THE ALTAR INTRODUCTION

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In A Nutshell
By January 1633, George Herbert knew the end was near. He had been suffering all the
classic signs of tuberculosisor consumption as they called it back thenfor months.
This is the same disease that would killJohn Keats nearly 200 years later.

Shortly before he died in March, Herbert had a decision to make. He had written an
entire volume of poetry and hadn't really done anything with it. Realizing that maybe,
just maybe, somebody would want to read the poems he had painstakingly composed,
Herbert arranged all of them into a nice little book and sent it to a man named Edmond
Duncon, telling him to give it to a guy named Nicholas Ferrar. Herbert included the
following instructions to Ferrar: "if he can think it may turn to the advantage of any
dejected poor soul, let it be made public; if not let him burn it; for I and it are less than
the least of God's mercies" (source).

Ferrar didn't think twice, and Herbert's poems were published later in 1633 in a volume
called The Temple. Now, Herbert was a priest when he died, a deeply religious man. In
the same letter we just mentioned, he described his poems as a "picture of the many
spiritual conflicts that have passed betwixt God and my soul." Clearly, Herbert saw
poetry as a way to come to terms with one's religious faith, and he hoped that his
poems might guide others in the same way he guided them as their parish priest from
1630-1633.

The Temple is today recognized as one of the most important volumes of poetry
produced in the seventeenth century. The book is arranged in three parts. The first part
is a long poem called "The Church-Porch," the second part is called "The Church" and
contains many of Herbert's most famous poems (including "The Altar"), and the third
part is another longer poem called "The Church Militant." As you've probably gathered,
these sections were labeled to correspond roughly to different parts of a church (the
entrance, the church itself, and the entire community of believers).

"The Altar" is the first poem in the "The Church." This makes sense when you consider
that the altar (a special table used in religious ceremonies) is probably the first thing you
would notice upon walking into a church. Just as the poem is the basis for all the poems
that follow, so too are its lines a "picture" (literally and metaphorically) of the first stages
of one's relationship to God. The poem is about building a metaphorical altar made out
of one's heart, which is Herbert's way of saying the heart is where religious faith,
sacrifice, and praise of God truly begin. It sounds simple, but the poem also makes it
clear that building an "altar" is tough work (words like "tears" and "sacrifice" make that
obvious), and a "spiritual conflict." (You can check out The Temple, along with a
biography of Herbert, right here.) Centuries later, Ferrar's decision to save these poems
from the dust pile is why we have "The Altar" to work on today.

WHY SHOULD I CARE?

Everybody's always talking about multimedia these days. Actually, they've been talking
about it for the last fifteen years. Ever since it became really easy to make a PowerPoint
presentation, people have been incorporating technology into, well, just about
everything. It's not just that technology is cool. It's made life a lot more interesting for
just about all of us.

Think about it like this: if you had gone to high school in, say, 1850, and you were
studying British poetry of the seventeenth century, what do you think your classroom
experience would have been like? Do you think the teacher would have shown you a
short video clip on YouTube, then given a PowerPoint presentation with pictures, fun
facts, and maybe a link to a cool animation like this one? Not a chance. You would have
been stuck at your desk with a strict teacher who made you memorize tons and tons
and tons of lines of poetry (not that that can't also be fun, right?). The bottom line is this:
technology has made things a lot more exciting.

This brings us back to the seventeenth century and our new buddy George Herbert.
George Herbert was a lot of things: a priest, a member of parliament, and one of the
most important devotional poets of the period. You could also say he was an early
advocate of multimedia, or rather one of the first people to explore all of its potential.
What? How? Take a poem like "The Altar," or "Easter Wings." Both poems aren't just
poems. They are shape poems, what are called "concrete poems." These are poems
that are arranged to resemble the objects and themes they describe.

So, the poems utilize both the verbal (the words on the page) and the visual (the
shapes). That's two mediums, which makes them examples ofwait for itmultimedia.
Why does this matter? Well, for one, it makes Herbert a very distinct and memorable
poet. Ten years from now somebody will mention Herbert, and you'll be like "Oh yeah,
isn't he that dude who arranged some of his poems in little shapes?"

These shapes are also important because they ensure that the poems' major concerns
are always etched in our minds. As we read through a poem like the "The Altar," we
keep seeing the altar, literally. Herbert's poem definitely grapples with a complicated
subject (building a metaphorical alter to God that is made out of one's heart), and the
image is always there to make the poem's ideas a little more concrete.

At the end of the day, this is a poem about a table. That may not sound too incredible,
we know. Think about it for a second, though. Generally, tables are used to hold and
support things, but this table is special. When it comes to the kind of religious faith that
Herbert's describing in this poem, the most important table is the one you offer to God
in the form of your heart. So pull up a chair and let's dig in.

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THE ALTAR: TEXT OF THE POEM

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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.
A HEART alone
Is such a stone,
As nothing but
Thy pow'r doth cut.
Wherefore each part
Of my hard heart
Meets in this frame
To praise thy name.
That if I chance to hold my peace,
These stones to praise thee may not cease.
Oh, let thy blessed SACRIFICE be mine,
And sanctify this ALTAR to be thine.

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THE ALTAR SUMMARY

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Our speaker is a creative guy. He arranges his poem in the shape of an altar, and tells
God he's building an altar made out of his heart that is held together with tears. Nobody
has carved or fixed up the "stones" he's using to build it (they are just the way God
made them). He's putting all of his heart and soul into this altar in order to praise God,
and in order to leave something behind after he's dead and gone that will still praise
God. In the end, he wants God's sacrifice to be his, and for God to bless this altar he
has built for him.

