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Sunday
Here are two of my favorite religious poets in a single poem—which is to say, contemporary Anglican poet Malcolm Guite writing a sonnet about the 17th century metaphysical poet George Herbert. Guite admires the courage with which his predecessor grapples with his doubts and fears, which he openly acknowledges as he strives to work through them.
Guite may be particularly referring to Herbert’s “Denial” in “A Sonnet for George Herbert,” what with the reference to a broken heart and an untuned lute. In that earlier poem Herbert writes,
When my devotions could not pierce
Thy silent ears;
Then was my heart broken, as was my verse:
My breast was full of fears
And disorder…
And further on:
Therefore my soul lay out of sight,
Untuned, unstrung…
In the end, however, Herbert finds rhythm and rhyme again. Here’s the final stanza of “Denial”:
O cheer and tune my heartless breast,
Defer no time;
That so thy favors granting my request,
They and my mind may chime,
And mend my rhyme.
Guite’s sonnets wrestle with some of the same doubts and fears. His poem expresses gratitude to Herbert for showing him a way through them.
A Sonnet for George Herbert
By Malcolm Guite
Gentle exemplar, help us in our trials,
With all that passed between you and your Lord,
That intimate exchange of frowns and smiles
Which chronicled your love-match with the Word.
Your manuscript, entrusted to a friend,
Has been entrusted now to every soul,
We make a new beginning in your end
And find your broken heart has made us whole.
Time has transplanted you, and you take root,
Past changing in the paradise of Love,
Help me to trace your temple, tune your lute,
And listen for an echo from above,
Open the window, let me hear you sing,
And see the Word with you in everything.
