Appreciation of the poem Pulley
Answers
Answer:
Most of George Herbert’s poems are profoundly personal. This is not to say that they are always autobiographical, although indeed one senses the force of lived experience in his most successful poems. Yet whether or not they describe Herbert’s own experiences, they typically present an individual in the midst of some dramatic process of meditation, analysis, worry, or wonder. “The Pulley” is a remarkable exception, structured as an explanatory tale about the creation of humankind.
Herbert does not often operate on the level of myth, but “The Pulley” owes something to the classical story of Pandora’s box. In Herbert’s version, however, it is not all the troubles of the world that are loosed upon unsuspecting humankind by an overly curious Pandora but all the “world’s riches” that are poured upon humankind by a beneficent God. In revising not only the Pandora myth but also the biblical story of Creation in Genesis, Herbert constructs a narrative that is charming and bold. The speaker imagines himself as a witness to the moment of Creation and gives an on-the-spot report of what transpired and what was on God’s mind as He both gave and withheld certain gifts.
There is a touch of humor in the poem as God not only pours blessings out of a glass on his new creation but also quizzically examines and then rationalizes his own actions. When nearly all the blessings are out—secular blessings, it seems, such as strength, beauty, wisdom, honor, and pleasure—God pauses and decides to keep the one remaining treasure, “Rest.” He explains himself in direct terms, and this explanation is central to the poem: God’s purpose is not to mystify or torment but to instruct, and the story of Creation is intended to give insight into how one should lead one’s life. If humans were given everything, including “rest,” the highest jewel of all, they would become complacent and have a mistaken sense of their own self-sufficiency. They would, in short, pay devotion to “Nature, not the God of Nature.”
Answer:
The Pulley by George Herbert is a religious, metaphysical poem which centers on the ‘pulley’ as a prime conceit in the poem. Herbert wants to unveil the truth that why human beings are so restless and unsatisfying despite having all the things he wants.
After God made this universe, he gathered all the blessings of the world in a glass and distributed them to the human beings one after another. First, he gave the strength, therefore human became strong enough to survive. One by one, god gave them the beauty, wisdom, honor, pleasure and many other blessings. When almost all was gone, God kept ‘rest’ at the bottom of the glass, thinking that ‘both should losers be’ if the ‘rest’ is given. When they get all they want, in the sense of sufficiency, they may forget God. On one hand, when human beings get rest, they forget god and take a rest. As a result, god will lose the love and affection of human beings. On the other hand, when rest is given, people will lose strength, honor, wisdom and beauty and all other human capacities. God knows the man is by birth prone to lethargy. They will get rest at the cost of the progress. Progress and the rest never come together. We get one losing the other. God is sure that man will only praise the things God has given to them not the god himself. Mankind will lose their essence, get tired and wander in search of rest.
In the concluding part of the poem, Herbert gives two reasons behind human going to god. First, they will go to God out of the goodness, faith or divine emotions and inborn loyalty for him. Secondly, if they do not go to god out of the first cause, they will go to him when they are tired. Weariness takes human beings to the shadow of god. So, the God decides to keep the mankind away from the rest so as to make him feel the eternal rest can only be found in God. For the sake of the rest, at least man will remember to god and go to him for his love and rest. The repining restlessness or the discontentment with the worldly things will finally lead a man to god. He wanted man to discover the real rest only in Him. He alone can truly give the mankind the rest they frantically seek.
The poet answers in a simple tone that the reason behind man being so unsatisfying and weary is that God has not bestowed us with his precious jewel ‘rest’, but kept the jewel ‘rest’ with him. So for the sake of rest, we always run from here to there. We think now we are complete because we have everything, but the moment we feel so, another moment we feel empty and become restless. This is what exactly God wants us to be. If this happens to us then only we remember god and go to him for the ‘rest.’