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LINES 1-4 SUMMARY

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Get out the microscope, because were going through this

poem line-by-line.
Lines 1-2
A broken ALTAR, Lord, thy servant rears,
Made of a heart and cemented with tears;

Before we begin, let's talk big "picture." Did you happen to notice that "The Altar"
is arranged so that the words make the shape of an altar?
What's an altar, you might ask? This, Shmoopers, is an altaras isthis.
Poems like this that are arranged into a pretty little shape are called concrete
poems, or shape poems, or even visual poems. Herbert wrote another famous
one of these called "Easter Wings," which you can check out right here.
(And if you feel like looking at some concrete poems written by people not named
George Herbert, you can go right here.)
Here's something else to consider. The first thing we encounter in this poem is an
image, a picture of an altar.
While poets usually make their art with words, "The Altar" is a poem in which the
visual (the shape) is just as important as the words.
Whew, now that that is out of the way we can start talking about the words.
The speaker begins by talking about an altar. Thanks for the clue there, title.
Also, the ALL CAPS approach lets us know that the altar is going to be an
important thing in this poem.
He is addressing God (that makes sense too), and says that the Lord's servant
"rears" a broken altar.
That altar is made out of "a heart" (whatever that means) and "cemented with
tears."
In other words, God's servant (most likely our speaker) is building
ametaphorical altar out of his heart. It is a broken altar, but it's not all broken.
The various pieces of the altar are held together ("cemented") with the servant's
tears.
Okay this is definitely a gnarly metaphor. A broken altar made out of a heart that
is also cemented with tears?
 Let's start by talking more about what exactly an altar is. It is a special table used
in religious ceremonies (consecrations, sacrifices, and rituals of all kinds). In the
most general sense, an altar is used when people are doing things for God
praying, sacrificing, etc.
So, if an altar is made out of a heart, this is the speaker's way of saying that he
will be using his heart to pray, worship, or sacrifice to God. That's the best way to
think of it.
Now, there are at least two reasons why this special heart-altar could be
"broken."
First, God is perfect, and humans are not. Everything humans do is, in a sense,
"broken," or imperfectat least when compared to everything that God, a.k.a.
Mr. Perfection, can do.
Secondly, human beings sinthey make mistakes and do bad things. This heart-
altar is "broken" because it is made from a sinful heart. Got it? Great.
As for those tears, think about it like this: the altar is associated with sacrifice,
and sacrifice involves pain.
Therefore, the altar is held together by the speaker's tears because he's making
a sacrifice, plain and simple.
Just in case you were wondering, our friend here lifted this whole idea about
offering a broken, sinful heart to God from the Old Testament. We give
you Psalms 51:17: "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and
contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise."
The speaker may also, however, have a passage from the New Testament in
mind: "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present
your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your
reasonable service" (Romans 12:1). (You can read the whole chapter right here if
you like.)
Whew, we need a break after this biblical workout we just had.
Let's take a quick peek at the meter first, though.
Like about a zillion other English poets, Herbert utilizes iambic pentameter in
these lines.
This means that each line contains five ("penta-" means five) iambs(two-syllable
pairs in which an unstressed syllable is followed by a stressed one).
You can read more about the form and meter of this poem over at well, "Form
and Meter."

Lines 3-4
Whose parts are as thy hand did frame;
No workman's tool hath touch'd the same.

The speaker continues to describe the altar he has made. He tells God that the
altar's "parts" haven't been changed at all.
In other words, the individual pieces that the speaker has used to build it are
exactly the way God made ("frame[d]") them.
Let's say you wanted to build a bird house out of pieces of wood that you found in
your backyard, and decided that you weren't going to cut the pieces of wood at
all but just arrange them as you found them (no sanding, no cutting, no anything).
Yep, that's what the speaker is saying here. He makes that very clear in line 4
when he says that no tools have "touch'd" the altar's parts. He has collected the
materials for his altar and built it without shaping them, altering them, or really
doing anything to them.
Now, part of the reason the speaker is being so specific about all this stuff is
because he's trying to stick to the rules God lays down about altars in Exodus,
the second book of the Old Testament.
In chapter 20, verse 25, God says that if his followers are going to build him an
altar, they cannot use "hewn stone"i.e., stone that is been cut or shaped by
"tools."
Okay, cool, but why can't they use "hewn stone"? Great question. Many have
interpreted this passage from Exodus as God's way of telling his followers to
keep things simple and pure.
It's almost as if God were saying, "Hey guys, it's totally cool if you want to build
an altar so you can worship me, but keep it simple and basic. Use natural, pure
materials, and don't go crazy trying to build some super elaborate altar."
Lots of commentators say that God wanted things this way because he knew
that, if his people were allowed to "hew" stones and build elaborate altars, they
would be more likely to carve little figurines and other images, and perhaps begin
to worship them instead of God. This evil threat was called idolatry, and it shows
up in the Old Testament in about oh, 976 different places. (You can read all
about it right here.)
So, now that we've had our little biblical history lesson for the day, how the heck
does this all relate to lines 3-4 of "The Altar"?
Well, for one, the speaker says he is building an altar. To prove that he is
following all the old-school rules, he says it is composed entirely of natural
elements (no fancy masonry, no clever carving, nothing).
 Cool, so his altar complies with biblical code, with all of the requirements laid
down in Exodus.
Remember, however, that the "altar" isn't exactly a real altar, and that this is also
a metaphor for the speaker's own sacrifice, or offering of himself. The speaker
offers his hearthimselfin all his imperfect glory.
He is a sinner and has made mistakes, and yet he is offering himself to God.
He's not going to sugar-coat anything or try to "carve" or "hew" himself into some
pretty little shape just to impress God.
In addition, keep in mind that the altar is also the poem itself. It is called "The
Altar," and it is arranged in the shape of a pretty little altar.
In a way, then, the speaker is also saying that the poem-altar is an imperfect
work of art. It is merely an arrangement of materials the speaker has taken from
his brain.
If we could paraphrase the speaker's whole point here, it would go like this: "Hi
God, here is my altar-poem for you. I haven't done anything too fancy. I've just
done my best and written down some things that came to mind. I didn't labor and
craft and spend a whole lot of time doing this."
Now, there is definitely some irony going on here.
The poem is absolutely, 100% "hewn." It is a carefully and elaborately arranged
piece of art.
The speaker sticks closely to whatever meter he uses, he follows a
regular rhyme scheme (AABBCCmore on this in "Form and Meter"), and the
whole thing is carefully structured to resemble an altar. Sheesh, these poets
are always pretending to be so modest, aren't they?
We are puzzled, to say the least, but this puzzlement is actually a hallmark of
Herbert's style.
He is often classified as one of the metaphysical poets, a group of dudes in the
seventeenth century who wrote elaborate, sometimes confusing, but also
thought-provoking poems.
Their signature move was the conceit, an elaborate metaphor comparing two
radically different things in a surprising way (a great example is when Donne
compares his desire to have sex with a woman to a fleathat's right). You can
read a little bit about conceits right here.
Now, while Herbert doesn't really employ a conceit here per se, all the confusion
we're experiencing gives the poem a well, metaphysical flavor.
Lastly, before we go any further, did you notice that these lines are a little shorter
than the first two?
 While lines 1-2 are written in iambic pentameter, lines 3-4 are written in iambic
tetrameter, which just means there are four iambs ("tetra-" means four) in each
line instead of 5. Again, check out "Form and Meter" for more on that.

