There too is a repetition of the word ‘altar’ in connection with the word ‘sacrifice’ which, more logically than in Herbert, appears on top of the altar. This means that they contain five sets of two beats. Literature is one of her greatest passions which she pursues through analysing poetry on Poem Analysis. His altar, he declares, is constructed from a broken, stony heart that is offered as a sacrifice to God. It is arranged into three parts and ‘The Altar’ is contained in the second part known as “The Church”.

This emphasizes the object further after it has already appeared in the title and on the page through the shape of the lines. Join the conversation by. The puzzle continues on for another sixteen longer and shorter lines arranged to represent an altar balanced on a pillared base.

The parts of the “hard heart,” (an example of alliteration) come together to make the larger object. It appears untitled near the end of the “Haemon and Antigone” episode in his The Chaste and Lost Lovers, beginning with the lines “Those that Idalia’s wanton garments wear/ No Sacrifices for me must prepare”. The poem makes use of a simple rhyme scheme of AABBCCDD, and so on, changing end sounds with each couplet. The latter, imagery, refers to the elements of a poem that engage a reader’s senses.

All information has been reproduced here for educational and informational purposes to benefit site visitors, and is provided at no charge... Recite this poem (upload your own video or voice file). Wherefore each part Of my hard heart Meets in this frame To praise thy name. The first of these is unstressed and the second is stressed. The word “HEART” appears in all caps, again drawing a reader’s attention right to it. The next eight lines of ‘The Altar’ make up the center of the poem. [4], Poems in the form of an altar reappear in the Baroque period, written by educated authors who had come across the shaped poems preserved in the Greek anthology. His poem is also more serious in tone, for all that it is built on an extravagantly Baroque conceit. Wherefore each part Of my hard heart Meets in this frame To praise thy name.

It is the first in this portion of the book, mimicking the primacy of a physical altar in a church.

It is rhymed throughout in couplets and has lines of differing length (a pentameter followed by tetrameter) at the head which are reversed at the base. [8] The dedicatory poems to King James the First, prefacing Joshua Sylvester’s 1604 translation of a Christian epic by Du Bartas, occupy a position midway between Pagan and Christian. [11] Edward Benlowes’ poem “The Consecration”, in his Theophila, or Loves sacrifice: A divine poem (1652), was dissimilar in form from Herbert, but was surrounded by a drawn outline to make the likeness to an altar clearer,[12] as happened in some later editions of Herbert's poem. [10] Herbert’s is quantitively different, however. God is the only force with the power to do so.

We respect your privacy and take protecting it seriously. Subscribe to our mailing list to get the latest and greatest poetry updates. They have not been altered from how God made them. A broken ALTAR, Lord, thy servant rears, Made of a heart and cemented with tears; Whose parts are as thy hand did frame; No workman's tool hath touch'd the same.

The last lines are directed to God. The login page will open in a new tab. These stones to praise thee may not cease.

The speaker describes how stone by stone, and bit by bit, he’s going to create an altar to God out of his own body.

The first lines are written in iambic pentameter. The final quatrain of ‘The Altar’ is used to create the image of the altar’s base. The name of the creator of the earliest poem is known to be Dosiadas, but there is no other information about him. It is his plan, when his altar is complete, to use his heart as a means to worship and grow closer to God. In the first four lines of ‘The Altar,’ the speaker begins with the word “ALTAR” in all caps. The middle eight lines are considerably shorter than those before and after them. In this case, the shape of an altar.

A HEART alone Is such a stone, As nothing but Thy pow'r doth cut.