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George Herbert’s “Prayer” or “The Prayer”
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This essay problematizes the conventional reading of George Herbert’s “Prayer (I)” as an extraordinary poetic enterprise of demonstrating the inadequacy of metaphoric language for a clear definition of prayer. Inspired by some of the recent scholarly focuses on the experiential and performative aspect of the poem, I argue that “Prayer (I)” is not so much a premeditated failure of metaphorizing prayer for any aesthetic or religious reason as an untrammeled spiritual footprint of which contour and depth can best be traced and fathomed no other than by those who pray. For this purpose, I reexamine the linguistic and poetic structure of the poem, foregrounding “the Church’s banquet,” the unmistakable imagery of the Eucharist, as an anchoring metaphor. And I explore how closely all those apparently obscure and slippery images are stitched together in terms of thematic consistency. “Prayer (I)” is no doubt a sumptuous banquet of metaphors; yet they are not something imagined to crystalize the definitional essence of prayer. Rather they are there as spiritual hieroglyphics of diverse associations triggered by the act of praying, an implication that the understanding of “Prayer (I)” is predicated predominantly upon unique Christian experiences.
Abstract
This essay problematizes the conventional reading of George Herbert’s “Prayer (I)” as an extraordinary poetic enterprise of demonstrating the inadequacy of metaphoric language for a clear definition of prayer. Inspired by some of the recent scholarly focuses on the experiential and performative aspect of the poem, I argue that “Prayer (I)” is not so much a premeditated failure of metaphorizing prayer for any aesthetic or religious reason as an untrammeled spiritual footprint of which contour and depth can best be traced and fathomed no other than by those who pray. For this purpose, I reexamine the linguistic and poetic structure of the poem, foregrounding “the Church’s banquet,” the unmistakable imagery of the Eucharist, as an anchoring metaphor. And I explore how closely all those apparently obscure and slippery images are stitched together in terms of thematic consistency. “Prayer (I)” is no doubt a sumptuous banquet of metaphors; yet they are not something imagined to crystalize the definitional essence of prayer. Rather they are there as spiritual hieroglyphics of diverse associations triggered by the act of praying, an implication that the understanding of “Prayer (I)” is predicated predominantly upon unique Christian experiences.
참고문헌 (14)
- Calvin, John, "Institutes of the Christian Religion. Vol. 2" (1953), James Clarke
- De Voragine, Jacobus, "The Golden Legend: Readings on the Saints. Vol. 1" (1993), Princeton UP
- Di Cesare, Mario A., "Image and Allusion in Herbert’s ‘Prayer (I)’", English Literary Renaissance, 11(3), pp.304~328 (1981)
- Gordon, James M., "Significant Stuttering about the Inexpressible", The Evangelical Quarterly, 73(2), pp.155~166 (2001)
- Greenwood, E. B., "George Herbert’s Sonnet ‘Prayer’: A Stylistic Study", Essays in Criticism, 15(1), pp.27~45 (1951)
- Hodgkins, Christopher, "Authority, Church, and Society in George Herbert: Return to the Middle Way" (1993), U of Missouri P
- Murphy, J. Stephen, "Ejaculatory Poetics and the Writing of Ecstasy in George Herbert’s ‘Prayer (I)’", George Herbert Journal, 24(1,2), pp.19~34 (2000)
- Schoenfeldt, Michael C., "Prayer and Power: George Herbert and Renaissance Courtship" (1991), U of Chicago P
- Slater, Ann Pasternak, "George Herbert: The Complete English Works" (1995), Alfred A. Knopf
- Stanwood, P. G., "The Liveliness of Flesh and Blood: Herbert’s ‘Prayer I’ and ‘Love III’", Seventeenth-Century News, 31, pp.52~53 (1973)
- Vendler, Helen, "The Poetry of George Herbert" (1975), Harvard U Press
- Virginia R. Mollenkott, "George Herbert’s Epithet-Sonnets", Genre, 5, pp.131~137 (1972)
- Walker, John David, "The Architectonics of George Herbert’s The Temple", English Literary History, 29(3), pp.289~305 (1962)
- Wilcox, Helen, "The English Poems of George Herbert" (2007), Cambridge UP