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LINES 5-12 SUMMARY

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Get out the microscope, because were going through this

poem line-by-line.
Lines 5-8
A HEART alone
Is such a stone,
As nothing but
Thy pow'r doth cut.

Now we're in the middle of the "altar" (i.e., in the middle of the poem and its
shape), and the speaker uses a metaphor to describe the heart in more detail.
The heart is a kind of stone, and the only thing that could have "cut" it, or shaped
it to be the way it is, is God's power. In other words, the heart is unique and so
special that only God could have made it.
This is a way of saying that all things come from God. He made them all, and
they all show the sings of his craftsmanship, his tools, his cutting.
 Altars used to be made out of stones. Recall that, in Exodus 20:25, God
describes what stones should and shouldn't be used in the construction of altars.
The speaker has already mentioned that he's building an altar out of his heart,
and here he elaborates further.
He's essentially telling us here that the heart is also a type of stone that can be
used to build altars, and that it is a kind of stone that complies with the altar-
building regulations.
It hasn't been "cut" or manipulated by anybody but God. Remember, Exodus
20:25 says that no "hewn" stones should be used in the construction of altars. No
workmen are to do anything whatsoever to the stones that are used to build the
altar.
Just like he did earlier, the speaker is again letting everybody know, including
God, that he is playing by the rules.
He's not just playing by biblical rules, however, but poetic rules.
These lines are much shorter than lines 1-4, but the speaker still uses regular,
perfect iambs.
This time, however, there are only two beats per line, making these examples of
iambic dimeter ("di-" meansyou guessed ittwo).
Before we go on, we just want to point out how neat it is that the word "HEART"
shows up in all capital letters right in the heart of the poem.
The importance of the heart to the proper worship of God is emphasized by its
placement in big, bold letters right in the middle of the "altar" (the shape).

Lines 9-12
Wherefore each part
Of my hard heart
Meets in this frame
To praise thy name

The speaker continues with the "stone" metaphor and talks about how each
"part" of his "hard heart" comes together to praise God.
Okay, they don't just come together, they come together "in this frame" to praise
Him.
"Frame" is one of the most important words in this poem, and we'll tell you why.
Often, poets use this word to refer to the body. The word also refers to the poem
itselfit is a "frame" or scaffold (an altar) of words that the poet has built.
 So, the speaker is saying that "each part" of his heart comes together to praise
God's name, both in the poem and in real life (most likely). The poem-altar is a
labor into which the speaker has put all of his heart, an idea we've already
encountered.
In the poems' first two lines, after all, the speaker has straight-up said that he
was rearing an altar made out of a heart and cemented with tears. These lines
reiterate that point, but also emphasize that the altar is both the speaker's
offering of himself and the poem itself.
We've got a poem-heart-altar on our hands here.
Okay, okay, we know this is kind of confusing and complicated and, yeah, just a
wee bit bizarre.
Then again, we're dealing with a poem that is attempting to discuss a mysterious
and difficult spiritual concept (the construction of metaphorical altars to praise
God). It makes sense that things are a little confusing.
Anyway, let's keep moving forward to see if the speaker sheds any more light on
some of the confusions we're dealing with here.

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LINES 13-16 SUMMARY

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Get out the microscope, because were going through this

poem line-by-line.
Lines 13-14
That if I chance to hold my peace,
These stones to praise thee may not cease.

