Ancient Metaphors Numinous Energies
Part One
'Established language is the enemy. The poet finds it sordid with lies. Daily currency has made it stale. The ancient metaphors are inert and the numinous energies bone-dry.'
'[The poet] will seek to resuscitate the magic of the word by dislocating traditional bonds of grammar and of ordered space... He will endeavour to rescind or at least weaken the classic continuities of reason and syntax, of conscious direction and verbal form... Because it has become calcified, impermeable to new life, the public crust of language must be riven.'
George Steiner wrote these words in After Babel (1975, p. 178). In my opinion, he was speaking the truth. Poetry in our time is buried under 'the public crust of language'. This is not a new phenomenon, of course. Wordsworth and Coleridge were at pains to identify it in the famous preface to Lyrical Ballads (1800). So how are we to go about looking at it now, or gaining any recognition of it whatsoever?
'Established language is the enemy. The poet finds it sordid with lies.' Steiner is not pulling his punches. The erasure of poetry from our cognition is to him something disastrous. And it is the repeated use of language in the mouths of men, women and children that brings about this disaster. 'Daily currency' debases the potential of the language to something commonplace, dull, 'stale'. He then points to precisely what he thinks makes up the body of the disaster: 'The ancient metaphors are inert and the numinous energies bone-dry.' What are 'ancient metaphors'? And what are 'numinous energies'?
He makes this clear. He is talking about 'the magic of the word'. He finds this lost or vanishing in 'traditional bonds of grammar', 'the classic continuities of reason and syntax.' The magic of the word has become 'calcified, impermeable to new life.' What the poet brought into being, everyday chewing and spitting of it, in the political arena of the generally accepted, has reduced it to a vocabulary with no sparkle, no 'numinous energies', no aureole to arouse our wonder. The language of poetry has become at best the language of the wit, the neat observer, the wry and the ironic, the documentary. It has become a sort of versifying club for the creative writing classes. The connection between poetry and the sacred has been severed.
Even to suggest such a connection provokes ridicule. Did not the sacred go out the window with the adult discovery of the scatological, the messiness of things, and the boundless territories of natural and human cruelty? The idea that 'ancient metaphors' have any modern meaning has become dubious in itself. The past is a pantomime dwarfed by our post-modern lust for the shock of the new. We cannot be taught by, or learn from, 'ancient metaphors', because we are out of reach of the primitive and its essentially uninformed nature. If poetry is plugged into the past, what emerges of the past in our age of technological know-how and the surfing of cyberspace is little more than the incomprehensible gargling of naked 'spirit men'. As for 'numinous energies', the suggestion of a divinity implied by them is beyond our patience. The divine could be an operatic diva, but that's the end of it.
The case against poetry as something special, as something capable of renewing us and our capacity to think and to speak and to understand, could be extended indefinitely. This is because, if established language is the enemy, there is no end to its ordered and disciplined ranks. So poetry is well aware of the power of its enemy. It might even be the case that it is a miracle if it ever pulls away from its perception of its enemy and focuses instead on something more numinous. Yet there can be no doubt that whenever a poet does spin out of a fine frenzy and delivers a new world, there are perhaps two or three, it may be, to recognise the fact, before, in time, the old world does so too, if it does so at all.
If we take the poetry of Christopher Smart (1722-1771) and compare it with that of John Dryden (1631-1700), Alexander Pope (1688-1744), and Samuel Johnson (1709-1784), for example, we can see that Smart, in poems such as 'Jubilate Agno', which includes the much-loved 'For I will consider my Cat Jeoffry', breaks out of 'traditional bonds of grammar and of ordered space' in a spectacular way. It is as though 'normal' prosody has been exploded to allow something altogether more urgent than 'poetic sentiment' to reveal itself to us. 'Old' poetry does indeed seem 'stale' beside it. Its authors seem stiff-necked and posturing, eking out a trifle with elegant and even pointless skill.
