The Altar

X (Close panel) Bibliographic Information

The Altar

Original Source

See witness list.

Witness List

  • Witness w: Williams MS. Jones B62
  • Witness b: Bodleian MS. Tanner 307
  • Witness p: The Temple: Sacred Poems and Private Ejaculations, first edition (Cambridge, 1633)

Textual Notes

Electronic Edition Information:

Responsibility Statement:
  • Transcribed, encoded, and edited by Robert Whalen
  • Sponsored by Northern Michigan University and the National Endowment for the Humanities
  • Funding provided by Northern Michigan University and the National Endowment for the Humanities
Publication Details:

Published by Robert Whalen for demonstration purposes only. May not be reproduced without permission..

Encoding Principles

"The Altar" is part of a comprehensive edition of George Herbert's English verse, The Digital Temple. This larger project includes computer-readable transcriptions, in both original- and modern-spelling versions, of Williams MS. Jones B62, Bodleian MS. Tanner 307, and a copy of The Temple: Sacred Poems and Private Ejaculations, first edition (Cambridge, 1633); high-resolution digital images of the sources (excepting the Latin verse in Williams); an apparatus that includes critical, textual, and technical introductions and annotations; and a user interface with which to navigate these materials.

Transcriptions are encoded in TEI(P5)-conformant XML.

Currently, only the Williams images and transcriptions are captured directly from the source. Images (where available) and transcriptions of the Bodleian MS. and first edition are captured from Scolar black-and-white facsimiles.

Apparent errors are preserved and editorial corrections provided using SIC and CORR tags, but only where the editor conjectures that the original scribe or compositor would have recognized the instance as an error. For example, what according to modern usage is incorrect subject/verb agreement might have been deemed acceptable to a seventeenth-century scribe or compositor. All such instances are treated instead using the ORIG and REG tags. (See below.)

Original spellings, abbreviations, and orthography are preserved and regularizations provided. Where in the manuscripts a character's status as majuscule or miniscule is ambiguous, the editor has silently chosen one or the other based on context and judgment (i.e., does not register such ambiguity in either the markup or the notes).

Original quotation marks, if any, are preserved.

Original hyphenation is preserved.

