Like the psalmist who stored up his tears in a bottle (Psalm 56.8), Herbert then hands over the tears he has shed in this frustrating give and take with Hope. Hope has a heavenly origin and can be made effective not simply by reciting prayers but by dedicated attention to the long view and a willingness to work and act in such a way that it is brought nearer to this world in the same way that a telescope brings distant realities into our living rooms.
In return, Hope gives him a telescope, an optick, through which great things can be seen from a distance.
This is a symbol of his devotion through life, in all its turbulence and peacefulness. Herbert then gives another gift – an old prayer-book. Or maybe the watch, a human mechanism with hands that seek to contain each moment, falsely embodies the idea that hope is human in origin and not of God, eternal in source and scope? Is this Herbert mistakenly thinking that hope is time-bound? Is it a present that is stuck in the present while hope looks patiently ahead? It is given to Herbert in response to his gift of a watch. With its cruciform shape, and with words from the letter to the Hebrews in mind, that ‘the hope set before us’ is ‘an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast’ (6.18–19), it is an emblem for one of the three Christian virtues that sometimes gets overlooked. He uses it as the first gift that Hope, who is a personification of Christ here, gives to him. ‘Hope’ is another poem by Herbert that includes reference to an anchor. These included Herbert who, in gratitude, wrote a poem in Latin to Donne exploring the image. Not long before he died, Donne is said to have had copies of the seal made to be sent to the friends he valued most. When Herbert’s contemporary John Donne was ordained, he adopted a seal with a particular design on it: Christ crucified on an anchor.
Then an old prayer-book I did present:Īh Loyterer! I’le no more, no more I’le bring: This is an extract from Mark Oakley's volume My Sour-Sweet Days: George Herbert and the Journey of the Soul.Īn anchor gave to me. With this in mind, we are sharing a poem by George Herbert called Hope, with a commentary from Mark Oakley. National Poetry Day is celebrated every year on the first Thursday of October, and encourages everyone to enjoy, discover and share poetry.
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