12th
June
2008
The Altar, by George Herbert
posted in Literature, Theology |
Publishing this poem accomplishes the goal it states in the ante-penultimate (a great term for “third from the end”) line. The poem itself reflects the take-and-give attitude with which all followers follow Jesus. And, yes, Herbert deliberately wrote the shape into the poem as he did with at least one other, “Easter Wings.”
Made of a heart, and cemented with tears:
Whose parts, are as thy hand did frame;
No workman’s tool hath touched the same.
A HEART alone
Is much a stone,
As nothing but
Thy power doth cut,
Wherefore each part
Of my hard heart
Meets in this frame,
To praise thy Name:
That, if I chance to hold my peace,
These stones to praise thee may not cease.
Oh let thy blessed SACRIFICE be mine,
And sanctify this ALTAR to be thine.
c. 1633
Most importantly, notice what kind of altar is raised by the poet and represented by this poem. It is in the first line–the second word. It is a broken altar.
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