Spatial and Aural Patterns in "The Windows"

Spatial and Aural Patterns in The Windows" by RobeM h U,-îv Criticism of the last twenty-five years has greatly advanced the study of Herbert's architectural skill and musical craftmanship in poetry The Temple as a metaphorical structure of many levels, its divisions into segments of the church, its various poems named according to parts of the church, and its shaped poems such as "The Altar" are the overt testimonies to Herbert's spatial sense In addition , the integral roles of rhythm, meter, and sounds noted in many poems attest to the hand of Herbert the musician. However, one poem m which the presence of effective spatial and aural patterns has largely been ignored is "The Windows "Most critical commentary has focused on the striking visual conceit uniting the poem and on the pleasing theme of the qualities of the ideal preacher: thus, attention has been diverted from the other functional techniques. The reader misses vital aspects of the poem's meaning if he is not sensitive to the spatial progression occurring at this particular point t ? The Temple to the significance of the typographical s ha ping in this particular poem, and to the argument emanating from a highly organized pattern of sound m the poem The Windows Lord, how can man preach thy eternali word? He is a brittle crazie glasse: Yet in thy temple thou dost him afford This glorious and transcendent place, To be a window, through thy grace. But when thou dost anneal in glasse thy storie, Making thy life to shine within The holy Preachers: then the light and glorie More rev'rend grows, & more doth win: Which else shows watrish, bleak & thin. Doctrine and life, colours and light, in one When they combine and mingle, bring A strong regard and aw: but speech alone Doth vanish like a flaring thing, And in the eare, not conscience ring.1 38 A NOTE ON "THE WINDOWS" The extent to which The Temple depicts a journey through space and/or time has been debated extensively2 There seems to be general agreement, though, that literal spatial progressions are apparent in certain clusters of poems, regardless of their larger metaphorical or symbolic meanings. A case in point is the logical grouping of the three poems in which "The Windows" appears. The sequence as printed in The Temple takes one from "Church-lock and key" to "The Church-floore" to "The Windows."3 In other words, on the literal level one proceeds spatially from the door of the church to the floor across its nave and, finally, to the window. One should see that these windows, on the literal spatial level, are those which are elevated behind the altar in the chancel: i.e., the windows are at the opposite end of the church from the entrance door implied in "Church-lock and key." One might best envision this by relating the windows to those of the present century in the church at Bemerton- three of them elevated on the wall behind the altar 4 In his liturgical role as intermediary between God and the congregation, the preacher looks toward the altar and windows in order to address God. In symbolic terms, one sees that the light of God coming through these chancel windows provides the absolution for the sinner who has come through the door (thus related to sin as the "Church- lock") at the other end of the church — i.e., the light of God's grace absolves sin. and this grace comes through the intermediary windows By means of the straightforward spatial progression in this group of three poems, then, Herbert prepares us to visualize the preacher, elevated in the chancel, facing the altar and windows, and addressing God in the first line of "The Windows But even more impressive is the way in which Herbert shapes each stanza as a subtle embodiment of the relationship between God, the preacher, and the congregation: i.e., the spatial and spiritual relationship within the church is embodied in the typographical form of each stanza As J. Max Patrick notes, the more one studies Herbert's poems the more apparent it is that he uses "significant stanza patterning and...