15 George Herbert

Dr. Anna Kurian

Storyboard 

Introduction

Section I: Seventeenth Century Poetry: a brief introduction

Section II: George Herbert: An Introduction

Section III: “The Collar: An Introduction and Summary

Section IV: Structure and Technique

Section V: Images in “The Collar”

Section VI: Themes and Significance of the Title

Introduction

If drama is the predominant mode of expression of Renaissance England following close on its heels is poetry. The era is distinguished by the outpouring of verse that took place and while today we study the poetry under various heads, such as the Metaphysicals, the Cavaliers, the religious poets and so on, none of these are watertight compartments as illustrated by John Donne who wrote love poetry, religious poetry and occasional verse in the metaphysical style. This lesson deals with the poetry of George Herbert, one of the foremost poets of the seventeenth century whose fame rests upon just one slim volume of English verse: The Temple, posthumously published in 1633.

We will begin with a short introduction to the poetry of the seventeenth century, tracing thematic trajectories; proceed to an introduction to the life and work of George Herbert and then focus on one poem, “The Collar”, which we will study in detail, examining its themes, its images and its structure.

Section I 

Seventeenth Century Poetry: a brief introduction

The poetry of seventeenth century England was dominated by two schools of writing: that of the Metaphysicals and that of the Cavaliers. Another way of categorizing the poets of the time was  to divide them into those who wrote love poetry and those who wrote religious verse. One name, that of John Milton towers over all the other poets of the century by virtue of his epic Paradise Lost. Yet, the work of poets such as John Donne, George Herbert, Henry Vaughan, Andrew Marvell continues to be read today delighting many who find that these seventeenth century poets spoke of struggles and situations in religious matters and love affairs that remain pertinent today.

The Metaphysical poets include those who wrote both secular poetry and those who wrote religious poetry. John Donne, of course, wrote both varieties and excelled in both but poets such as Herbert, Vaughan and Crashaw are known primarily for their religious verse while those such as Cowley are seen as practicing primarily secular verse. A poet such as Marvell is difficult to categorise, exhibiting as he does strains of the Metaphysical school, as well as themes and styles dear to the Cavaliers. The Metaphysical poets, called thus from the eighteenth century, initially by Dryden and later by Dr Johnson affected a style wherein they combined passionate feeling with intellectual rigour. They were held to write verse wherein they pulled together disparate ideas which were not often seen as similar. The phrase used by Dr Johnson was: “The most heterogeneous ideas are yoked by violence together”, and his contention was that while readers might occasionally admire such writing it rarely pleased them. These comparisons functioned as extended metaphors, called metaphysical conceits, which used an unlikely image to explore an idea, for example, the titles of Herbert’s poems such as “The Pulley” and “The Collar”, or Donne’s comparisons of his beloved to all the lands of the East and himself as the Princes of those lands in “The Sun Rising” or the most famous of Donne’s conceits, a pair of lovers as the two legs of a compass. Metaphysical poetry is not a quick, easy read, revealing all its riches at one hasty glance and yet it can be satisfying and deeply engaging, revealing depths of meaning and nuances that are uncovered over several readings and much reflection. This is serious art which expects the serious engagement of the reader.

The Cavalier poets were named thus not only because of their political affiliation (they were, in the main, Royalists, with Stuart loyalties) but also as Robin Skelton put it “in the sense that they distrust the over-earnest, the too intense. . . . They treat life cavalierly, indeed, and sometimes they treat poetic convention cavalierly too.” The verse of Cavalier poets such as Thomas Carew, John Suckling, Richard Lovelace, Edmund Waller, etc is noted for its direct informality, its vigorous love of life and its easy celebration of the minutiae of life. (Refer to the module on the Cavalier poets for a more detailed discussion on their work)

Section II

George Herbert: An Introduction

Born in 1593, George Herbert was the son of a noble family which was known for its support and patronage of the arts and literature: his mother was patron to John Donne whose Holy Sonnets was dedicated to her. Brought up by his mother, Herbert’s early career was marked by educational achievements and once at Cambridge he quickly forged ahead academically and after gaining a BA and an MA was made a tutor, a lecturer and finally the University orator in 1620, a position of considerable prestige and one from which it would have been possible to move to a position at the royal court. He remained the university orator till 1628 and while he wrote occasional verse and some religious verse in English as well as Latin and Greek today his reputation rests on the lyric verses in the central section of the posthumously published volume of verse, The Temple. By 1630 he had decided against worldly advancement and having taken holy orders, moved to the small parish of Bemerton as rector and lived out the rest of his short and ailing life there, eventually succumbing to consumption in 1633. This bald recital of some of the factual details of his life does not address the fact of what makes Herbert a significant poet of the seventeenth century. To understand that one must examine his work and see also the kinds of influences that shaped it as well those whom he, in turn, influenced.