We're back to iambic tetrameter here (which means these lines contain
four iambs).
The speaker tells us essentially that he's written this poem just in case something
happens to him. If he chances to hold his "peace," the "stones" that make up the
poem will continue to praise the Lord long afterwards.
These lines allude to a famous passage in the Gospel of Luke, where Jesus says
that, even if his disciples were to stop praising the Lord, the stones themselves
would cry out.
Now this whole little bit about "peace" is interesting here. On the one hand, it
means, essentially, to stop talking, as it does in the passage from Luke (and as it
does in wedding ceremonies).
It can also have a more sinister meaning, though, and refer to death. If the
speaker dies, or loses his voice, then the poem will act as his surrogate and
praise God even if he's "quiet."
Okay, we have to ask, if these lines are perhaps also about death, what's with all
this "chance" business? Isn't death the only guaranteed thing in life?
Well yescome to think of it, death is the only guaranteed thing in life. So what's
the deal?
We're gonna go ahead and say that the speaker is thinking a little about his
eternal life and all that here.
If the speaker is lucky and makes it to heaven and is able to live forever, then he
will never technically "hold" his "peace."
If he doesn't make it however, then, yes, he will not have eternal life and will
definitely be holding his peace (keeping quiet).
So, the poem is in a way the speaker's second self. It is an altar and offering, one
that praises God and will continue to praise God, just like the speaker has
presumably done throughout his life, for years to come.
Now we're pretty sure you've already figured this out, but "stones" continues with
the whole stone-altar image that's been floating around throughout the poem.
We also know that the speaker has compared his heart to a "stone" too, so once
again we are reminded that the altar refers to both the poem and something
more metaphorical: the stones that comprise it are the pieces of the speaker's
heart.
 His heart is his offering, and it also infuses the poem itself. He's put his whole
heart into it, you could say (and, hey, we just did).

Lines 15-16
Oh, let thy blessed SACRIFICE be mine,
And sanctify this ALTAR to be thine.

At last we've come to the end of the "The Altar," and to the end of the altar (get
it?).
Once again, the speaker addresses God directly and asks for God's sacrifice to
be his (the speaker's), and for God to bless and sanctify his altar.
Woah okay, now hold on a second. Just what sacrifice did God make, if we may
ask?
Ah, this is a reference to Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who died upon the cross
in order to redeem mankind.
God knew this was going to happen, and while he wasn't exactly okay with it, he
knew that it was necessary (and that Jesus was going to come back to life three
days later anyway).
The point is, this was a sacrifice on God's part.
So then does the speaker want to sacrifice his own son? Eh, not exactly. What
he really means is he wants to make a similarly difficult sacrifice.
In other words, he's saying something like this: "God, let me take up my own
cross, my own burden, and carry it and suffer for your sake."
Sure, he doesn't say that outright, but usually when a super-Christian poet talks
about sacrifice like this, he's getting at this idea. (Read more about it right here, if
you like.)
Now we know the speaker has been talking about his altar-building project as a
sacrifice this whole time, and we also know that is a difficult and painful project
(tears, anyone?).
Building an altar out of his own heart and then offering it to God is the speaker's
way of taking up his own cross.
It is his way of sacrificing his time and enduring hard labor in order to praise God
and give him everything he has. Since he's put all this time and effort into the
project, he wants God to accept it and bless it ("sanctify") as a worthy sacrifice.
He wants God to say, essentially, "Good job sir, I accept this sacrifice, and give it
my full support, errr, blessing."
 We've come full circle at this point. Not only does the speaker go back to
the iambic pentameter with which he began, he's back to talking about sacrifices
(remember all that business about tears?).
He's made an altar, only this altar is no ordinary altar. It's the human body itself
the speaker's heart, the center of his emotional being.
He's arranged it into an altar, and thus turned it into something that he can offer
to God, even if it is broke, hard, imperfect, and all that.
This offering isn't just a heart, but a poem in praise of God as well.
The altar is both the speaker and his work of art. You could say it's everything he
has and everything he does.

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CONSTRUCTION AND BUILDING

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Symbol Analysis
Building and construction are everywhere in this poem. It's about an altar, but also
about all the steps the speaker has taken to build his altar. An altar has been "reared."
That altar is "cemented" (i.e., held together) with tears. No tools have been used, and all
the "stones" that make up the altar have been left just the way the master stonemason,
God, has made them. So what's up with all this building, you ask? Well, the act of
building is the poem's metaphor for the process of praising God in the form of sacrifice,
and for the process of poetic creation. The speaker builds an altar to God and offers
himself, but he also builds a poem that, he hopes, will praise God even after he has
died.
 Lines 1-2: The speaker refers to himself in the third person and describes the
altar being reared (it is broken but "cemented" with tears). The altar is both the
poem itself and the speaker's heart (asymbol, in fact, for his entire being).
Line 3: "Frame" is here a verb used to describe God's act of creation. Later in the
poem it will be used as a noun to refer to the poem itself. If God "frames" things,
and the speaker also makes a "frame" (the poem), then the speaker himself is
kind of like a mini-God or mini-creator.
Line 4: The speaker alludes to Exodus 20:25 and says that all the pieces of his
altar have been assembled just the way they are (they haven't been altered or
manipulated in any way). This allusionunderscores the speaker's strict religious
principles and is a metaphor for the act of offering oneself to God just as one is
(i.e., imperfect, sinful, "broke," etc.).
Lines 5-6: The speaker uses a metaphor here to compare the heart to a stone.
These lines reiterate the point made in lines 1-2; namely, that an altar can be
constructed out of the pieces of one's heart.
Lines 7-8: God is here compared to a stonemason of some kind. This metaphor
essentially says that the human heart could only have been created by God. It is
also the speaker's way of showing his adherence to biblical rules. He's making
an altar out of his heart, and the only builder or stonemason who has touched
that heart is God.
Line 12: The word "frame" here refers to the poem. The word echoes God's act
of "framing" in line 3, and thus suggests that the creation of poetry is similar to an
act of biblical creation.
Lines 13-14: We encounter the word "stones" again, and this time they are a
metaphor for the lines of the poem itself. The speaker is wondering what will
happen when he dies, and he hopes that his poem will continue to "speak" for
him after that happens.

