Virtue ~ George Herbert

Virtue
      ~ George Herbert

Sweet day, so cool, so calm, so bright,

The bridal of the earth and sky;

The dew shall weep thy fall to-night,

For thou must die.

Sweet rose, whose hue angry and brave

Bids the rash gazer wipe his eye;

Thy root is ever in its grave,

And thou must die.

Sweet spring, full of sweet days and roses,

A box where sweets compacted lie;

My music shows ye have your closes,

And all must die.

Only a sweet and virtuous soul,

Like season'd timber, never gives;

But though the whole world turn to coal,

Then chiefly lives.

George Herbert was a Welsh born English religious poet, orator and Anglican priest. 

He was born on 3^rd  April, 1593. He is considered as a major metaphysical poet and 

mostly notable for the purity and effectiveness of his choice of words.

George Herbert's poem, Virtue implies that the soul lives after the death. Death is the natural process – the cycle of life.Virtue is one of the poems in a collection of verse called ' The Temple' which was published in 1633. George Herbert wrote this poem during his the last three years of life. In virtue, he presents a vision of an eternal life. Herbert’s poetry displays a conjunction of intellect and emotions. All natural symbols are described through the continuous presence of the ultimate truth, Death.

Poet uses natural imagery as metaphor for the circle of life. By comparing human life to the day, roses, spring and timber, poet makes a statement about life. He says that life and death are connected to each other.

The first stanza is about the day. This day is idyllic as being....'so cool, so clam, so bright' with a few carefully chosen words. The day is perfect day because it is bright, calm and cool. Herbert compares the day to joyous occasion means wedding. On the occasion of marriage the two partners join each other like the earth and sky.  Poet uses contradiction in the poem like rhymes “bright” and “light” that makes the sense of growing loss, darkening sides of life or sadness which remains.

The small dew drops on the grass and plants are compared to tears. Here, poet tries to create the illusion of marriage. The tears of dew are suggested that tears of joy on the occasion of marriage. Tears also symbolize death because tears are also common at the time of death linking both word ‘earth’ and ‘skie’.  The ‘earth’ is defined as mortal home or world for human being whereas ‘skie’ is as immortal space. The day always turns to night. Seeds grow into beautiful flowers and then always withers and die. Spring always turns into summer and then finally into winter.

The second stanza stands for plant's imagery to reinforce the life and death circle. Herbert doesn't stay that the flower is red but 'angry and brave' these are qualities associated with the colour. Roes commands the viewers, 'To wipe his eyes'. However 'Thy root is ever in its grave' or implies that everything even the beautiful roes finally withers and dies. The plant grow from the soil and everything including human begins return to soil after death. This implies that all life is connected or rooted to death.

The third stanza states that spring is "Full of sweet days and roses". Spring encompasses all those things which was maintained in the first two stanza. The days of spring are clam and bright. Spring is season of  rebirth when plants and tress began to grow again. So the seasons are the representative of the circle of life. He says that spring is life which leads towards beautiful day, rose and everything which makes life beautiful.

The final stanza compare the sweet and virtuous soul to season'd timber because trees. while living are constantly expanding and growing on that time trees give seeds for new trees. The soul lives on after the body is death as timber that we use as furniture.

“thou must die” or “And all must die” – using the constant repetition of this line at the each stanza, poet consciously gives reminder of the central idea of the poem about death. No one can escape from it. All beauty is temporary like rose everything must die.