The poetry of George Herbert frequently engages with the expression of faith through the poetic form. This connection to the Christian concept of the divine is often expressed through Herbert’s rich use of figurative language. In Herbert’s poem, “Love I,” figurative language is used not only to celebrate the sublimity of divine love, but it also is used to marry the concept to the literal act of expressing it through poetic creation. This figurative connection reflects the speaker’s attitude that it is perhaps the eternal love and beauty of humanity’s creator that should be commemorated in verse rather than the love of mortal conceptions of beauty. Herbert employs effective metaphors within “Love I” to comment upon the frivolity of “worldly”
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The speaker refers to the divine as the “author of this great frame,” (1). By using metaphor to describe the divine as an “author,” this double-meaning in the poem’s initial line, provides a template for the connectivity between heavenly creation and literary creation. God is presented as a literal writer that is crafting the world of man in what the speaker refers to as “this great frame.” This metaphor carries the connotation that humankind and all worldly existence is an artistic construction of divinity. The metaphor in essence makes the claim that humans and the world in which we inhabit are like verses written by the almighty, and are thus, beautiful. The “great frame” that the speaker refers to can also be read as a reference to the poem itself. In this sense, humanity and by extension the things humans create are both works of divine will. This polysemy of words lays the foundation for the larger commentary on verse writing that the speaker …show more content…
There is no deficiency of mortal love and beauty found in the verse of humanity, yet the origin of all love, which to the speaker resides in Christ, fails to inspire creation in the hearts of poets. The metaphors employed by Herbert serve to express frustration on the speaker’s part in regards to a lack of poetic devotions to God, whilst using his own text as a means to convey the very ideal he finds lacking in others. The speaker recognizes humanity’s neglect of divine love within the poetic form, then uses that very form to at once chastise man’s disregard, and to celebrate the perfect, eternal love of God. The divine is the ultimate source of love and of creation; to the speaker, these qualities should manifest themselves as abundantly as mortal love and beauty, yet in the speaker’s mind they do not. The metaphors connecting divinity to the literal process of poetic creation are used to clearly illustrate this line of logic within the speaker’s own poetic
The speaker refers to the divine as the “author of this great frame,” (1). By using metaphor to describe the divine as an “author,” this double-meaning in the poem’s initial line, provides a template for the connectivity between heavenly creation and literary creation. God is presented as a literal writer that is crafting the world of man in what the speaker refers to as “this great frame.” This metaphor carries the connotation that humankind and all worldly existence is an artistic construction of divinity. The metaphor in essence makes the claim that humans and the world in which we inhabit are like verses written by the almighty, and are thus, beautiful. The “great frame” that the speaker refers to can also be read as a reference to the poem itself. In this sense, humanity and by extension the things humans create are both works of divine will. This polysemy of words lays the foundation for the larger commentary on verse writing that the speaker …show more content…
There is no deficiency of mortal love and beauty found in the verse of humanity, yet the origin of all love, which to the speaker resides in Christ, fails to inspire creation in the hearts of poets. The metaphors employed by Herbert serve to express frustration on the speaker’s part in regards to a lack of poetic devotions to God, whilst using his own text as a means to convey the very ideal he finds lacking in others. The speaker recognizes humanity’s neglect of divine love within the poetic form, then uses that very form to at once chastise man’s disregard, and to celebrate the perfect, eternal love of God. The divine is the ultimate source of love and of creation; to the speaker, these qualities should manifest themselves as abundantly as mortal love and beauty, yet in the speaker’s mind they do not. The metaphors connecting divinity to the literal process of poetic creation are used to clearly illustrate this line of logic within the speaker’s own poetic