The Pulley

by George Herbert

A myth of God’s creation of the world, the enlightening and reflective poetry, The Pulley by George Herbert. He is an English poet, orator and Anglican priest. His poetry is inclined with the works of the metaphysical poets, whose poetry was centered on conceits and emphasizing on its verbal definition rather than the rhythm of their poems. Herbert was a highly devotional lyricist.

When God created man, he gave all the blessings He could to his new creation, all blessings, such as beauty, wisdom, honour, and pleasure. God gave all these blessings to man by an overflow of a glass of blessings, except for one, that is the blessing of rest. The blessing is so important that God does not want to share it to man. God thought that if a man would have it, he would forget God.

This is quite similar with the biblical story of Pandora’s box, that substitutes the hope that remains in the box with rest, and making the creator open the box himself. The Pulley expresses and explains to God’s people how loving God is that he made us restless. God wanted his people to never stop loving and praising only Him and to never get tired of doing so.

True rest for a man is in God’s arms and not with the material things he owns. For the material things a man has is a false rest. A man may adore God’s gifts instead of Him.

A man will be a loser because he might not find his rest with God, and in the same sense, God would also be a loser because his most gracious creature will not succumb to Him.

The Pulley is titled as such because it is God’s way to use force in lifting God’s people up. The wheel of the pulley is the highest blessing of rest by which God increases the force of his love on His people.

Genres: Poetry

1 pages, Unknown Binding

About the author

George Herbert (1593-1633) was a Welsh-born English poet and orator. Herbert's poetry is associated with the writings of the metaphysical poets, and he is recognized as "a pivotal figure: enormously popular, deeply and broadly influential, and arguably the most skillful and important British devotional lyricist."

Born into an artistic and wealthy family, Herbert received a good education that led to his admission in 1609 as a student at Trinity College, Cambridge, Herbert excelled in languages, rhetoric and music. He went to university with the intention of becoming a priest, but when eventually he became the University's Public Orator he attracted the attention of King James I and may well have seen himself as a future Secretary of State. In 1624 and briefly in 1625 he served in Parliament. Never a healthy man, he died of consumption at the early age of 39.

Reviews

[J9 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Awe inspiring and has an ending that takes your breath away. We strive and question so much when all we need to do is be quiet and listen...

[Shelby Joy · Rating 5 out of 5]

✨“But keep them with repining restlessness;”✨

I’m a southern girl, so I just eat up Christian/spiritual symbolism in art. This was sooo beautiful yet full of morbid morality. Then the slick title emphasizing the balance on top of it? Ooooh, I love it. I’m going down a George Herbert rabbit hole, and after seeing The Altar again, I realized that I studied a bunch of his work in college. Anyways, this has definitely become one of my favorite poems of his, and I will keep diving down this hole lolol

[Ｍｅｌｏｄｙ · Rating 4 out of 5]

My favourite poem of all time. I just love the diction of this poem and how the George Herbert creatively describes man’s connection to God.

[Forked Radish · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pulley and rope. . . Herbert forgot the teleologic motive aspect.