Known as a religious poet it seems strange that Herbert’s very limited output should place him among the canonical English poets, not just of the seventeenth century but of all time. The question is whether his verse can have any interest for a person not really interested in the Church of England, Christianity or a Christian God and a person’s struggles with that God. And yet T S Eliot claimed that he may “justly be called a major poet”; L C Knights stated unequivocally that “Herbert’s poetry is an integral part of the great English tradition” and Herbert’s poems continue to be read and studied by individuals who may have little or no appreciation for his religious faith. The significance of Herbert’s standing in the English Literature canon rests upon the quality of his verse; its content and style; and also the lineage he inherited from John Donne and that he in turn bestowed upon Vaughan and Crashaw.

While Donne and Herbert were closely acquainted with each other, Herbert’s mother having been Donne’s patron and Donne having preached at her funeral etc., Herbert’s knowledge of Donne’s verse is something that has been noted by several critics from the eighteenth century on, who include Herbert in the list of the Metaphysical poets and trace the similarities amongst them. While Donne favours an intellectual emphasis to his conceits and a vigor in both the sentiment as well as the mode of stating it, Herbert is noted for his quiet sensibility and his gentle tone. While the use of conceits is similar the metaphors each employed were very distinct: Donne showcasing his wide knowledge and his scholarly leanings while Herbert employed those drawn from a more narrow sphere, of the domestic and the rural. Donne is also noted for the energy he brings to his verse, even his religious verse, which is full of actions and activity while Herbert is rarely so exercised. Herbert is also noteworthy for an interesting technique seen in much of his verse: even if he agitates against the trials he faces, speaks of his disquiet and his doubts, in the final section of his poem he demonstrates a resolution to the conflicts and doubts, without a rebuttal of every point raised earlier and thus ends with a quiet acceptance of the will of God.

Herbert’s poetry is most closely matched by that of Gerard Manley Hopkins of the late Victorian period but the critic Stanley Stewart has argued convincingly for a School of Herbert, which has in it such names as Coleridge, Emerson, Dickinson, Eliot and others. While we may or may not be convinced by this line of argument it is undeniable that in his own period Herbert was a “major influence on the next generation of religious lyric poets and was explicitly recognized as such by Henry Vaughan and Richard Crashaw” (Introduction to the Early Seventeenth Century in The Norton Anthology of English Literature). His influence is also seen in the work of Traherne and minor poets such as Henry Colman, Mildmay Fane, etc.

While it is easy enough to say that Herbert’s poetry is concerned with religious subjects such an easy statement does not begin to capture the range of ideas and themes that are treated in the poems that Herbert wrote. The Temple is in three parts: after a brief dedication there is “The Church Porch”, which is followed by “The Church”, and finally “The Church Militant” and the volume concludes with an Envoy. The Church Porch is almost a sermon in verse, with seventy seven stanzas and is in the form of exhortations to a young man, about to enter into a life of holiness, possessed of both talent and ambition and therefore also in need of good advice as to how to reconcile ambition with godliness. The central section of The Temple, “The Church” contains all the lyric poems on which Herbert’s reputation rests today. They speak of man’s relationship with god, the trials one encounters in such a life, the awareness of god that is a necessary part of everyday life and of various aspects of a godly life, many of which can lead to despair and anger with god. His stylistic range and the many varieties of stanza forms that he uses in this section demonstrate the assured nature of his work and his consummate ability. The final section is a long poem describing the expansion of the Christian church in the world.

