting his own creation. The tone shifts to become gentler as the speaker slowly begins to accept Love’s words.

The final stanza shows the end of the conversation, once again the speaker feels ashamed of their past sins. Love reminds them of “who bore the blame” for human beings’ sins. Love then invites the speaker to sit down and taste his meat, a reference to the final Communion as mentioned in Luke 12.37 where God “shall gird himself, and make them sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them.” The speaker finally overcomes their feelings of guilt and unworthiness as they make a ive acceptance of Love.

George Herbert, through the median of poetry is able to express his complete devotion and faith to God. Through his poetry Herbert is able to authentically and directly speak the words of God and the Christian life to readers . His profound relationship with God is felt through Herbert’s vivid and sometimes intense descriptions throughout the hundreds of poems which he wrote during his lifetime.

Achinstein, Sharon. "Reading George Herbert in the Restoration." English Literary Renaissance 36 (2006): 430-465. https://www.jstor.org/stable/43447665

Elsky, Martin. "The Sacramental Frame of George Herbert's "The Church" and the Shape of Spiritual Autobiography." The Journal of English and Germanic Philology 83 (1984): 313-329. https://www.jstor.org/stable/27709352

Ferguson, Margaret, Kendall, Tim and Slater, Mary Jo. The Norton Anthology of Poetry: Sixth Edition. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 2018.

Lull, Janis. "George Herbert's Revisions in The Church and the Carnality of Love (III)." George Herbert Journal 9 (1985): 01-16. 10.1353/ghj.1985.0007

Pritchard, R.E. "George Herbert and Lady Mary Worth: A Root for 'The Flower'?" The Review of English Studies 47 (1985): 386-389. https://www.jstor.org/stable/518286

Smith, E. John. "Critical Studies: Poetry, Religion and Theology." The Review of Metaphysics 9 (1955): 252-273. https://www.jstor.org/stable/20123502

Summers, Joseph H. "George Herbert: His Religion and Art: Its Making and Early Reception." George Herbert Journal 16 (1992): 62-78. 10.1353/ghj.1992.0011

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Thank you so much for reading this blog, I hope you enjoyed!

I just want to go on record for people that I'm not using this essay to try and spread "the word of God" or anything like that, because while reading this back, I do sound a little preachy. I just simply really liked Herbert's poems and it was the essay topic that I thought would be the easiest to do.

Until then,

Farewell,

:skull:

Posted on 10/02/2021 at 11.27am

But Time did beckon to the flowers