The twenty-line poem “The Pulley” by George Herbert serves as a spiritual parable that describes how man was created by combining the Book of Genesis with the story of “Pandora’s Box” with the composition of the pulley. The underlying theme might be summed up by saying that humankind’s restlessness draws them into the arms of God. It also alludes that God gave humanity all he needed except rest. The concept of Herbert’s poem explains the fatigue and challenges that people must endure, as well as a glimpse into the optimistic and failsafe ways that God enables to lure humankind into his embrace. The essay aims to analyze the theme of restlessness in human beings as depicted in the poem and a reflection from the poem on the concept of individual conceptualization.
The first line describes the genesis of man by evoking the Book of Genesis by bestowing gifts on the human species on earth (Poetry Foundation). The poem has an authoritative apostolic tone illustrating God’s highest demands while creating his world and a thoughtful tone as the poet considers the Biblical creation myth. The poet combines the opposing notions of God as an extraordinary being and a modest miracle worker, creating a portrait of a person who hides his strength and splendor inside something as commonplace and everyday as a tall glass (Al-Doori 13). Consequently, this adds to the image’s unique metaphysical quality.
The poem continues this image as God pours forth his gifts for humanity: “Then beauty flowed, wisdom, honor, pleasure” (Poetry Foundation). God offered unending love, granted man dominion over nature’s powers, and bestowed incredible riches upon him. The poem is fundamentally an inversion of the illustrious old tale “Pandora’s Box.” Instead of all the bad things happening to humanity, God gives good things like power, intelligence, beauty, dignity, and so on (Al-Doori 14). The man was created to live a life of plenty and lack, which can be shown in “The Pulley,” where God is shown as a kind Creator who bestows all of the world’s wealth to humanity, except one.
God comes up with a strategy to keep people loyal after perceiving that if given all of the riches, a man may be rebellious. God withholds the gift of rest on purpose for humanity. If God were to “bestow this jewel” on His creation, then it would love his goods instead of Him; man would become unfaithful and admire the priceless gifts bestowed on humanity rather than the donor, God (Al-Shraah 5). The poet suggests that God’s intention was good when He created this plan, intending to free man’s spirit from all evil.
To draw man to Himself, God refuses to give him this desirable characteristic, displaying one of the peculiarities of a pulley. He sees that one day, His other riches would cause men to get weary and restless spiritually, leading them to confide in Him out of extreme tiredness. Man would “rest in Nature, not the God of Nature” if that specific divine gift was not controlled (Al-Doori 15). God is an all-knowing being, aware that immoral men can reject Him (Al-Shraah 7). The last line of the third stanza states that if someone enjoys God’s benefits but does not revere him, both God and the human have been fooled, and both should losers be. However, He also knows that all men will eventually experience indifferent torpor, and this fatigue will be the catalyst to toss man to His breast.
A pulley is a wheel with a grooved rim that a rope runs through in a scientific setting; it alters the direction of a force applied to the cord and is used to lift enormous weights. When God withholds “rest” from man, as related to the poem’s setting, the pulley’s peculiar “pulling” is used, providing God the leverage required to raise humans towards Him when it would otherwise be challenging. The pulley would be built around this specific priceless gift of “rest,” revealing the idea of restlessness leading people to God. The poem’s concept explains why people become tired and have problems. The remaining riches are given to a man with “repining restlessness” by God.
Despite receiving all of the world’s wealth and honed qualities, people nevertheless feel depressed and dissatisfied. God may manage the “pulley” that would “toss” people to his “breast” when “goodness” does not advance men’s spirits Godward since He has woven “restlessness” into the souls of all humans. The pulley is a scientific representation of God’s might and weakness, suggesting that man depends on God for redemption. The poem’s last line, “My breast,” shows God’s kind character and implies that He is the source of all human nourishment.
In conclusion, George Herbert’s “The Pulley” depicts man’s origin in a metaphysical sense. The poem depicts certain human qualities like power, beauty, and intelligence as tangible gifts from God, even if it does not provide a novel idea. This fantastic vision is intriguing because it condensed these complex characteristics into a real glass. Reading this religious poetry through a secular, scientific lens that called for applying knowledge of specific fundamental physics rules is pleasant.
Works Cited
Al-Doori, Faisal. “George Herbert as the Real Representative of the Metaphysical School of Poetry.” Available at SSRN 3778618 (2021). Web.
Al-Shraah, Sameer M. “John Donne’s and George Herbert’s Employment of Secular Language and Images in Their Religious Poetry.” Studies in Literature and Language 17.1 (2018): 5-9. Web.
Poetry Foundation. “The Pulley by George Herbert.” Poetry Foundation, Web.