Section III

“The Collar”: an Introduction and Summary

Of the hundred and seventy seven lyrics that make up the central section of The Temple, “The Collar” is one of the most anthologized along with “The Pulley”, “Easter Wings” and “The Altar”, the last two also gaining prominence because they are emblem poems, a form of visual poetry. “The Collar” with its punning, symbolic title, is a dialogic, narrative poem, dramatically telling the reader a story about the poet persona’s anger and annoyance with God. He claims that he cannot find any meaning to the life of denial and restriction that has been his lot in following God’s calling; he laments with bitterness and anguish his having “no harvest but a thorn”, his lack of “cordial fruit” wine and corn, the impossibility of being crowned with laurel wreaths and asks whether his life and work has all been “blasted” and “wasted”. Having raised these questions he then answers himself that it need not necessarily be so: that there is a possibility of gaining fruit and “double pleasures”, if and only if he will “leave thy cold dispute / of what is fit and not”. If he can do so and “forsake (his) cage” and his “rope of sands” then he can lead a full life, filled with pleasure and abundance. Thinking over this sequence he then determines that “I will abroad” and exhorts himself to “tie up thy fears”, because if he were to continue in this fashion then he would well deserve the load that he has carried thus far. At this point the poet persona says

But as I rav’d and grew more fierce and wilde,

At every word,

Methought I heard one calling, Childe :

And I reply’d, My Lord.

The poem ends on that note, with the poet persona responding with quietude and humility to the call that he hears, his aggression and annoyance a thing of the past and he once again accepting of his lord’s will for him.

The poem remains a favourite on many counts: the story it tells is a familiar one: poets such as Milton and Hopkins have also lamented the fruitless nature of their lives when dedicated to god; the narrative style is immediately engaging and draws one into the concerns of the speaker, making it as if the speaker’s worries are pressing and immediate to his readers too; the vigour and energy of the main part of the poem help the readers to compare the lifelessness of the speaker’s life to what may well be, if he were to forsake his cage, etc.; and finally there is the quiet acceptance of the fact that, for the speaker, the call he thinkshears is enough to reconcile him to all the lacks he feels and make him calm once again.

Section IV 

Structure and Techniques

The speaker in Herbert’s “Collar” tells the readers a story but it is not a simple story which begins at the beginning and moves smoothly to the end. It is a story in which while there is only one speaker he speaks in different voices and we are constantly being asked to adjust our understanding about the trajectory of the story that is being told. The thirty six lines of the narrative begin with an action that is being recounted to us the readers, and then after telling us that the speaker “struck the board” he continues to tell us what his thoughts and speech were on that momentous occasion. This continues from line one to line thirty two. At line thirty three there is a change as the speaker recognizes what he was doing and pauses in his recollections, before revealing to us the event that concludes the poem: the call he thinks he hears and his response to that call.

While thinking in terms of the speaker and the story it is also necessary to understand that even as there is only one speaker in the entire poem that speaker is split into two parts or aspects. Line 1-16 consist of the rebellious heart of the speaker voicing his thoughts and his angry outrage; line 17-26 present us with the same speaker but in a more rational and positive frame of mind, someone who recognizes the agitated state that is causing the heart to speak in that manner. But the heart does not subside, and lines 27-32 give us the heart’s renewed attack. The final four  lines show us the speaker integrated into one persona, who recognizes his own ravings and who then comes to a point wherein he thinks he hears the call of god once again, and we are told how, in that moment, his ravings ended and he replied with due submission and reverence.

The final four lines of the poem are, according to Barbara Leah Harman, the frame for the story that the earlier thirty two lines tell. That frame is especially significant because it disrupts and negates the earlier story which till that point has been presenting one perspective only, a perspective that is rendered null and void by the very short account contained in lines 33-36.

Thus the poem orders the experience of the speaker and presents it in a way that might be seen as misleading: the first thirty two lines lead us to believe that the speaker’s anger is so complete that he is bound to rebel and walk away. That expectation is defeated by the final four lines which tell us about the submission of the speaker to the calling and the lord he hears. A narrative poem, “The Collar” can be considered a variation on a soliloquy or even a dramatic monologue, one which presents to us a story of anger and rebellion wherein the readers/auditors are given a resolution which is at variance with what they have been led to expect.

