Just thought I'd point out some important things I found in Herbert's "The Collar.":
The poem is similar to Donne's Holy Sonnets in that it is violence against God or not against God, but violence that somehow involves God. The third meaning to Collar that most readers do not know is choler which is within one of the four humours- yellow vile which is anger. The rope described in line #22 isn't a physical rope, but as rope within the mind of the speaker. Throughout the entire poem the speaker is denying his faith with God, he's trying to escape the "collar" of religion...he's making his case until the final to lines, when he believes he heard the lord call to him "Childe" and in response he says "My Lord." By saying "My Lord" he's pretty much ending his argument and accepting the collar that restrains him from leaving the faith of God.
The form of the poem is quite random in that there is no set order to how the lines are setup, but this just adds to the speaker's attitude. The attitude in which the speaker has no real discipline toward rebellion, as we see he makes his case and quickly dismisses it when the Lord is present.
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5 comments:
I agree with vin's comments about the collar. THe speaker is certainly feling trapped within his fatih and he is continuosly fighting to get out and trying to tell the reader why he wants out. It seems like he ciontradicts himself because he has little faith in God or his religion but at the end accepts God's wocie and replys to him. This shows that the speaker has suddenly somehow renewed his relationship with God or is just very obedient to him becasue he knows that if God speaks to you. you repsond. I think that the speaker is rather cowardly becuase he tells us how he wants out of this relationship but when God speaks and the speaker knows god is around he stops his rebelious attitude. However, the speaker neglects to realize that God is ever present and knows about the speakers thoughts. The characteristics of the speaker in this poem are responsibility, anger, and the burden of his religion on him. These actually do seem to relate to each other becuase he has this burden since he has accepted the responsibility of being a man of god in the first place. The burden has lead him to have anger at not only the religion but also himself for accepting the religion in the first place. That's what I think.
Kerth made the last comment.
The reason that the narrator stops his internal argument is that God called on him and he heard his calling. His calling was that God wanted him to be a 'man of the cloth'. It wasn't that he gave up or is a coward because he wants out of this position that he is in. Being a preist has a very large burden with it and I respect anyone in his position because of the burden put on them. Plus it is a completely human thing to not want to have a huge burden placed on your shoulders. But he is not a coward because he hears his calling again and answers and stays a preist.
I thought that this poem was very clever with it's three meanings for collar. Choler = 1 of the 4 humors , this one being yellow biile which means anger which is definately shown in the poem. Also, a priests collar shows him being "strangled by his faith" and the poem talks about how he does not know what he believes in is true or not. Also, oxens, horses and other animals wear collars to pull carts... usually called yokes. The poem talks about responsibility, burden, and anger.
-ERICA SPAIN!
The collar has a rather angry tone the character seems to feel resticted by the collar he feels the priest hood keeps him from doing things many people get to do.the title is very interesting because it has many meanings it is showing the tone because collar can stand for collaric or angry also it is stating the collar involved with priest hood. It the end though the character relizes this is his duty to answer God when he is called.
Caitlin McCarty
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