Praise II
King of glory, King of peace,
I will love Thee;
and that love may never cease,
I will move Thee.
Thou hast granted my request,
Thou hast heard me;
Thou didst note my working breast,
Thou hast spared me.
Wherefore with my utmost art
I will sing Thee,
and the cream of all my heart
I will bring Thee.
Though my sins against me cried,
Thou didst clear me;
and alone, when they replied,
Thou didst hear me.
Sev'n whole days, not one in sev'n,
I will praise Thee;
in my heart, though not in heav'n,
I can raise Thee.
Small it is, in this poor sort
to enroll Thee:
e'en eternity's too short
to extol Thee.
Another of Herbert's poems slightly adapted for congregational hymn singing. T S Eliot praised Praise II for its 'masterly simplicity' and one of Herbert's best interpreters calls it a tour de force in imitation of biblical psalms. It's all of that, and more.
The combination of glory and peace are titles of divine tension. Great power and great patience, visible majesty and surprising meekness, dazzling splendour and accommodating condescension, coalesce in the way God relates to human beings.
In Herbert's simple verses, the God who dwells in unapproachable light is being approached by someone whose praise is not fit for purpose, but it's all he has, and all he has he gives, his "utmost art." In these verses God is being approached in a 7/4 metre, like seven steps forward, four back, a rhythm of boldness followed by hesitation.
Praise and love energise each other in this and other Herbert poems. Herbert promises "I will love thee". But love is fulfilled when reciprocated in a mutual exchange of affection, a virtuous circle of loving and being loved.
Praise is cheap if it remains verbal. However clever the verse, it's the heart that matters, and Herbert uses verse as the vehicle of love, the giving of his very best, the cream of the milk. Singing is one thing; bringing the heart is what makes the words live.
As usual, and this is not a criticism, it is a liturgical and spiritual necessity, Herbert draws near to the King of Glory with trepidation because he can think of all kinds of reasons (sins) why he shouldn't dare. Equally we are unsurprised that God forgives, and what's more, silences the sins' arguments by ignoring them and listening instead to the sincere praise of Herbert's heart.
So a hymn. Not to be sung only on Sundays, but seven days a week. The rhythm of time in weeks, is set against the last two lines. Herbert's utmost art, and the cream of his heart every day, are not enough, and likewise no amount of skill and energy do justice to the King of Glory and of Peace;
ev'n eternitie is too short
to extol thee.
And in the penultimate line Herbert demonstrates the inadequacy of his utmost art by the deliberate faux pas of an eight metre line in a poem that has been 7/4 all the way through. What breaks the rhythm of verse, highlights the limits of eternity itself as sufficient to express fully the fullness of God's love. The entire purpose of the poem is "that love may never cease".
One critic comments, this is "a poem about itself; Herbert praises God while discussing his ability to do so." I think that is true, with one slight correction. What Herbert discusses with God is his inability to praise God adequately on while on earth and with human limitations. Then he gives up entirely, even eternity is too short! So we do what we can. We praise God with our best, rejoicing that God is beyond all our praising. After all God is God; not a problem to be solved but one who invites love and relationship, the I-Thou that is the refrain throughout in the odd numbered lines.
(The image is a photo of a tapestry of a stained glass window, worked freehand. The window is based on a Cezanne painting, worked by Roger Fry and titled Harvester.)
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