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我敲打船舷，喊道，夠了。 |
I Struck the board, and cry’d, No more. I will abroad. What? shall I ever sigh and pine? My lines and life are free; free as the rode, Loose as the winde, as large as store. Shall I be still in suit? Have I no harvest but a thorn To let me bloud, and not restore What I have lost with cordiall fruit? Sure there was wine Before my sighs did drie it: there was corn Before my tears did drown it. Is the yeare onely lost to me? Have I no bayes to crown it? No flowers, no garlands gay? all blasted? All wasted? Not so, my heart: but there is fruit, And thou hast hands. Recover all thy sigh-blown age On double pleasures: leave thy cold dispute Of what is fit, and not. Forsake thy cage, Thy rope of sands, Which pettie thoughts have made, and made to thee Good cable, to enforce and draw, And be thy law, While thou didst wink and wouldst not see. Away; take heed: I will abroad. Call in thy deaths head there: tie up thy fears. He that forbears To suit and serve his need, Deserves his load. But as I rav’d and grew more fierce and wilde At every word, Me thoughts I heard one calling, Childe: And I reply’d, My Lord. |
Analysis
The verse is a fairly free form. There almost appear to be stanzas, but the form never quite resolves into the structure of stanza.
And the same goes for the rhyme. The rhyme scheme is irregular. There are rhymes, but no distinguishable pattern. We are led, therefore, by the voice and the sequence of imagery, as we are in much modern verse. The effect of this randomness is to suggest the indiscipline of the rebellious spirit, which is both cause and consequence of the rebellion.
The use of verbal echoes and assonance is strong. We have noted the long i-vowel sounds. ‘Abroad’ is another word that gets echoed around in assonances: “board,” “store, ” “restore,” “corn, ” “law,” “draw,” and so on. “Abroad” particularly symbolizes freedom, meaning “anywhere I choose to go.”
Summary
The poem opens dramatically with an account of an outburst of rebellion by the poet: “I struck the board, and cry'd, No more.
I will abroad.”
Besides, the title is a play on words. Obviously, a collar is something you put on an animal to restrain it, just as Herbert feels restrained by an unknown master. The main theme concerns the conflict between submission to God and the desire for personal freedom. The collar is both a sign of his office and a symbol his entrapment. The poet’s frustration is centered on two things: loss of freedom; and lack of any “harvest” or outcome, in spite of all his efforts. However, there is tenderness in the last line when he realizes to whom he belongs. It is God's loving voice and it immediately melts his anger. He turns at once to acknowledge ‘My Lord’, a term which must mean God in the Christian context of Herbert's poetry.
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