X (Close panel)Version w: Williams MS. Jones B62
Facsimile Image Placeholder
Facsimile Image Placeholder
Facsimile Image Placeholder
The Altar.
The Altar
The Altar.
n
Note: See Wilcox (89) for the poem's debt to the pattern and schola cordis (School of the Heart) emblem traditions.
The title signifies the stone altar that in Catholic tradition was associated with Christ's sacrifice on the Cross; the speaker's heart offered as a "living sacrifice" (Romans 12:1); the poem itself and The Temple as a whole. (The following poem in all three sources happens to be "The Sacrifice.")
Though metaphorically the speaker's heart, the phrase broken Altar/ALTAR in the first line would have provocatively suggested Reformation acts of iconoclasm that included the removal and/or destruction of such remnants of the old religion. Toward the end of Herbert's life, advocates of ceremonial worship and what Archbishop William Laud was to call the Beauty of Holiness boldly restored the altars to a place of prominence in some English churches.
The Cambridge printers' innovation in #p—i.e., the upper-case rendering of ALTAR, HEART, and SACRIFICE—foregrounds as complementary the poem's devotional and ceremonial features, and thereby privileges a via media reading of an otherwise ideologically conflicted poem. Indeed, the change from onely to bleſsed in line 15 of witness #w suggests Herbert's concern that onely sacrifice might seem a Protestant emphasis on the uniqueness of the Atonement at the expense of more Catholic notions of Real Presence and the replication of sacrifice in the ritual of the Eucharist. (According to the 31st of the Thirty-Nine Articles, "the Offering of Christ once made is that perfect redemption, propitiation, and satisfaction, for all the sins of the whole world, both original and actual; and there is none other satisfaction for sin, but that alone. Wherefore the sacrifices of Masses, in the which it was commonly said, that the Priest did offer Christ for the quick and the dead, to have remission of pain or guilt, were blasphemous fables, and dangerous deceits.") Such revision exemplifies what historian Anthony Milton has called "negative popery": the increasing tendency of some early Stuart divines to advance Catholic ideas minus the once de rigueur caveats disavowing them. (Catholic and Reformed, 63-72.) Wilcox's reading—that the #w version unrevised "reveals H.'s assumption that there is now only one sacrifice" (93)—seems to suggest that the revision somehow left intact the earlier and more decidedly Protestant assertion.
1
A broken Altar lord thy servant
reares
Regularized form: rears
A broken Altar, Lord, thy servant
reares
Regularized form: rears
A broken A L T A R, Lord, thy
ſervant
Regularized form: servant
reares
Regularized form: rears
,
n
Note: reares: brings into existence by constructing (OED 9), a meaning at odds with broken only if it is assumed that the speaker could have anything more to offer than a broken heart. The word also connotes raising the dead (OED 3.a), by extension the Resurrection, itself a triumph in which the broken body of Christ is raised to be a glorified body.
2
Made of a
Hart
Regularized form: Heart
and
cimented
Regularized form: cemented
wth
Regularized form: with
teares
Regularized form: tears
.
Made of a heart,
&
Regularized form: and
cimented
Regularized form: cemented
with
teares
Regularized form: tears
.
Made of a heart, and cemented with
teares
Regularized form: tears
:
3
Whose parts are as thy hand did frame
Whose parts are, as thy hand did frame;
Whoſe
Regularized form: Whose
parts are as thy hand did frame;
n
Note: frame: prepare, as a carpenter, for use in building (OED 4). Jesus was a carpenter (Mark 6:3) and is "a son over his own house; whose house are we," for "he that built all things is God" (Hebrews 3:4-6).
4
this
No
workmans
Regularized form: workman's
toole
Regularized form: tool
hath touch'd
ye
Regularized form: the
same
No
workemans
Regularized form: workman's
toole
Regularized form: tool
hath touch'd
ye
Regularized form: the
same.
No
workmans
Regularized form: workman's
tool hath touch'd the
ſame
Regularized form: same
.
5
A
Hart
Regularized form: Heart
alone
A heart alone
A H E A R T alone
n
Note: alone: only.
6
Is such a stone
