The
Pulley
When God at first made man,
Having a glass of blessings standing
by,
“Let us,” said he, “pour on him all
we can.
Let the world’s riches, which
dispersed lie,
Contract into a span.”
So strength first made a way;
Then beauty flowed, then wisdom, honour,
pleasure.
When almost all was out, God made a
stay,
Perceiving that, alone of all his
treasure,
Rest in the bottom lay.
“For if I should,” said he,
“Bestow this jewel also on my
creature,
He would adore my gifts instead of
me,
And rest in Nature, not the God of
Nature;
So both should losers be.
“Yet let him keep the rest,
But keep them with repining
restlessness;
Let him be rich and weary, that at
least,
If goodness lead him not, yet
weariness
May toss him to my breast.”
-
GEORGE HERBERT
# Paraphrase:
Here we can find some of the metaphysical word. Herbert’s
also can use paraphrase in this poem. Only Hope, the one good thing the box had
contained, remained to comfort humanity in its misfortunes. In this poem, the
fusion of the classical and the Christian add richness. The poem metaphysical
conceit, which is a pulley that draws man slowly toward God.
Pulleys and hoists are mechanical
devices aimed at assisting us with moving heavy loads through a system of ropes
and wheels to gain advantage. Here, we should not be surprised at the use of a
pulley as a central conceit since the domain of physics and imagery Herbert can
use in his poem.
# Summary /
Appreciation:
In the poem, the central idea
posited by Herbert is that when God made man, he poured all his blessings on
him, including strength, beauty, wisdom, honour and pleasure. We are told that
God “made a stay,” that is, He kept “Rest in the bottom.” God is aware that if
He were to bestow this “jewel” on Man as well then Man would adore God’s gifts
instead of God himself. God has withheld the gift of rest from man knowing
fully well that His other treasures would one day result in a spiritual
restlessness in man who, having tired of His material gifts would necessarily
turn to God in his exhaustion. God, being prescient, knows that there is the
possibility that even the wicked might not turn to Him, but He knows that eventually
mortal man is prone to lethargy; his lassitude, then, would be the leverage He
needed to toss man to His breast.
Applied to man in this poem, we can
say that the withholding of Rest by God is the leverage that draws mankind
towards God when other means would make that task difficult. However, we can
find that in the first line of the last stanza, Herbert puns on the word “rest”
suggesting that perhaps God will, after all, let man “keep the rest,” but such
a reading would the force behind the poem’s conceit. The importance of rest
and, by association, sleep- is an idea that was certainly uppermost in the
minds of writers.
Herbert’s The pulley, then, dose not presents a new concept. We can say that
the metaphysical poem is that a religious notion is conveyed through a secular,
scientific image that requires the reader’s understanding of, some basic low of
physics. Thus, “with repining restlessness,” man may wearily seek out God: the
apparent absence or lack of one good result in the formation of greater
goodness. Misery, therefore, possesses a pulley that helps man’s connection
with God by drawing the two together.