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THE HEART
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Symbol Analysis
The word "heart" shows up four times in this poem. In a poem that's only 16 lines long,
that's once every four linesquite a bit when you think about it. This is because the
heart is really, really important. It is the seat of emotion and the "altar" upon which
religious faith is built. That's basically what the speaker says in this poem. He builds an
altar that is made out of his heart (a way of saying he's offering himself completely to
God). In addition, the altar that is his poem is also full of his heart. Toward the end he
talks about how all the parts of his "hard heart" meet in the poem to praise God. In
short, the heart is the driving force behind religious faith (or praise of God) and artistic
creation.

Line 2: The altar is made out of the speaker's heart. Of course, it's
not literally made out of a heart, so this is a metaphor for the fact that the
speaker's heart and soulhis entire emotional beingis being offered to God.
Lines 5-8: A heart isn't really a "stone," so this is again a metaphor for the fact
that the heart is one of the building blocks for the speaker's altar and his poem.
The heart is the basis or foundation for both.
Lines 9-12: Again, the speaker points out the centrality of his "heart" to the altar-
poem he has constructed. All the parts of his "hard heart" come together in the
"frame" that is the poem, in order to praise God. This is basically a metaphor for
the fact that the speaker his put his entire soul into writing and composing this
poem in praise of God.

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SACRIFICE
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Symbol Analysis
"The Altar" is a poem about sacrifice. It's not a gruesome animal sacrifice or anything
like that. No, it's a more spiritual sacrifice, one that involves, time, labor, and dedication.
The kind of sacrifice on display here is the construction of an altar to God, but an altar
that is made out of one's heart. Huh? Obviously this isn't a literal altar, but
a metaphorical one, an offering of one's entire being. In addition to the sacrifice involved
in this offering, the speaker also mentions God's own sacrifice, by which he probably
means Jesus' death on the cross. (Jesus was God's son, Jesus died, God knew it was
gonna happen, and so therefore it's a sacrifice.) The speaker mentions this sacrifice as
an example of the kind of sacrifice he too wants to make in order to show his religious
faith.

Lines 1-2: The speaker's altar is broken, but it is nonetheless an immense

sacrifice. "Broken" is a metaphor for the speaker's imperfect, sinful nature. The
altar isn't literally "cemented with tears," so this phrase is a metaphor the
sacrifice, labor, and pain involved in offering one's heart to God.
Line 15: The speaker refers to God's "sacrifice," by which he means the death of
God's son, Jesus, on the cross. Asking that God's sacrifice be his own, the
speaker is metaphorically asking for the courage to offer himself to God, or the
courage to face any challenges and struggles he may encounter while serving
God.

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ANALYSIS: FORM AND METER

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Iambic Verse
We can tell just by looking at "The Altar" that its meter is irregular (i.e., it doesn't follow a
set pattern). Some lines are shorter than others. They have to be, otherwise Mr. George
Herbert would not have been able to arrange them in the shape of a little altar like he's
done. Now we say irregular, but there is actually some predictability here. Every line is
comprised of iambs. So what's an iamb? We're glad you asked, Shmoopers. An iamb is
the most common type of beat in English poetry, and it consists of an unstressed
syllable followed by a stressed syllable.

The first two lines of the poem, then, are in iambic pentameter, the most common meter
in English poetry:

A broken ALTAR, Lord, thy servant rears. (1)

You should hear five iambs in a row there: daDUM daDUM daDUM daDUM daDUM.
Lines 3-4, meanwhile, are iambic tetrameter, which means they contain four iambs,
whereas lines 5-12 are iambic dimeter, which means that they only have two iambs:

Meets in this frame

To praise thy name. (11-12)

We should also mention that the poem is kind of like a nice little sandwich when it
comes to meter: two lines of pentameter, two lines of tetrameter, eight lines of dimeter
in the middle, then two lines of tetrameter, and finally two lines of pentameter again to
wrap things upyummy.

In addition, "The Altar" also has a nice little rhyme scheme to go along with its pretty
little shape. It is composed of seven couplets, which are just successive lines that
rhyme with each other (the rhyme scheme is AABBCCDDEEBBGGHH, in which each
letter represents an end rhymesound). If you look closely, you'll notice that the "B"
rhyme occurs four times, partly because the speaker uses the word "frame" twice (hmm,
must be an important idea).

So, putting this all together, we could say that we have a poem that is both
regular and irregular. All the lines contain iambs, but there are at least three types of
meter (iambic pentameter, tetrameter, and dimeter) going on. The poem contains seven
different rhyming sounds (remember, the "B" rhyme repeats itself). So what do we
make of this? Well, the speaker is a little unsure of himself. He knows he is imperfect
(hence the irregularity), and he knows that someday he might die or stop preaching
(that's what he means by holding his "peace").

The altar the speaker describes is both a sturdy, stone structure and also one that is
broken. The poem itself is the same way: regular and irregular, neatly organized and yet
a little ragged. In other words, the poem's shape resembles an altar but so do its other
formal elements (rhyme and meter). Pretty neat, eh?

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ANALYSIS: SPEAKER
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If we had to describe the speaker of the "The Altar" in just one word, and one word only,
that word would be religious. If we could have two words, we would say super-
religious. If we could have three, we would say, well super-duper-religious. Check it
out: he writes a poem called "The Altar" that also happens to be in the shape of an altar.
On top of that, there are biblical references all over the place (Exodus 20:25, Psalm
51:17, Luke 19:40, to name just three).

