"The Altar" is a shaped poem by the Welsh-born poet and Anglican priest George Herbert, first published in his posthumous collection The Temple (1633). The poem is founded on a Baroque metaphor with a long history of prior use of coalescing verbal and visual image. The popularity of the collection in which it appeared is attested by eleven editions during the 17th century and a musical setting of this particular poem in 1671.
The Baroque aesthetic of "The Altar" is both visual and devotional. In the case of the first, its typographical form joins the long line of poems in the shape of an altar since Classical times. [1] In fact, this was the second poem written by Herbert on the subject. The other was in Greek and had no formal resemblance to the later poem written in English. [2]
The poem in English is founded on the poetic conceit that the altar has been fashioned from the author's stony heart by the power of Christ and, being so reared, now binds both the poet and his Lord in a lasting relationship. The balanced construction of its sixteen lines rhymed in couplets emphasizes the shape of this altar. It begins with two lines of ten syllables underlain by two of eight syllables. Below that are eight lines of just four syllables each, balanced on a reversed order of longer lines where those of eight syllables now rest on those of ten. Visually this gives a supported platform resting on a narrow pedestal with steps at its foot, as it is traditionally laid out on the printed page.
"The Altar" opens “The Church” section of Herbert’s poems, following immediately after a liminal "Church Porch" section and then proceeding to allied themes of sacrifice and thanksgiving. [3] Though Herbert's collected poems were not published until 1633, it has been argued that this poem was originally written in 1617 at a time when the communion tables that had replaced the former stone structures in reformed English churches were beginning to be succeeded by stone altars once again. [4]
The manuscript of The Temple was bequeathed to Nicholas Ferrar after the poet's death and was published from Cambridge in 1633. In his introduction to the work, Ferrar assured readers that the book came to them as he had received it, "without addition either of support or ornament", although that statement has since been questioned. [5] So far as the poem "The Altar" is concerned, capitalization of the whole words ALTAR and HEART at the start, and of SACRIFICE and ALTAR at the end, does not correspond to how they are written in either of the now surviving manuscripts. Later editions also make the poem's shaped intention clearer in a number of different ways. In the book's 5th edition (1638) an outline was drawn around the poem to emphasize the way in which the layout of the lines corresponds to the shape of an altar, [6] and more variations were introduced once publication of The Temple shifted to London.
In the Cambridge editions, the positioning of "The Altar" in the book emphasizes the beginning of The Church section, appearing on the left-hand page opposite the opening of the related "The Sacrifice". By the London 8th edition of 1670, however, the page's left-hand side is devoted to the poem "Superliminare" and appears at the foot of a Baroque-style doorway, a design which fills most of the page, illustrating the title's meaning of 'on the threshold'. "The Altar" is now on the right-hand page, framed by a Baroque archway over a substantial stone altar with steps leading up to it at its foot. The word Altar only appears capitalized in the title but not elsewhere; in the poem itself the word LORD in the first line is given reverential capitalization but otherwise only the word HEART in the fifth line is capitalized. [7] By the 10th edition of 1674 the text of the poem is uncomfortably constricted within an elaborate archway and has the word heart alone spelt in capitals in the fifth line. [8] It has been argued that these later changes in the poem's presentation reflect ecclesiastical attitudes in the re-established Anglican church after the Stuart Restoration - and even an attempt to re-evaluate the significance of poet's ministry. [9]
Scriptural and liturgical allusions contribute to the phrasing of the poem's imagery. The altar’s fabric is reared of stone that “no workman’s tool hath touched”, which is in line with the divine commandment to the Jews after their exodus from Egypt that "if thou wilt make me an altar of stone, thou shalt not build it of hewn stone: for if thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast polluted it." [10] In addition, the heart of stone that contributes to its building is referred to in the prophetical book of Ezekiel, where it is promised to God's people that "I will take the stony heart out of their flesh and will give them an heart of flesh: that they may walk in my statutes and keep mine ordinances". [11]
The vocal stones in the lines that follow are mentioned in the account of the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem; when the acclamations of his disciples were rebuked, he replied that "If these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out". [12] In reality, this entry into Jerusalem was the prelude to the crucifixion of Jesus, a self-sacrifice in which Herbert asks to share. He does this both as an ordained priest and on behalf of his readers, in line with the wording of the communion service in the 1559 Book of Common Prayer: "We offer and presente unto thee, O Lord, our selves, our soules and bodies, to be a reasonable, holy, and lively sacrifice." [13] The altar at which he pays his devotions, therefore, is a fabrication not solely of stone but also of Holy writ.