Is such a stone,
Is
ſuch
Regularized form: such
a
ſtone
Regularized form: stone
,
7
As nothing but
As nothing but
As nothing but
8
Thy
powre
Regularized form: power
doth
cutt
Regularized form: cut
.
Thy power doth cut.
Thy pow'r doth cut.
n
Note: Lines 5-8: "Only a heart is so hard as that God's power alone is able to penetrate it."
9
Wherefore each part
Wherefor
Regularized form: Wherefore
each part
Wherefore each part
10
Øf
Regularized form: Of
my hard
hart
Regularized form: heart
Of my hard heart
Of my hard heart
11
Meets in this frame
Meets in this frame,
n
Note: frame: i.e., the poem; the stone altar of sacrifice; the speaker's body which houses his hart/heart—"My body is the frame wherein 'tis held" (Shakespeare, Sonnet 24, line 3)— and is "the temple of God" (1 Corinthians 3:16).
12
To
praiſe
Regularized form: praise
thy name
To praise thy Name.
To
praiſe
Regularized form: praise
thy name.
13
That If I chance to hold my peace
That, if I chance to hold my peace,
That if I chance to hold my peace,
14
Theſe
Regularized form: These
stones to
praiſe
Regularized form: praise
thee may not
ceaſe
Regularized form: cease
These stones to praise thee may not cease.
Theſe
Regularized form: These
ſtones
Regularized form: stones
to
praiſe
Regularized form: praise
thee may not
ceaſe
Regularized form: cease
.
n
Note: Lines 13-14: "And some of the Pharisees from among the multitude said unto him, Master, rebuke thy disciples. And he answered and said unto them, I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out" (Luke 19:39-40).
15
Ø
Regularized form: O
lett
Regularized form: let
thy
onely
Regularized form: only
bleſsed
Regularized form: blessed
sacrifice
bee
Regularized form: be
mine,
O
lett
Regularized form: let
thy blessed sacrifice be mine,
O let thy
bleſſed
Regularized form: blessed
S A C R I F I C E be mine,
n
Note: See headnote for the significance of the #w emendation.
16
And
sanctifie
Regularized form: sanctify
this Altar to
bee
Regularized form: be
thine.
And sanctify this Altar to be thine.
And
ſanctifie
Regularized form: sanctify
this A L T A R to be thine.
n
Note: Lines 15-16: For the multiple significations of Altar/ALTAR, see headnote and the note for line 11. Though the placement of SACRIFICE over ALTAR in #p is fortuitous and perhaps deliberate (as is the "broken" spacing of the words in these as well as lines 1 and 5), the layout in both manuscripts is unremarkable. But for Altar having a majuscule initial, neither word there is distinguished in any way. Had Herbert intended to highlight them in #w (the only source in which he is known to have had a hand), he might have specified an italic script, as indeed he does elsewhere in #w—for example, in the final line of "Poetry" (entitled "The Quiddity" in #b/#p).
X (Close panel)Version b: Bodleian MS. Tanner 307
Facsimile Image Placeholder
Facsimile Image Placeholder
Facsimile Image Placeholder
The Altar.
The Altar
The Altar.
n
Note: See Wilcox (89) for the poem's debt to the pattern and schola cordis (School of the Heart) emblem traditions.
The title signifies the stone altar that in Catholic tradition was associated with Christ's sacrifice on the Cross; the speaker's heart offered as a "living sacrifice" (Romans 12:1); the poem itself and The Temple as a whole. (The following poem in all three sources happens to be "The Sacrifice.")
Though metaphorically the speaker's heart, the phrase broken Altar/ALTAR in the first line would have provocatively suggested Reformation acts of iconoclasm that included the removal and/or destruction of such remnants of the old religion. Toward the end of Herbert's life, advocates of ceremonial worship and what Archbishop William Laud was to call the Beauty of Holiness boldly restored the altars to a place of prominence in some English churches.
