Essay on Compare and Contrast These Poetic Rewritings of Psalm 23

Psalm 23 is perhaps one of the most well known Psalms to the Christian and secular world alike. Charles Spurgeon highlights in The Treasury of David that the 23^rd Psalm does not own an ‘inspired title’[1]. Perhaps it was this lack of a prescriptive title that allowed and inspired poets such as Herbert and Crashaw to poetically rewrite the Psalm.

An obvious difference between these two poems is their poetic form. Herbert’s The Temple consists of 24 lines organized into 6 quatrains, each following a strict ABAB rhyme scheme. The amount of stanzas in The Temple relate to the amount of verses in the original source, meaning every 4 lines correspond to one verse. Crashaw’s Steps to the Temple, however, consists of 72 lines as one long stanza made up of 36 rhyming couplets. Both poems fit in to the category of ‘short line length’ (8 syllables or less) with the occasional exception in Steps to the Temple where lines 3 and 13 have 9 syllables, making them ‘middle length’ (9-11 syllables).

Despite the original passage showing no evidence of rhyme, both Herbert and Crashaw decided to implement a structured rhyme scheme into their poetic rewritings. The alternate ABAB scheme in The Temple is euphonic and creates a comforting tone mimetic with the original text. After reading the first two lines of each stanza the reader anticipates a rhyme to follow soon after. For example, the fourth quatrain begins:

‘Yea, in death’s shady black abode

Well may I walk, not fear’ (lines 13-14)
Here, Herbert dramatizes the image of the ‘valley of the shadow of death’ (v4) from the original Psalm. It is a dark and severe image but is then coupled with two comforting rhymes:

‘For thou art with me; and thy rod

To guide, thy staff to bear.’ (lines 15-16)
This structure resonates throughout each quatrain. By completing the stanza with the expected rhyme scheme, and by maintaining it steadfastly throughout the poem, Herbert offers comfort and resolution to the reader. Indeed, it would seem Herbert is aligning himself with God through this offer of comfort, as the Psalmist continually refers to the comfort that he has received from God.

Crashaw, however, uses a different rhyme scheme in the form of rhyming couplets (A,A B,B C,C D,D…). Crashaw stacks the rhymes by using run-on couplets, and very few end stops, to create a potent ongoing visual scene. The rhyme is consistent throughout the poem bar one couplet on lines 19 and 20.
‘Stroke and tames my rabid grief,
And does woo me into life.’

Despite the fact that ‘grief’ and ‘life’ both contain the voiceless labiodental consonant /f/, they do not rhyme. This deliberate technique by Crashaw interrupts the poem, and the already established rhyme scheme, to strike a feeling of discordance. However, just as Herbert’s use of rhyme was in keeping with the original text, so is Crashaw’s lack of it in these two lines. Here, Crashaw is referencing a poor and downcast soul filled with ‘rabid grief’. The word ‘rabid’ suggests an unexpected crazed demeanor, or a grief so utterly awful and startling. These unexpected and startling associations are then implemented into the very meter of the following line by abruptly causing the rhyme pattern to cease. Since the poem has no visible line breaks or stanzas, this is the only place, bar the end, where the reader is forced to stop and contemplate the hopeful message that has just been proclaimed. Grief is often associated with despondency and despair, yet here it is coupled with life. This is one of the central themes of Psalm 23 and by halting the rhyme scheme it can be acknowledged effectively.

Unlike The Temple, Steps to the Temple does not conform to a ridged structure regarding the amount of lines that correspond to a particular verse. In The Temple, the six stanzas relate accordingly to the six verses in the original text, where the first quatrain addresses the themes and ideas of the first verse, and so on. However, in order for this to work effectively, both word order and word choice have been affected and/or economized. For example, the first verse of Psalm 23 begins, ‘The Lord is my shepherd…’. Herbert rephrases this as, ‘The God of love my shepherd is’ (line 1). Whilst the principle subject of the line remains to be God, Herbert rearranges ‘is my shepherd’ to ‘my shepherd is’. The King James Version of Psalm 23 obtains emphasis through italicization but Herbert obtains it through moving the ‘is’ to the end of the line. The change in word order would be immediately recognizable to a reader familiar with the original text, thus becoming a point of intrigue and contemplation. Word choice is also crucial when attempting to correlate one quatrain with one verse, as can be seen in the sixth and final stanza of The Temple. Herbert gives no mention to the ‘house of the Lord’, meaning the church or temple, but instead economizes and uses suggestive language to create a similar scene.

‘And as I never shall remove,

So neither shall my praise.’ (lines 23-24)
The word ‘praise’ has associations with singing and other devotional actions that would stereotypically be practiced in a church. Therefore, Herbert is able to manipulate word choice without straying from the fundamental message of the Psalm as well as keeping within the poems quatrain format.