The meaning of the poem is supplemented by the illustration in the eighth edition of The Temple (above). The words are framed in a columned Baroque archway, at the foot of which is the altar with steps leading up to it. The altar is decorated with a heart at its centre, with on either side the tears that the poet affirms have bound it together again ("cemented") after it was broken. Built into this idea is an allusion to Psalm 51:17: "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart", in acknowledgement of the personal sin for which Christ gave himself as a propitiatory sacrifice. Conceptually, too, the eight tears on either side of the heart carved at the altar's centre are the rhymed lines that cement the poem together, with the shorter lines at its heart. Image and word are brought together by this emblematic means. [14]
The poem is ostensibly a dialogue with Christ, who is addressed by the poet at its very beginning. There is, however, a deliberate ambiguity to what is taking place. On one level it is the prayer of an individual. But in that Herbert speaks as a priest before an altar, specifically named as such rather than the "table" mentioned in The Book of Common Prayer, there is also a more sacramental dimension to the poem. The poet keeps the wording unspecific so that interpretation of the "sacrifice" taking place may be understood eucharistically by those of a High Church tendency, or at the interpersonal level of Puritan understanding. [15]
Evidence of such an intention is found in the emendation to the poem's penultimate line in an earlier manuscript. There the wording "onely sacrifice" has been changed to "blesséd" so as to avoid the extreme Protestant emphasis that Christ's sacrifice was once for all and so allow others the traditional understanding that the divine sacrifice is being re-enacted on the altar during the communion service. [16] In light of this, therefore, just as the poem is a skilful wedding of scriptural and visual image, so it also covertly combines opposite points of view at the doctrinal level.
Settings of the poem have been infrequent. A 17th century arrangement has been identified as by John Playford as part of his Psalms and Hymns in Solemn Musick of Foure Parts On the Common Tunes to the Psalms in Meter: used in Parish Churches. Also Six Hymns for One Voyce to the Organ (1671). In her study of it, Louise Schleiner comments on how the composer endeavoured to express its form through the music (1671). [17]
Others followed only centuries later and on different continents. In Australia there was a 1989 a capella choral setting by Becky Llewellyn. [18] An American a capella setting by Nicholas White followed a decade later in 1999, [19] [20] and one by Hal H. Hopson in 2009. [21] [22] In his 2011 setting for accompanied choir, Roland E. Martin notes that ""The Altar" opens with a choral fugue that symbolizes the building of the altar as the voices are stacked one on top of the other". [23] [24]
John Donne was an English poet, scholar, soldier and secretary born into a recusant family, who later became a cleric in the Church of England. Under royal patronage, he was made Dean of St Paul's Cathedral in London (1621–1631). He is considered the preeminent representative of the metaphysical poets. His poetical works are noted for their metaphorical and sensual style and include sonnets, love poems, religious poems, Latin translations, epigrams, elegies, songs and satires. He is also known for his sermons.
An altar is a table or platform for the presentation of religious offerings, for sacrifices, or for other ritualistic purposes. Altars are found at shrines, temples, churches, and other places of worship. They are used particularly in paganism, Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, modern paganism, and in certain Islamic communities around Caucasia and Asia Minor. Many historical-medieval faiths also made use of them, including the Roman, Greek, and Norse religions.
An acrostic is a poem or other word composition in which the first letter of each new line spells out a word, message or the alphabet. The term comes from the French acrostiche from post-classical Latin acrostichis, from Koine Greek ἀκροστιχίς, from Ancient Greek ἄκρος "highest, topmost" and στίχος "verse". As a form of constrained writing, an acrostic can be used as a mnemonic device to aid memory retrieval. When the last letter of each new line forms a word it is called a telestich; the combination of an acrostic and a telestich in the same composition is called a double acrostic.
George Herbert was an English poet, orator, and priest of the Church of England. His poetry is associated with the writings of the metaphysical poets, and he is recognised as "one of the foremost British devotional lyricists." He was born in Wales into an artistic and wealthy family and largely raised in England. He received a good education that led to his admission to Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1609. He went there with the intention of becoming a priest, but he became the University's Public Orator and attracted the attention of King James I. He sat in the Parliament of England in 1624 and briefly in 1625.
The term Metaphysical poets was coined by the critic Samuel Johnson to describe a loose group of 17th-century English poets whose work was characterised by the inventive use of conceits, and by a greater emphasis on the spoken rather than lyrical quality of their verse. These poets were not formally affiliated and few were highly regarded until 20th century attention established their importance.