The Cambridge printers' innovation in #p—i.e., the upper-case rendering of ALTAR, HEART, and SACRIFICE—foregrounds as complementary the poem's devotional and ceremonial features, and thereby privileges a via media reading of an otherwise ideologically conflicted poem. Indeed, the change from onely to bleſsed in line 15 of witness #w suggests Herbert's concern that onely sacrifice might seem a Protestant emphasis on the uniqueness of the Atonement at the expense of more Catholic notions of Real Presence and the replication of sacrifice in the ritual of the Eucharist. (According to the 31st of the Thirty-Nine Articles, "the Offering of Christ once made is that perfect redemption, propitiation, and satisfaction, for all the sins of the whole world, both original and actual; and there is none other satisfaction for sin, but that alone. Wherefore the sacrifices of Masses, in the which it was commonly said, that the Priest did offer Christ for the quick and the dead, to have remission of pain or guilt, were blasphemous fables, and dangerous deceits.") Such revision exemplifies what historian Anthony Milton has called "negative popery": the increasing tendency of some early Stuart divines to advance Catholic ideas minus the once de rigueur caveats disavowing them. (Catholic and Reformed, 63-72.) Wilcox's reading—that the #w version unrevised "reveals H.'s assumption that there is now only one sacrifice" (93)—seems to suggest that the revision somehow left intact the earlier and more decidedly Protestant assertion.
1
A broken Altar lord thy servant
reares
Regularized form: rears
A broken Altar, Lord, thy servant
reares
Regularized form: rears
A broken A L T A R, Lord, thy
ſervant
Regularized form: servant
reares
Regularized form: rears
,
n
Note: reares: brings into existence by constructing (OED 9), a meaning at odds with broken only if it is assumed that the speaker could have anything more to offer than a broken heart. The word also connotes raising the dead (OED 3.a), by extension the Resurrection, itself a triumph in which the broken body of Christ is raised to be a glorified body.
2
Made of a
Hart
Regularized form: Heart
and
cimented
Regularized form: cemented
wth
Regularized form: with
teares
Regularized form: tears
.
Made of a heart,
&
Regularized form: and
cimented
Regularized form: cemented
with
teares
Regularized form: tears
.
Made of a heart, and cemented with
teares
Regularized form: tears
:
3
Whose parts are as thy hand did frame
Whose parts are, as thy hand did frame;
Whoſe
Regularized form: Whose
parts are as thy hand did frame;
n
Note: frame: prepare, as a carpenter, for use in building (OED 4). Jesus was a carpenter (Mark 6:3) and is "a son over his own house; whose house are we," for "he that built all things is God" (Hebrews 3:4-6).
4
this
No
workmans
Regularized form: workman's
toole
Regularized form: tool
hath touch'd
ye
Regularized form: the
same
No
workemans
Regularized form: workman's
toole
Regularized form: tool
hath touch'd
ye
Regularized form: the
same.
No
workmans
Regularized form: workman's
tool hath touch'd the
ſame
Regularized form: same
.
5
A
Hart
Regularized form: Heart
alone
A heart alone
A H E A R T alone
n
Note: alone: only.
6
Is such a stone
Is such a stone,
Is
ſuch
Regularized form: such
a
ſtone
Regularized form: stone
,
7
As nothing but
As nothing but
As nothing but
8
Thy
powre
Regularized form: power
doth
cutt
Regularized form: cut
.
Thy power doth cut.
Thy pow'r doth cut.
n
Note: Lines 5-8: "Only a heart is so hard as that God's power alone is able to penetrate it."
9
Wherefore each part
Wherefor
Regularized form: Wherefore
each part
Wherefore each part
10
Øf
Regularized form: Of
my hard
hart
Regularized form: heart
Of my hard heart
Of my hard heart
11
Meets in this frame
Meets in this frame,
n
Note: frame: i.e., the poem; the stone altar of sacrifice; the speaker's body which houses his hart/heart—"My body is the frame wherein 'tis held" (Shakespeare, Sonnet 24, line 3)— and is "the temple of God" (1 Corinthians 3:16).
12
To
praiſe
Regularized form: praise
thy name
To praise thy Name.
To
praiſe
Regularized form: praise
thy name.
13
That If I chance to hold my peace
That, if I chance to hold my peace,
That if I chance to hold my peace,
14
Theſe
Regularized form: These
stones to
praiſe
Regularized form: praise
thee may not
ceaſe
Regularized form: cease
These stones to praise thee may not cease.
Theſe
Regularized form: These
ſtones
Regularized form: stones
to
praiſe
Regularized form: praise
thee may not
ceaſe
Regularized form: cease
.
n
Note: Lines 13-14: "And some of the Pharisees from among the multitude said unto him, Master, rebuke thy disciples. And he answered and said unto them, I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out" (Luke 19:39-40).
