The Wreath
A wreathèd garland of deservèd praise,
Of praise deservèd, unto Thee I give,
I give to Thee, who knowest all my ways,
My crooked winding ways, wherein I live,—
Wherein I die, not live ; for life is straight,
Straight as a line, and ever tends to Thee,
To Thee, who art more far above deceit,
Than deceit seems above simplicity.
Give me simplicity, that I may live,
So live and like, that I may know Thy ways,
Know them and practise them: then shall I give
For this poor wreath, give Thee a crown of praise.
This is exactly the kind of poem that got Metaphysical Poets a bad name, unfairly I think. The complaint is usually about a poem that is too clever by half, weaving words through repetition, repeating the words at the end of a line almost exactly as the start of the next line. For example "deserved praise" becomes "of praise deserved", and while the repetition of words varies, the continuity of ideas is sustained. Just as flowers, leaves and greenery are woven around each other into a continuous, never ending circle.
But Herbert knows what he is doing. He is using a conceit to weave into the poem the very idea that the words describe. He starts with "a wreathed garland", and ends with a "crown of praise", and between these two points where the circle joins in completion, is the circle of life, all his ways, his crooked winding ways. And, of course, Herbert knows that while his ways are crooked, life itself is a straight temporal line, that one way or another will lead to God.
The contrasts of deceit and simplicity, crooked and straight, death and life, are set within a poem that has its own impetus, given extra momentum by the strong petition, "Give me simplicity".
What makes Herbert such a theologically subtle poet is his self-awareness, first of his own crooked heart, and second of his heart's best aspirations; his heart is at worst devious and at best devout. He wants his life to bring praise to God, despite the failures in the live performance that is his life. To know and practice God's ways, is to make faith active, to love in word and deed, to believe in such a way that what is believed is performed, enacted, embodied.
Helen Wilcox sums this poem up: "In the opposition between 'poor wreath' and 'crown', three main contrasts are at work: a poem versus a lived and practised life, the complexity of a 'winding wreath' versus the simplicity of a circular crown, and imperfect earthly achievement versus the perfection of heaven."
The entire collection of Herbert's poems tend in the direction of that last line. "Then shall I give
For this poor wreath, give Thee a crown of praise". Christian experience, in all its ambiguity, vacillation and struggle, is a wreathed garland, our ways are often crooked and winding. But the heart is set in the right direction, and the underlying beat of the heart, is the longing to know and practise the ways of God, and at the end, to see the wreathed garland of an incomplete life, transformed into the perfect circular crown of praise.
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