It's not just that the speaker knows his Bible really well, or can make cute little shapes
that have religious significance, although this is part of it. He's also a very devout man,
one dedicated to making sacrifices for, and praising, his god. Things do get a little
confusing, that's for sure, but clearly the speaker has built an altar that is both the poem
itself (it's in the shape of an altar, remember), and the speaker's heart: "each part / Of
my hard heart meets in this frame / To praise thy name" (9-11). And the poem-altar will
continue to praise God long after the speaker ceases to exist: "That if I chance to hold
my peace / These stones to praise thee may not cease" (13-14).
Another sign of the speaker's devout religious beliefs is the fact that he really goes out
of his way to make sure his heart-poem-altar complies with all of the different
instructions in the Bible. In Exodus, for example, God specifically says that altars should
not be built out of "hewn stone," while in the book of Psalms the singer says that the
proper sacrifices for God are a "broken and contrite heart." The speaker offers both a
"broken" heart and an altar of unhewn stone.

Knowledgeable about the Bible? Check. Super-duper-devout? Check. What else can
we say about the speaker? Well he's got a knack for creativity, that's for sure, and he's
well aware of his imperfections. All that stuff about broken hearts and tears is his way of
recognizing that he's a sinner. He knows God will not judge him for this, and that all he
has to do is offer up his heart just the way God made it (imperfect).

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ANALYSIS: SETTING
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Where It All Goes Down

We're all over the place in this poem. Okay, not really, but there a few things to discuss
when it comes to the whole issue of the poem's setting. This poem definitely has a
meditative feel, don't you think? All we mean by that is that in some ways it resembles
something a guy would recite out loud in his bedroom before going to bed, kind of like a
prayer or something.

Let's run with this for a little while longer. Let's suppose the guy reciting this poem in his
bedroom at night is George Herbert. Okay, cool. Herbert was a priest, and worked for
the last three years of his life (1630-1633) in the small village of Bemerton. Back in
those days, Bemerton was still pretty rural, the kind of small village where everybody
knew each other. It was the kind of place where a guy like Herbert was able to visit
regularly most of his parishioners and offer spiritual counsel.

We can't talk about Bemerton and Herbert's life there without also talking about St.
Andrew's Church, where Herbert preached and lived. St. Andrew's was a small, one-
room building that could only seat about 30 people (that's about the size of a classroom,
folks). Herbert actually used his own money to have the place fixed up when he got
there in 1630, which you can read a little bit about right here. We can't read "The Altar,"
or really any of Herbert's poems, without thinking about his life in the small village of
Bemerton.

Before we move on, we need to talk about all those stones in the poem. No, this poem
doesn't take place in a granite quarry or something like that. However, the references to
stones, and all the echoes of the Old Testament(see our "Allusions" section for more on
that), make us think of the world of the Old Testament. Now by "world of the Old
Testament," we mean way back in the B.C.E. days. In those days, God was in much
more regular contact with his followers (at least according to the Bible), he was a little
meaner, the rules were stricter, and, well, life was much harder. People essentially lived
in primitive villages, and Judaism was in its infancy. While Herbert doesn't go on at
great length about this world, you could say it's the background of "The Altar," which
refers to it in passing a number of times.

The best way to summarize this poem's setting is like this: old and newthe old, old
world of the Old Testament, which is hinted at here and there, and the newer world of
1630, when Herbert was writing and preaching. Okay, we know it's not that "new," but it
is when compared to the Old Testament.

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ANALYSIS: SOUND CHECK

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Herbert is often called a "devotional poet," which means his poetry is characterized by,
well, devotion to God. If you take a quick gander at some of his poems right here, heck
even just the titles, you'll see what we mean. "The Altar" is no exception to this general
rule; it has all the hallmark sounds of devotional poetry.

Okay, so what does that mean? Well, did you notice that the poem kind of sounds like a
prayer, or an offering? Check out these lines to see what we mean: "Oh, let thy blessed
SACRIFCE be mind / And sanctify this ALTAR to be thine" (15-16). That whole bit about
sanctifying the "ALTAR"? Yeah, that's just like saying "accept this sacrifice God, and
bless it as my humble offering." The same goes for the lines where the speaker says,
"That if I chance to hold my peace / These stones to praise thee may not cease" (13-
14). That definitely sounds like this famous children's bedtime prayer. Let's not forget
the poem's opening lines: "A broken ALTAR, Lord, thy servant rears, / Made of a heart
and cemented with tears" (1-2). Those lines are right up there with any number of
different prayers and blessings that have a little "Lord" or "Oh Lord" right at the
beginning, like this one that you may have heard.

All the long-vowel sounds in this poem definitely add to its devotional flavor. For
example there's the lone O sound in "alone" and "stone," then there's the long E of
"cease" and "peace," the long I of "mine" and "thine," and of course the long A of
"frame," "same," and "name." Long vowels are a little more serious than short vowels.
They take longer to pronounce (hence why they are called "long"), and there's
something more reverent or solemn about them (try saying the word "alone" a few times
aloud to yourself to see what we mean). They are the perfect addition to a poem that is
about building an altar and offering oneself to God, a solemn and serious topic if there
ever was one.

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ANALYSIS: WHAT'S UP WITH

THE TITLE?
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"The Altar": not "an altar," or "that altar," or "this altar," but the altar. Okay, well we know
the poem is about an altar, and even if we weren't sure, it's arranged in the shape of
neat little altar so we would probably figure it out eventually, right? Right. So what's why
the word "the" anyway?

First, if you've read our "In a Nutshell" section, you know that the poem was published in
a little volume called The Temple (1633), and that each of the three sections was
named after something to do with a church ("The Church Porch," "The Church," and
"The Church Militant"). Well, "The Altar" is the first poem in the "The Church," and it is
called "The Altar" because, if you imagine the speaker giving you a tour of his book-
temple-church, then you can imagine him saying, "here is the altar folks."