15
Ø
Regularized form: O
lett
Regularized form: let
thy
onely
Regularized form: only
bleſsed
Regularized form: blessed
sacrifice
bee
Regularized form: be
mine,
O
lett
Regularized form: let
thy blessed sacrifice be mine,
O let thy
bleſſed
Regularized form: blessed
S A C R I F I C E be mine,
n
Note: See headnote for the significance of the #w emendation.
16
And
sanctifie
Regularized form: sanctify
this Altar to
bee
Regularized form: be
thine.
And sanctify this Altar to be thine.
And
ſanctifie
Regularized form: sanctify
this A L T A R to be thine.
n
Note: Lines 15-16: For the multiple significations of Altar/ALTAR, see headnote and the note for line 11. Though the placement of SACRIFICE over ALTAR in #p is fortuitous and perhaps deliberate (as is the "broken" spacing of the words in these as well as lines 1 and 5), the layout in both manuscripts is unremarkable. But for Altar having a majuscule initial, neither word there is distinguished in any way. Had Herbert intended to highlight them in #w (the only source in which he is known to have had a hand), he might have specified an italic script, as indeed he does elsewhere in #w—for example, in the final line of "Poetry" (entitled "The Quiddity" in #b/#p).
X (Close panel)Version p: The Temple: Sacred Poems and Private Ejaculations, first edition (Cambridge, 1633)
Facsimile Image Placeholder
Facsimile Image Placeholder
Facsimile Image Placeholder
The Altar.
The Altar
The Altar.
n
Note: See Wilcox (89) for the poem's debt to the pattern and schola cordis (School of the Heart) emblem traditions.
The title signifies the stone altar that in Catholic tradition was associated with Christ's sacrifice on the Cross; the speaker's heart offered as a "living sacrifice" (Romans 12:1); the poem itself and The Temple as a whole. (The following poem in all three sources happens to be "The Sacrifice.")
Though metaphorically the speaker's heart, the phrase broken Altar/ALTAR in the first line would have provocatively suggested Reformation acts of iconoclasm that included the removal and/or destruction of such remnants of the old religion. Toward the end of Herbert's life, advocates of ceremonial worship and what Archbishop William Laud was to call the Beauty of Holiness boldly restored the altars to a place of prominence in some English churches.
The Cambridge printers' innovation in #p—i.e., the upper-case rendering of ALTAR, HEART, and SACRIFICE—foregrounds as complementary the poem's devotional and ceremonial features, and thereby privileges a via media reading of an otherwise ideologically conflicted poem. Indeed, the change from onely to bleſsed in line 15 of witness #w suggests Herbert's concern that onely sacrifice might seem a Protestant emphasis on the uniqueness of the Atonement at the expense of more Catholic notions of Real Presence and the replication of sacrifice in the ritual of the Eucharist. (According to the 31st of the Thirty-Nine Articles, "the Offering of Christ once made is that perfect redemption, propitiation, and satisfaction, for all the sins of the whole world, both original and actual; and there is none other satisfaction for sin, but that alone. Wherefore the sacrifices of Masses, in the which it was commonly said, that the Priest did offer Christ for the quick and the dead, to have remission of pain or guilt, were blasphemous fables, and dangerous deceits.") Such revision exemplifies what historian Anthony Milton has called "negative popery": the increasing tendency of some early Stuart divines to advance Catholic ideas minus the once de rigueur caveats disavowing them. (Catholic and Reformed, 63-72.) Wilcox's reading—that the #w version unrevised "reveals H.'s assumption that there is now only one sacrifice" (93)—seems to suggest that the revision somehow left intact the earlier and more decidedly Protestant assertion.
1
A broken Altar lord thy servant
reares
Regularized form: rears
A broken Altar, Lord, thy servant
reares
Regularized form: rears
A broken A L T A R, Lord, thy
ſervant
Regularized form: servant
reares
Regularized form: rears
,
n