The poem is written in iambic verse but the lines are short and varied, and reflect the extreme emotion that is being recounted. The passionate anger and the despair at being forced to live a barren life is mirrored in the very short and abrupt lines that signal the determination to break free:

Away; take heed:

I will abroad.

Call in thy death’s- head there: tie up thy fears.

He that forbears

To suit and serve his need,

Deserves his load.

The poet also uses a series of rhetorical questions, from the first “What! Shall I ever sigh and pine?” to the cluster that occurs towards the middle of the poem:

Is the year only lost to me?

Have I no bays to crown it?

No flowers, no garlands gay? all blasted?

All wasted?

The cumulative effect of all these questions being flung at the reader/auditor is to intensify the effect of the passionate outburst that we are witness to, an outburst that is without any restraint and is, as the poet himself writes it, raving that is both “fierce and wild”.

Section V

Images in “The Collar”

“The Collar” begins with a moment of violence which appears to be happening even as the persona speaks: “I struck the board, and cried, “No more! / I will abroad”. The moment at which the poem begins is one which is fraught with violence and determination, “I will abroad”. From that moment of action the speaker then develops his theme of his life as fruitless, barren and full of sighing and pining for all that has been lost. The violence of action in the first line continues to be echoed through the poem in the violent speech of the speaker.

The images within the poem slot themselves into sets: there are the images of the Eucharist, and of a harvest; of freedom and restraint; and of victory and defeat. Over and above these images is that of the collar itself, an image which while never referred to within the poem still permeates all of it.

The poem begins with the board being struck, wherein the board is the Eucharist or communion table, which brings into focus one set of images, that of church communions, of harvests. From line 7 through to line 18 the persona in the poem speaks of having “no harvest but a thorn”, of no restoration with “cordial fruit” being possible, of wine and corn which was destroyed by his actions and of “all” being “blasted” and “wasted”. It is a long catalogue and emphatically demonstrates the state of mind of the persona who feels that he has precious little to show in the way of harvests and fruits to gather in, in his life. Even the wine and the corn (a reference again to the Eucharist) is seen as destroyed, the former dried by his sighs, the latter drowned by his tears. Thus the Eucharist, the body and blood of Christ which is meant to be life-giving is seen as falling prey to the anger and rebellion of the persona who finds them to be barren as well. In lines 17 and 18, having asked repeatedly if all is wasted the persona tries to reassure himself, to answer his own doubts and worries, and says that “there is fruit” and he does have hands with which to gather the fruit in, thus bringing to an end the images of harvests and feasts. The images of harvests and the Eucharistic table thus do not end with the reassurance that they have the power to change the anger of the persona into peace: he recognizes that they exist but that is all, he does not acknowledge their power nor does he accept that he can be blessed by them.

In the first eighteen lines there are also images of freedom and victory. The persona speaks of being free as the road, as the wind, as all abundance (“as large as store”), and he wonders if he has no laurel wreaths, “no flowers, no garlands gay”. In lines four and five he says

My lines and life are free; free as the road,

Loose as the wind, as large as store.

Coming as it does, close on the heels of his assertion that he “will abroad” and should he be forever sighing and pining, the claim that his lines and life are free is interesting because it indicates his assertion of a freedom that he will take, that he will no longer live in bondage but will instead take for his life the freedom of the road and the wind. The images are also in a sense contradictory as the wind can blow where it will (if there are no manmade obstacles in its way), but the road is manmade and fixed; it cannot change direction and wander at will. So to be free as the wind and the road is also to be constrained by other circumstances that may not be of his own choosing. The final image in this cluster, “as large as store” may again be puzzling. If “store” is held to mean “abundance” as usually glossed then abundance does not mean a never- ending supply, only plenty. Thus the freedom that is configured in these lines is itself a limited freedom.

In lines 14 and 15 the persona asks if he has “no bays to crown” the year, “no flowers, no garlands gay”. All these images come together to suggest that the speaker yearns for success and honour, for bay leaf wreaths of honour, for flowers and garlands that will signify his victories and his successes. The symbols of success that the speaker yearns for are in earthly terms and speak of his desire for worldly success, recognition and fame, all of which he feels he has lost by virtue of the life that he leads in the service of a god who grants him little except a barren life in his service.