Okay, so far so good. If the poem is the altar in Herbert's poetic church, what else does
this mean? Well, if the altar is a special table used in religious ceremonies (prayer,
praise, readings, and the like), it follows that it is also perhaps one of the most important
items in the church. It's kind of like a centerpiece, the basis for just about everything that
happens in church.

The poem itself is the basis for all the other poems in the second section of "The
Temple," but it also describes the basic elements of praising, sacrificing, and worshiping
God. The altar of religious faith, you could say, is the painful labor of offering one's heart
to God (that's where all that business about building an altar out of one's heart and
cementing it with tears comes in), which is just what our speaker is describing in the
poem.

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ANALYSIS: CALLING CARD

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We've mentioned a few times that Herbert is a devotional poet, which just means that
his poetry is devoted to Godto the whole series of issues related to praising God
(offering things to him, praying to him, etc.). We've seen how the speaker of the "The
Altar" describes his poem as a series of "stones" that will "praise" God long after he is
dead and gone, but you can literally pick up just about any Herbert poem and find
something related to the question of praising God (how to do it, what it entails, and the
like).

Take "The Temper" as an example. In the poem's first lines, the speaker asks "How
should I praise thee, Lord! How should my rhymes / Gladly engrave thy love in steel" (1-
2). In "The Elixer," the speaker asks God to teach him how to do everything as if "for
Thee" (4). In "The Thanksgiving"the speaker says, "Thy love I will turn back on thee"
(21), while in an untitled sonnet not included in The Temple, the speaker notes that
"Each cloud distills thy [God's] praise" (4).

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ANALYSIS: TOUGH-O-METER
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(5) Tree Line

Cute little altar shape aside, "The Altar" is no walk in the park. If you read through it ten
times and still have no clue just what in the world Herbert is talking about, you can be
forgiven. Sure, Herbert doesn't use any crazy vocabulary words or write any huge, long
sentences like, say, John Milton. On the contrary, the words and sentences in this poem
are actually pretty simple. It's the poem's themes and ideas that will leave you
scratching your head.

All this confusion starts at the very beginning, with the speaker telling us about an altar
he has built that is made out of a heart and cemented with tears. Then he goes on
about how the heart is also a stone, and no workmen have touched it, and everything
he uses to build his altar was "cut" by God. We have to admit, we were stumped at first,
too. However, once you start to check out the biblical passages Herbert had in mind
while writing the poem, and once you work through the metaphors (the altar is both the
poem itself but also the speaker's heart, which he offers to God), then things start to
click. And you want them to click; Herbert's themes can be quite profound, if you just
give him a chance.

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ANALYSIS: TRIVIA
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Brain Snacks: Tasty Tidbits of Knowledge

Some people definitely thought Herbert's shape poems were a joke. John Dryden,
another famous seventeenth-century poet, hinted at his distaste for them in Mac
Flecknoe: "Leave writing plays, and choose for they command / Some peaceful
province in acrostic land. / There thou may'st wings display and altars raise, / And
torture one poor word ten thousand ways." Cold burn. (Source.)
You could say that George Herbert was connected. His family was wealthy and
"eminent," and Magdalen, his mother, was a patron and friend of fellow poet John
Donne. (Source.)

John Donne wasn't just a casual friend of the Herberts. He was close enough that he
actually gave the sermon at Herbert's mother's funeral. (Source.)

Herbert definitely knew what it meant to make sacrifices for God. He abandoned good
opportunities at both Cambridge and in Parliament to become a priest. (Source.)

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Cite This Page

ANALYSIS: STEAMINESS
RATING
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Exactly how steamy is this poem?

PG
"The Altar" is a very serious spiritual statement. It's about building an altar for God and
praising him. There's really nothing remotely sexual about this poem, and in fact it would
be really weird if there were.

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ANALYSIS: ALLUSIONS
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When poets refer to other great works, people, and

events, its usually not accidental. Put on your super-
sleuth hat and figure out why.
Literary and Philosophical References:
Psalms 51:17 (1-2)
Romans 12:1 (1-2)
Exodus 20:25 (3-4)
Ezekiel 36:26-27 (5-6; 9-10)
Luke 19:40 (13-14)
Deuteronomy 27:6 (6; 14)

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THE ALTAR THEME OF

RELIGION
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George Herbert was a very, very very religious man. In fact, he was a priest in the
Anglican Church for a number of years before he died. It's no surprise, then, that "The
Altar" is about religion and spirituality, and, more specifically, about offering oneself to
God. This is the whole point of the altar that the speaker talks about. It's made out of his
heart, which is his way of saying, "Dear God, I've taken my heart and made an altar out
of it for you. I'm giving you everything I haveincluding this poem." The speaker offers
his entire emotional being to God, and wants to take up his cross, as they say, by
making sacrifices for (and praising) his lord (that's what all that business about sacrifice
and tears is about in this poem).

Questions About Religion

1. How does the poem's shape affect the way we interpret its religious themes?
Does it enhance them? Draw our attention away from them? Why do you think
so?
2. Okay, we've got to ask: is there something bizarre about making an altar out of
one's heart, really? How would the speaker answer this question?
3. Does the speaker's sacrifice and labor for God seem genuine? Why or why not?
4. Does this poem seem preachy at all, or does it communicate serious religious
ideas in an engaging and memorable way? Which parts of the poem give you
your answer?

Chew on This
Try on an opinion or two, start a debate, or play the devils advocate.
Dig it: art is only possible through the skills and materials provided by God, the "stones"
he has cut and the heart he has provided.

