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unknown,” the speaker reminds the readers “We say amiss / This or that
is, / Thy word is all, if we could spell” (14, 19-21). This evokes an image
of Christians corporately studying the Bible and engaging in debate over
theology. Yet, the speaker asserts that in concentrating on Scripture, the
Christians should “spell” (21). Here, spell likely means to “To engage in
study or contemplation of something” (OED). Thus, the speaker paints
a picture of corporate meditation assisting the readers in the stage of
purgation or “killing and quick’ning” (16). The end goal being corporate
sight, since God’s wonders are: “To make us see, we are but flowers that
glide. / Which when we once can find and prove, / Thou hast a garden
for us where to bide” (44-6). The metaphor of the dying and resurrecting
flower is to be considered by the Christians so that they all gain access to
a corporate place of unity abiding in Christ as flowers in a garden.
Furthermore, while “Aaron” and “Love III” chronicle the individual
believer’s interacting with God, the eventual goal of this individual’s
meditation or “tuning” into God is corporate worship. In “Aaron,”
after the speaker gets his “doctrine tuned by Christ,” he announces
“Come people; Aaron’s dressed” (23, 25). Using the figure of Aaron
allows Herbert to connect the speaker to a priest figure. Presumably,
the speaker is a minister whose goal in individual sanctification and
internal preparation is to engage with others leading corporate worship.
Appropriately, the poem ends with this very occurrence as the speaker
calls out for others to join him. In “Love III,” the speaker dialogues back
and forth with God, or Love, about the act of glazing or meditation
on Christ. At first the speaker is hesitant since in his sinful “unkind,
ungrateful” state he cannot view Love (9-10). Yet, Love assures him by
means of a rhetorical question that Love, or more specifically Christ,
“bore the blame” (15). Then, Love directs the speaker to “‘sit down . . .
and taste my meat’” (17). With this ending image of the speaker sitting
before Christ partaking in the Eucharist, Herbert again alludes to a
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corporate act of worship. Theologically speaking, the Eucharist is to be
an act of Christian communion both with Christ and other Christians;
thus, this act is intimately linked with the Anglo-Catholic liturgy and
in Calvinist Protestant circles made up one of the only ritualistic parts
of their church service. Ultimately, taking the Eucharist is a communal
meditation on Christ’s crucifixion. Thus, even when Herbert describes
individual, private meditation, he often links it to communal worship.
Thus, reading Donne and Herbert unbound from a specific faction
of the Church of England allows for an uncovering of their individual
visions of faith. Examining their use of verbal icons and combining this
idea with the act of Ignatian meditation opens the way for a provocative
reading of Donne’s and Herbert’s poetry. How Donne and Herbert
navigate the theological complexities of using iconic imagery showcases
differing views of the purpose of meditation—specifically, if it should
be primarily an individual or corporate event. More importantly, this
emphasis reveals Donne’s spiritual anxiety and vision of a faith defined
by the individual seeking the gaze of God, and Herbert’s use of corporate
meditation and vision of faith where, in community, the Christian must
gaze at God. These differing models of faith call for more examination
in other poems by Donne and Herbert as well as consideration of how
these visions would influence their views of personal identity. Certainly
these ideas would also be informed by Donne’s vision of the individual
in “Everlasting night” and Herbert’s vision of communities drawn to
“Immortal Heat.”
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