Richard Crashaw was an English poet, teacher, High Church Anglican cleric and Roman Catholic convert, who was one of the major metaphysical poets in 17th-century English literature.
The Nunc dimittis, also known as the Song of Simeon or the Canticle of Simeon, is a canticle taken from the second chapter of the Gospel of Luke, verses 29 through 32. Its Latin name comes from its incipit, the opening words, of the Vulgate translation of the passage, meaning "Now you let depart". Since the 4th century it has been used in Christian services of evening worship such as Compline, Vespers, and Evensong.
Bishop Richard Corbet was an English clergyman who rose to be a bishop in the Church of England. He is also remembered as a humorist and as a poet, although his work was not published until after his death.
Sonnet 8 is one of 154 sonnets written by the English playwright and poet William Shakespeare. It is a procreation sonnet within the Fair Youth sequence. As with the other procreation sonnets, it urges a young man to settle down with a wife and to have children. It insists a family is the key to living a harmonious, peaceful life.
Sonnet 22 is one of 154 sonnets written by the English playwright and poet William Shakespeare, and is a part of the Fair Youth sequence.
"Recessional" is a poem by Rudyard Kipling. It was composed for the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria, in 1897.
The Five Mystical Songs are a musical composition by English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872–1958), written between 1906 and 1911. The work sets four poems by seventeenth-century Welsh poet and Anglican priest George Herbert (1593–1633), from his 1633 collection The Temple: Sacred Poems. While Herbert was a priest, Vaughan Williams himself was an atheist at the time, though this did not prevent his setting of verse of an overtly religious inspiration. The work received its first performance on 14 September 1911, at the Three Choirs Festival in Worcester, with Vaughan Williams conducting.
An altar poem is a pattern poem in which the lines are arranged to look like the form of an altar. The text and shape relate to each other, the latter usually giving added meaning to the poem itself. The tradition of shaped poetry goes back to Greek poets writing in Alexandria before the Common Era but most examples date from later and were written by European Christian poets during the Baroque period.
The Sidney or Sidneian Psalms are a 16th-century paraphrase of the Psalms in English verse, the work of Philip and Mary Sidney, aristocratic siblings who were influential Elizabethan poets. Mary Sidney completed them some time after the death of her brother in 1586 and presented a copy to Queen Elizabeth I of England in 1599. The translation was praised in the work of John Donne.
Ralph Knevet (1600–1671) was an English clergyman and poet.
"Sonnet X", also known by its opening words as "Death Be Not Proud", is a fourteen-line poem, or sonnet, by English poet John Donne (1572–1631), one of the leading figures in the metaphysical poets group of seventeenth-century English literature. Written between February and August 1609, it was first published posthumously in 1633.
"A Song for Simeon" is a 37-line poem written in 1928 by American-English poet T. S. Eliot (1888–1965). It is one of five poems that Eliot contributed to the Ariel Poems series of 38 pamphlets by several authors published by Faber and Gwyer. "A Song for Simeon" was the sixteenth in the series and included an illustration by avant garde artist Edward McKnight Kauffer. The poems, including "A Song for Simeon", were later published in both the 1936 and 1963 editions of Eliot's collected poems.
Easter Wings is a poem by George Herbert which was published in his posthumous collection, The Temple (1633). It was originally formatted sideways on facing pages and is in the tradition of shaped poems that goes back to ancient Greek sources.
"The Collar" is a poem by Welsh poet George Herbert published in 1633, and is a part of a collection of poems within Herbert's book The Temple. The poem depicts a man who is experiencing a loss of faith and feelings of anger over the commitment he has made to God. He feels that his efforts in committing himself to his faith have been fruitless, and begins to manifest a life for himself without religious parameters. He denounces his commitments and proclaims himself "free". The poem's themes include the struggle with one's beliefs and the desire for autonomy in defiance of religious restriction. The speaker is trying to create his own limits, to lead himself, rather than following God. He tries to convince himself that a life of freedom will bring him the satisfaction that his faith has failed to provide.
"Holy Sonnet XIV" – also known by its first line as "Batter my heart, three-person'd God" – is a poem written by the English poet John Donne. It is a part of a larger series of poems called Holy Sonnets, comprising nineteen poems in total. The poem was printed and published for the first time in Poems in 1633, two years after the author's death. In the 1633 edition the sequence of the poems was different from that found in Herbert Grierson’s edition from 1912; that is why Holy Sonnet XIV features as Holy Sonnet X in older publications. However, the majority of twentieth-century and later editions of Donne's Holy Sonnets are found to prefer and use the order proposed by Grierson and thus include the sonnet as the fourteenth in the cycle.