A relationship with God isn't easy. It involves labor, sacrifice, and a fair share of pain.
The payoff, however, could be salvation and eternal life (at least according to Herbert).

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THE ALTAR THEME OF ART AND

CULTURE
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"The Altar" is as much about the art of poetry itself as it is about the speaker's
relationship to God. The speaker arranges the words in the shape of an altar, showing
us that he can make use of two artistic mediums (words and shapes) at the same time.
He kills two artistic birds with one poem (or feeds two birds with one seed, if you prefer).
It is clear throughout the poem that both the metaphorical altar made of out of the
speaker's heart and the poem itself are the same thing. In other words, the act of
constructing a sacrificial altar is the same as constructing a poem. Art then, for the
speaker, is very closely associated with the act of sacrificing to, and praising, God.

Questions About Art and Culture

1. Is there anything wrong with the speaker calling his poem an altar?
2. What do you make of the whole shape thing anyway? Does it make you take the
poem less seriously? Why or why not?
3. Does the speaker think he is a bad poet, really? Is he too humble?
4. In what ways does this poem resemble a hymn or prayer? What effect does this
have as you read and interpret it?

Chew on This
Try on an opinion or two, start a debate, or play the devils advocate.
For the speaker of this poem, writing poetry and praising God are the same thing. They
cannot be separatedso don't even try it, pal.

It's not all deep thoughts and high-fives. Writing poetry is just like any other sacrifice:
painful and laborious.
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THE ALTAR RELIGION QUOTES

See more famous quotes from poetry

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How we cite our quotes: (Line)

Quote #1
A broken ALTAR, Lord, they servant rears
And cemented with tears (1-2)
Well, the rhyme on "rears" and "tears" is sure interesting. It suggests that rearing an
altar, a form of sacrifice and prayer, is painful, to say the least.

Religion
Quote #2
Whose parts are as thy hand did frame;
No workman's tool hath touch'd the same (3-4)
The speaker refers to the book of Exodus here, partly to let everybody know that he's a
very devout fellow, but also to pay some respect to his lord. He implies here that God is
the master "workman," and nobody else.

Religion
 Quote #3
A HEART alone
Is such a stone,
As nothing but
Thy pow'r doth cut (5-8)
The speaker points out the supremacy of God. Only the Lord is capable of "cutting" a
heart, meaning that only a being as powerful as God can create human life. God is the
only true creator, the only legitimate "workman."

Religion

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How we cite our quotes: (Line)

Quote #4
Wherefore each part
Of my hard heart
Meets in this frame
To praise thy name (9-12)
The poem's religious or devotional bent is made very clear here, especially in the rhyme
on "frame" and "name." The "frame" is both the poem itself and the speaker's body, and
the fact that the word rhymes with "name" tells us that God is a very big part of both.

Religion
Quote #5
That if I chance to hold my peace,
These stones to praise thee may not cease (13-14)
The speaker has figured out a way to praise God even if something happens to him: the
poem will be his surrogate. It will ensure that he continues to spread the good word
even after he's no longer able to talk (i.e., after he's dead).
 Religion
Quote #6
Oh, let thy blessed SACRIFCE be mine,
And sanctify this ALTAR to be thine (15-16)
The speaker wants to make his altar a religious offering. The thing is, the altar is both
the poem and the speaker's offering of himself. He's built the poem-heart-altar with God
in mind, and now he wants God to bless it and make it a sacred, spiritual, object.

Religion

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THE ALTAR ART AND CULTURE

QUOTES
See more famous quotes from poetry

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How we cite our quotes: (Line)

Quote #1
A broken ALTAR, Lord, they servant rears
Made of a heart and cemented with tears (1-2)
We know the poem is in the shape of an altar, so we know the "broken altar" refers to
the poem itself. There's definitely some irony going on here because the poem is
carefully and artfully arranged, which means it's definitely not broken.

Art and Culture

Quote #2
Whose parts are as thy hand did frame;
No workman's tool hath touch'd the same (3-4)
Well, it sounds like the altar is "broken"through no fault of the speaker. All the "parts"
that make up the poem are just the way God made them. The speaker isn't responsible
here as everything he has used to compose his poem comes from God.

Art and Culture

Quote #3
Wherefore each part
Of my hard heart
Meets in this frame
To praise thy name (9-12)
"Frame" refers both to the metaphorical altar the speaker has been talking about this
whole time but also, of course, to the poem itself. If all of his "heart" meets in the "frame"
that is the poem, then we can definitely say he has put his all into composing this poem
and using it to praise God.

Art and Culture

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How we cite our quotes: (Line)

Quote #4
That if I chance to hold my peace
These stones to praise thee may not cease (13-14)
"Stones" here refers to the materials that make up the poem, but also to the speaker's
heart. Like about a million other poets, the speaker here imagines his poem outliving
him and continuing to speak (to "praise" God) long after he has died. Poetry is immortal.

Art and Culture

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THE ALTAR QUESTIONS

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Bring on the tough stuff - theres not just one right answer.
1. Why do you think Herbert decided to arrange "The Altar" in the shape of an altar?
What effect does this have?
2. What is the effect of all the biblical allusions in this poem? Do they make poem
seem more like a collection of quotations than an original work of art? Do they
make the poet seem more learned? Or pretentious?
3. Herbert is often called a metaphysical poet. How do you feel about this label?
How does his poetry compare to, say, a poem like this one by John Donne?
4. Do you find this poem inspiring or moving? Why or why not?
5. What is the significance of the words that are in all capitals ("ALTAR," "HEART,"
"SACRIFICE," "ALTAR")? What do you make of the order in which they appear?
6. Why do you think Herbert never published his poetry while he was alive?

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