Note: reares: brings into existence by constructing (OED 9), a meaning at odds with broken only if it is assumed that the speaker could have anything more to offer than a broken heart. The word also connotes raising the dead (OED 3.a), by extension the Resurrection, itself a triumph in which the broken body of Christ is raised to be a glorified body.
2
Made of a
Hart
Regularized form: Heart
and
cimented
Regularized form: cemented
wth
Regularized form: with
teares
Regularized form: tears
.
Made of a heart,
&
Regularized form: and
cimented
Regularized form: cemented
with
teares
Regularized form: tears
.
Made of a heart, and cemented with
teares
Regularized form: tears
:
3
Whose parts are as thy hand did frame
Whose parts are, as thy hand did frame;
Whoſe
Regularized form: Whose
parts are as thy hand did frame;
n
Note: frame: prepare, as a carpenter, for use in building (OED 4). Jesus was a carpenter (Mark 6:3) and is "a son over his own house; whose house are we," for "he that built all things is God" (Hebrews 3:4-6).
4
this
No
workmans
Regularized form: workman's
toole
Regularized form: tool
hath touch'd
ye
Regularized form: the
same
No
workemans
Regularized form: workman's
toole
Regularized form: tool
hath touch'd
ye
Regularized form: the
same.
No
workmans
Regularized form: workman's
tool hath touch'd the
ſame
Regularized form: same
.
5
A
Hart
Regularized form: Heart
alone
A heart alone
A H E A R T alone
n
Note: alone: only.
6
Is such a stone
Is such a stone,
Is
ſuch
Regularized form: such
a
ſtone
Regularized form: stone
,
7
As nothing but
As nothing but
As nothing but
8
Thy
powre
Regularized form: power
doth
cutt
Regularized form: cut
.
Thy power doth cut.
Thy pow'r doth cut.
n
Note: Lines 5-8: "Only a heart is so hard as that God's power alone is able to penetrate it."
9
Wherefore each part
Wherefor
Regularized form: Wherefore
each part
Wherefore each part
10
Øf
Regularized form: Of
my hard
hart
Regularized form: heart
Of my hard heart
Of my hard heart
11
Meets in this frame
Meets in this frame,
n
Note: frame: i.e., the poem; the stone altar of sacrifice; the speaker's body which houses his hart/heart—"My body is the frame wherein 'tis held" (Shakespeare, Sonnet 24, line 3)— and is "the temple of God" (1 Corinthians 3:16).
12
To
praiſe
Regularized form: praise
thy name
To praise thy Name.
To
praiſe
Regularized form: praise
thy name.
13
That If I chance to hold my peace
That, if I chance to hold my peace,
That if I chance to hold my peace,
14
Theſe
Regularized form: These
stones to
praiſe
Regularized form: praise
thee may not
ceaſe
Regularized form: cease
These stones to praise thee may not cease.
Theſe
Regularized form: These
ſtones
Regularized form: stones
to
praiſe
Regularized form: praise
thee may not
ceaſe
Regularized form: cease
.
n
Note: Lines 13-14: "And some of the Pharisees from among the multitude said unto him, Master, rebuke thy disciples. And he answered and said unto them, I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out" (Luke 19:39-40).
15
Ø
Regularized form: O
lett
Regularized form: let
thy
onely
Regularized form: only
bleſsed
Regularized form: blessed
sacrifice
bee
Regularized form: be
mine,
O
lett
Regularized form: let
thy blessed sacrifice be mine,
O let thy
bleſſed
Regularized form: blessed
S A C R I F I C E be mine,
n
Note: See headnote for the significance of the #w emendation.
16
And
sanctifie
Regularized form: sanctify
this Altar to
bee
Regularized form: be
thine.
And sanctify this Altar to be thine.
And
ſanctifie
Regularized form: sanctify
this A L T A R to be thine.
n
Note: Lines 15-16: For the multiple significations of Altar/ALTAR, see headnote and the note for line 11. Though the placement of SACRIFICE over ALTAR in #p is fortuitous and perhaps deliberate (as is the "broken" spacing of the words in these as well as lines 1 and 5), the layout in both manuscripts is unremarkable. But for Altar having a majuscule initial, neither word there is distinguished in any way. Had Herbert intended to highlight them in #w (the only source in which he is known to have had a hand), he might have specified an italic script, as indeed he does elsewhere in #w—for example, in the final line of "Poetry" (entitled "The Quiddity" in #b/#p).
X (Close panel) Textual Notes
Note: See Wilcox (89) for the poem's debt to the pattern and schola cordis (School of the Heart) emblem traditions.