Contrastingly, Steps to the Temple consists of one stanza. Although it follows the verses chronologically, the poem often bears a larger focus on some verses rather than others. For example, verse 1 is addressed in lines 1-2, verse 2 is addressed in lines 3-16, verse 3 is addressed in lines 17-34, verse 4 is addressed in lines 35-48, verse 5 is addressed in lines 49-56 and verse 6 is addressed in lines 57-72. Whilst Herbert focuses on the images and beauties specific to the passage, Crashaw allows the images to build upon one another to suggest new, increasingly detailed and personal ideas. There is no sense of being constrained in Steps to the Temple, instead the reader is confronted with an outpouring of the soul. For example, the Psalm itself merely says, ‘He restoreth my soul’ (v3), but Crashaw expounds on this image from lines 18-26. First, he describes the state of his soul as ‘rabid’ (line 19) and filled with ‘weakness’ (line 21). By describing his soul, Crashaw creates an intimate setting which makes the restoration of his soul (lines 27-34) seem all the more evocative.

The Temple is written in common meter that consists of a repeating alternation between iambic tetrameter and iambic trimeter, where there are 8 syllables on every A line and 6 syllables on every B line. However, meter in Steps to the Temple is far more pliant as the couplets vary between 7 and 8 syllables (lines 1-2), 9 and 8 syllables (lines 13-14), 7 and 7 syllables (lines 19-20) and 8 and 8 syllables (lines 63-64).

The stress patterns in both poetic rewritings can be argued, especially in regards to the opening lines. The Temple invites an iambic reading as the first line contains 4 feet, with the second syllable of the first foot being ‘God’. Emphasis is automatically put on this syllable due to spiritual nature of the poem and the expected reverent tone concerning the subject. Therefore, the first syllable is unstressed, to give more stress to the second, resulting in iambic tetrameter. But this is not the only posed reading. The line could also be read with emphasis on ‘The’ of ‘The God’ with the stress on the first syllable (a trochee), as a way of suggesting the uniqueness and incomparability of God’s character. However, the poem does not naturally fit into trochaic tetrameter due to some syllables, such as the latter half of the foot ‘shepherd’, being forcefully stressed. If the poem were to be read in non-iambic tetrameter, whilst being able to evoke a different perspective, the result would culminate in an assortment of trochees and spondees, creating a far less mellifluous tone than the original Psalm, something that Herbert would have sought to avoid.

As mentioned previously, the multifarious line lengths in Steps to the Temple make it difficult to determine the suggested stress patterning within the poem. Whilst The Temple educes an iambic reading, Steps to the Temple does not. The first line, ‘Happy me! O happy sheep!’ contains 7 syllables organized into two unequal exclamations. The first, ‘Happy me!’ suggests a stressing on the objective personal pronoun ‘me’, as it is the subject of the sentence whilst ‘happy’ is merely the supporting adjective. However, the second exclamation causes difficulty. The word ‘O’ is always used for emphasis. Common throughout the Bible, Crashaw most probably used this as a way of evoking a sense of reverence and awe, therefore stress must be put upon it. This makes a difficult reading as now both syllables of one foot are being stressed (a spondee) whilst being physically separated by an exclamation mark. There is also the issue of whether the final syllable ‘sheep’ will read as a masculine ending (stressed) or as a feminine ending (unstressed) to the line. Whilst Herbert creates a specific way for his poem to be read, Crashaw allows the reader read as they wish. Herbert’s The Temple does not stray from the ideas and images portrayed in the original Psalm and the rigid structure of his rewriting highlights his intent that the reader should not stray also. Crashaw, on the other hand, builds upon the original ideas from the Psalm and invites the reader to do so as well by giving the opportunity of various dramatic readings. The results of these differences suggest practical purposes for the poems. Herbert’s rigid meter and stress pattern generates a musicality, suggesting this is a poem to be sung. However Crashaw’s flexibility evokes a sense of reverent ease, suggesting this is a poem to be prayed.

As poets, Herbert and Crashaw are set apart from King David, the author of Psalm 23, due to the benefit of hindsight. Herbert and Crashaw both inject later scriptural references into their rewritings of the Psalm to emphasize certain personal beliefs and venerated doctrines. For example, in verse 5 of the original Psalm the text reads, ‘thou anointest my head with oil, my cup runneth over’, however Herbert rewrites this as,

‘My head with oil, my cup with wine

Runs over day and night’ (lines 19-20)

The addition of wine gives reference to the New Testament sacrament of Communion, or the Eucharist. This inclusion of a New Testament practice highlights Herbert’s personal Christian convictions and also shows how the Old and New Testament relate to one another as opposed to being completely separate entities.

Crashaw similarly includes New Testament undertones throughout Steps to the Temple as an attempt to show how this Psalm relates to Christ. Crashaw extends the images of human suffering and toil before acknowledging salvation, mimetic of Christ’s life on earth.

Finally, it is interesting to note that both poets chose to name their poems within the same semantic field. In both cases the ‘temple’ refers to ‘the house of the Lord’ as mentioned in verse 6 of Psalm 23. Whilst Herbert chose a short and precise title, Crashaw’s Steps to the Temple elicits images of a journey or a pilgrimage that perhaps makes Crashaw’s poetic rewriting more relatable and engaging.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Spurgeon, Charles Haddon, ‘Psalm 23’ in The Treasury of David: Spurgeon’s Classic Work on the Psalms ed. by David O. Fuller (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Academic, 2013), pp. 107-114.

[1] Spurgeon, Charles Haddon, ‘Psalm 23’ in The Treasury of David: Spurgeon’s Classic Work on the Psalms ed. by David O. Fuller (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Academic, 2013), pp. 107-114 (p.107).