The final set of images occurs in lines 20-32. Here we encounter images of restraint and punitive actions. Thus there is the “cage”; the “rope of sands”; the “good cable”; and finally the “death’s- head” and the “fears” that like vicious dogs need to be tied up. The rational part of the speaker exhorts his heart to abandon the cage that he is caught in, and to give up the rope of sand, which his own “petty thoughts” have made for him “good cable, to enforce and draw”. All the images of restraint the speaker informs us are self-constructed and have power over him only because he has made it possible for them to do so: His petty thoughts have transformed his ropes of sand, trivial annoyances and lacking all permanence into good cable; he could, if he so desired, “forsake (his) cage”; thus the imprisonment that he so resents is of his own making and sustaining.

But of course, the heart comes right back and reminds himself that to listen to the other part of himself would be to continue in servitude, a servitude that would be only because he was afraid: of the death’s-head, representing mortality and death and his fears which roam around, untied. Thus the heart seems to say that the only reason the speaker continue in his calling is because of fear of the eternal death that would be his lot if he were to walk away from it.

Section VI Themes and the significance of the title

“The Collar” gives us a speaker who feels that his life has been wasted in the work that he does and that it has been a barren waste with only thorns falling to his share rather than fruit or corn or wine. We can understand that the speaker is someone who is a priest of god because of the title of the poem: the “Collar”: gesturing at the ecclesiastical collar worn by ministers in the Church of England. The collar of the title is also significantly both a symbol of the priestly profession and a symbol of restraint. The collar could also be emblematic of slavery as slaves often wore a collar around their necks, signifying their slave status. The collar is also connected to choler (in Herbert’s time it could have been a homophone), to be choleric meaning to be angry. And the poem is full of choler as the speaker vents his anger about his life. Finally the collar could also be a reference to the Caller who appears in line 35, the call which once heard by the “fierce and wild” speaker admits no response other than submission.

The poem speaks of the response to a growing fear that one has wasted one’s life in serving a god who has given the person no worldly success or honour. This is a question that Milton was  to raise in his sonnet written “on being arrived at the age of 23” and which Gerard Manley Hopkins addressed in “Thou art indeed just, Lord”. The lack of visible success which troubles the speaker of Herbert’s “The Collar” leads him to grow more and more angry, though his saner self attempts to reason with him, showing him the possibility of being fruitful, if he will only continue to labour. But even as he raves and rants and grows more enraged he comes to a point when

Me thoughts I heard one calling, “Child”;

And I replied, “My Lord”.

It is important to note two features of this resolution: we do not know if the speaker actually heard the voice or it was only in his mind that he thought he heard it and secondly when addressed as “child” he did not answer “father” but “My Lord”. The fact that the speaker explicitly states that he thought he heard a voice calling is significant: in the face of all his anger and rebellion it is enough for him to think he hears God calling to him: immediately his wildness is stilled. Thus the faith that he has been rebelling against is one that does not require external evidence, in the final analysis. And when called “Child” the speaker does not presume to answer “father”: he recognizes the lordship of the caller, over his life, and answers suitably “My Lord”. Thus in the words of John R Roberts, to understand the resolution of the poem one must understand “Me thoughts”: “It highlights the notion that the resolution, the calling and naming that occurs, is not from without but is a new interior understanding of the speaker’s relationship to God.”

Points to Ponder 

• The text of “The Collar” also has within it images of service to a lord and of appeals in a law court: can you identify them?
• Critics have remarked the suggestion of the speaker in the poem becoming more animal- like as he speaks: Can you find the relevant line?
• Collars are worn by humans and who else? How does that fact help you to read the poem in a more nuanced fashion?

Do you know?

• Did you know that George Herbert was called “Holy Mr Herbert” in the final years of his life when he served as a country parson?
• George Herbert’s volume of verse, The Temple, was not published in his lifetime but posthumously by NicholarFerrar to whom he sent the manuscript when on his deathbed, asking for it to be published if it would be of any help to souls struggling to find peace with
• George Herbert died of consumption: how many other poets and authors do you know, from the canon of English Literature , who died of consumption?

Reference

• Eliot, T S. George Herbert. Longmans, Green & Co., 1962.
• Harman, Barbara Leah. Costly Monuments: Representations of the Self in George Herbert’s Poetry. Harvard: Harvard UP, 1982.