The title signifies the stone altar that in Catholic tradition was associated with Christ's sacrifice on the Cross; the speaker's heart offered as a "living sacrifice" (Romans 12:1); the poem itself and The Temple as a whole. (The following poem in all three sources happens to be "The Sacrifice.")
Though metaphorically the speaker's heart, the phrase broken Altar/ALTAR in the first line would have provocatively suggested Reformation acts of iconoclasm that included the removal and/or destruction of such remnants of the old religion. Toward the end of Herbert's life, advocates of ceremonial worship and what Archbishop William Laud was to call the Beauty of Holiness boldly restored the altars to a place of prominence in some English churches.
The Cambridge printers' innovation in #p—i.e., the upper-case rendering of ALTAR, HEART, and SACRIFICE—foregrounds as complementary the poem's devotional and ceremonial features, and thereby privileges a via media reading of an otherwise ideologically conflicted poem. Indeed, the change from onely to bleſsed in line 15 of witness #w suggests Herbert's concern that onely sacrifice might seem a Protestant emphasis on the uniqueness of the Atonement at the expense of more Catholic notions of Real Presence and the replication of sacrifice in the ritual of the Eucharist. (According to the 31st of the Thirty-Nine Articles, "the Offering of Christ once made is that perfect redemption, propitiation, and satisfaction, for all the sins of the whole world, both original and actual; and there is none other satisfaction for sin, but that alone. Wherefore the sacrifices of Masses, in the which it was commonly said, that the Priest did offer Christ for the quick and the dead, to have remission of pain or guilt, were blasphemous fables, and dangerous deceits.") Such revision exemplifies what historian Anthony Milton has called "negative popery": the increasing tendency of some early Stuart divines to advance Catholic ideas minus the once de rigueur caveats disavowing them. (Catholic and Reformed, 63-72.) Wilcox's reading—that the #w version unrevised "reveals H.'s assumption that there is now only one sacrifice" (93)—seems to suggest that the revision somehow left intact the earlier and more decidedly Protestant assertion.
Line number 1
Note: reares: brings into existence by constructing (OED 9), a meaning at odds with broken only if it is assumed that the speaker could have anything more to offer than a broken heart. The word also connotes raising the dead (OED 3.a), by extension the Resurrection, itself a triumph in which the broken body of Christ is raised to be a glorified body.
Line number 3
Note: frame: prepare, as a carpenter, for use in building (OED 4). Jesus was a carpenter (Mark 6:3) and is "a son over his own house; whose house are we," for "he that built all things is God" (Hebrews 3:4-6).
Line number 5
Note: alone: only.
Line number 8
Note: Lines 5-8: "Only a heart is so hard as that God's power alone is able to penetrate it."
Line number 11
Note: frame: i.e., the poem; the stone altar of sacrifice; the speaker's body which houses his hart/heart—"My body is the frame wherein 'tis held" (Shakespeare, Sonnet 24, line 3)— and is "the temple of God" (1 Corinthians 3:16).
Line number 14
Note: Lines 13-14: "And some of the Pharisees from among the multitude said unto him, Master, rebuke thy disciples. And he answered and said unto them, I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out" (Luke 19:39-40).
Line number 15
Note: See headnote for the significance of the #w emendation.
Line number 16
Note: Lines 15-16: For the multiple significations of Altar/ALTAR, see headnote and the note for line 11. Though the placement of SACRIFICE over ALTAR in #p is fortuitous and perhaps deliberate (as is the "broken" spacing of the words in these as well as lines 1 and 5), the layout in both manuscripts is unremarkable. But for Altar having a majuscule initial, neither word there is distinguished in any way. Had Herbert intended to highlight them in #w (the only source in which he is known to have had a hand), he might have specified an italic script, as indeed he does elsewhere in #w—for example, in the final line of "Poetry" (entitled "The Quiddity" in #b/#p).
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