Herbert’s Poem “Virtue” /Title/devotional poetry
Herbert's poetry communicates his deeply religious view of the world. Herbert is called the devotional or the religious poet because he deals with such subjects. The theme of most of his poems is religion. He deals with the soul, God, life after death, the relation between human spirits and senses and so on. He talks of man's relation to God, of body to the soul, of the life here and to the life hereafter.
The title 'Virtue' (in Herbert's time the word was spelt 'vertue" which is a variant spelling ) is a quality of moral excellence. ‘Virtue' originally indicated a combination of supposedly 'manly' qualities, such as courage and goodness. Herbert here uses the word in a more theological or religious sense, to refer to spiritual goodness. If we analyse and deeply observe the poem ,we will find the exact element of what is considered to be religious ,devotional or virtuous or as 'Virtue'
In Virtue Herbert speaks of the permanence of a virtuous soul. All the beautiful things of the world including a sweet day a sweet rose and the sweet spring are subject to decay but a virtuous soul remains unchanged. To assert his points Herbert uses three images in this poem.
First he speaks of a sweet day which must comes to an end and be swallowed up by dark night. A cool, calm and bright day must come to an end with the passing of time and falling of night. The dew shall fall because of day will die in night. Here the tear is of mourning over the death of the sweet day. The poet asserts, turning a daily natural event, nightfall, into a metaphor. Beyond death, the line also suggests grief at the loss of paradise on Earth, the Fall, which is the original cause of death in the Judeo-Christian story of the Creation. Emotion and grief of the evening is equated with tears, which are shed at nightfall over the Fall, the sin that brought death into the world:
“The dew shall weep thy fall tonight;
For thou must die.”
Secondly he refers to a sweet rose which in spite of its sweet colour and fragrance is destined to wither.
Next, the poet observes a lovely delightful rose. The sweet rose has a bright crimson and red colour which indicates its angry mood adding a more splendid look. Accordingly to the poet, the rose seems to be asking the onlooker to wipe the tears from its eyes as it knows that it must fade away and die. The colour dazzles the eyes of the onlooker:
“Sweet rose, whose hue angry and brave
Bids the rash gazer wipe his eye,
Third image is the spring which is the sum of the first two images. The spring has both sweet days and roses, it is the time of year which is compared with a box of compressed sweet. Its density of life and sweetness makes an impression of eternity again, as the first two metaphors, but spring has an end too. This “end” feeling is given with the word “close” which is the musical ending, or a final chord. Thus the spring and therefore life, compared with a musical piece or a song, that also will end eventually. Thus, the poetic verse, like everything else the narrator has so far depicted, must come to an end, as it temporarily does with the four stressed and conclusive beats of the twelfth line:
“Sweet spring, full of sweet days and roses,
A box where sweets compacted lie,
My music shows ye have your closes,
And all must die.”
The last stanza is a bit different from others for it is not depicting an image or thing that will die or end. Herbert leads the reader to the last, slightly varied quatrain. It shows the only thing that will survive; it is a virtuous and kind soul, only it would endure the eternal flames of the doomsday when the “world turn to coal”, the kind and virtuous soul would not turn into coal or dust, like an ember. It will glow with its faith and virtue. Through a metaphoric explanation the poet says that A seasoned timber cannot be burnt and changed into coal and therefore it never surrender to corrosion. Similarly the virtuous soul remains unchanged in spite of the passing of time. Thus only the soul can live rightfully and eternally which is the only thing that would not die. Herbert contrasts the passing glories of the mortal world with the eternal glory of the immortal soul and thereby distinguishes between momentary and eternal value.
Interestingly the title does not seem to be applicable to much of the poem, till we realize that Herbert is actually attempting to define virtue by first explanation what is not. Consequently Herbert's poem does not assume the character of a threat. It serves, rather, as an instrument devised to wean both poet and reader off dependence on the visible world for joy and spiritual nourishment in order to redirect both poet and reader to the inner cultivation of virtue. or
Like metaphysical poetry, devotional poetry was especially prevalent in the seventeenth century, when the intersection of religion and politics dominated intellectual discussions; in fact, many of the authors of metaphysical poetry, including Donne, Vaughan, and Crashaw, are also renowned for their devotional poetry. In "Virtue," Herbert praises the virtue of the Creator by praising the beauty of the creation. Beyond that, he intuits from that beauty a dimension of existence attainable only through faith in and devotion to the Creator, not merely through what he has created.
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