Jesse Sharpe PhD thesis - Research@StAndrews:FullText ...

Herbert Discussing the Word 168
Herbert prepares his reader for the final communion meal. He offers an
‘Invitation’ to the ‘Banquet’, with both poems overflowing with the joyous strains of one
of Herrick’s feasts. He reminds the reader of the fact that ‘Death’ has been transformed
from a fearful end of life into a beautiful reminder that the decayed corpse, the skeleton, is
powerless, for there is always the bodily resurrection to look forward to. ‘Dooms-day’ is
followed by the ‘Judgement’, and the reader is reminded that it is a ‘Testament’ that will
answer for one’s transgressions. It is the Incarnation that has once again been the force
that allows us a life with God, but this is a new life, one that allows his reader entrance to
the ‘Trinitie’. Then there is ‘Heaven’ – a reminder of the promise of eternal rest and
‘Leisure’, and that which God withheld in ‘The Pulley’ is finally being granted to
humanity, but it is not here, at the point of rest, that Herbert is going to leave his reader.
The reader is in heaven; he has overcome death, but the book and the journey are not over.
The true celebration is going to be the next and final poem of The Church. ‘Love (III)’ is
the end of ‘The Church’. It is a final moment in which Herbert and the reader are offered
true communion and true relationship with God.
The glimpse of the final banquet with God is so overwhelming that, despite the fact
that he now stands in the presence of God, Herbert cannot allow himself or the reader
‘quick and easie access’ to God. He is there with God, and God’s grace is now truly
irresistible, because it has been accepted to the point of death; however, even though it is
inescapable, Herbert still hesitates. Herbert may have handed over ‘a Testament’ 70 to get
past ‘Judgment’ and into ‘Heaven’, but he still ‘grow[s] slack’. 71
He simply cannot accept
that he is here. In ‘Love (III)’, the two finally come together for all time. Where ‘The
Altar’, ‘The Sacrifice’, and ‘The Thanksgiving’ opened the book with Herbert and Jesus
speaking to one another, though inhabiting separate poems, ‘Love (III)’ allows them to
70 ‘Judgement’, line 13.
71 ‘Love (III)’, line 3.