Christopher Smart could reasonably be said to burst the bounds of scholarship, and sanity as well it might be argued, in his long, luxuriant lines, but he is undoubtedly not the mouthpiece of an 18th century dandy - more the nozzle of the scriptures giving us a sense of the sacred. This break with the bondage of accepted prosody comes back to haunt us in the long lines of the prophetic books of William Blake (1757-1827), by whose time the Romantic overturning of how we think about poetry was settling into place. The paradox here is that once such a revolution has happened, the time will come when it will have to happen again, if anything worthy of the ancient nature of poetry is once more to be chanted, recited with deliberation, written down, and appreciated. So it may well be the truth that at any given moment the true nature of poetry is hidden from most people. The hardcore of poetry is too hot and molten for the common reader to endure, until time cools it in the moulds of print - if, that is, it has found its way into them.
This is where the publication of poetry, made possible by its literary editors, becomes all-important. Emily Dickinson (1830-1886), like Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889), is a good example of a poet resuscitating the magic of the word. She certainly weakened 'the classic continuities of reason and syntax, of conscious direction and verbal form.' She certainly broke open 'the public crust of language'. But she did not meet with universal editorial acclaim... until much later on in the next century.
So there is a war between the ear of the poet and the ear of the average editor. How may this be reconciled? There is no hope for it, on the scale I am considering here, unless there are both poets and editors at work, 'Whose ears have heard / The Holy Word / That walk'd among the ancient trees.' (William Blake, 'Introduction', Songs of Experience).
Part Two
Poetic form is not prosody. It is spiritual orientation. Prosody may not use spiritual orientation, but spiritual orientation may use prosody. This is the key insight into how poetic technique works.
In order to examine this thesis as something which might have some practical value, I propose to look into and compare two poems by Christopher Smart, 'A Song to David' and 'Jubilate Agno'. The general approach I take may also serve as an operative principle to look into and compare any one poet with another. Since 'A Song to David' has been confidently allotted the title of "the greatest religious poem of the [18th] century" (as stated on the cover of the 1990 Penguin Classics edition of Smart's Selected Poems), and since I will argue that 'Jubilate Agno' surpasses it considerably, my aim will be to show how it is Smart's mastery of spiritual orientation in 'Jubilate Agno' which makes this so. The mastery of prosody he displays in 'A Song to David' is easily incorporated into 'Jubilate Agno', whereas the spiritual orientation in 'Jubilate Agno' is by no means so easily incorporated into 'A Song to David'.
In 'A Song to David' (composed 1759-1763) Christopher Smart makes an immediate and total subjection of his imagination to a David who is all in all. The poem starts on this absolutist note and is clearly going to go all the way with it - for 86 stanzas of 6 lines each. 'A Song to David' is by no means written to King David of the Hebrews in his historical reality. Smart addresses a fiction of his own invention. So the poem, to be taken seriously, is best read as precisely that. In this poem, therefore, we may see Smart's idea of the perfect poet as 'the man of God's own choice'. (Stanza 5). This is the poet who is touched, tailored, and set up by the veritable hand of God. There may be many others who sing the praise of God, who are, if we like, poetical avatars. But none is so magnificent, so true to God as God actually is, as Smart's David.
This may be a little hard to swallow. We have already implied that Smart's David is surpassed by Smart's Smart in 'Jubilate Agno'. So let us look a little closer at Smart's performance in 'A Song to David'. In it, his chosen metrical form is copied directly from James Merrick's poem 'The Benedicte Paraphrased' published in Robert Dodsley's The Museum in 1746. In Smart's hands, the form slips too frequently into the banalities and trite aggrandisements to be found even more unfavourably in his 'Hymns and Spiritual Songs for the Fasts and Festivals of the Church of England' (1765). While we note that the compositions of 'A Song to David' (1759-1763) and 'Jubilate Agno' (1758-1763) overlap, where in 'A Song to David' is the wonderful, wild passion, with all its encyclopaedic and humane astonishments, that we find in 'Jubilate Agno'?
Contemplative - on God to fix
His musings, and above the six
The sabbath-day he blest;
'Twas then his thoughts self-conquest prun'd,
And heavenly melancholy tun'd,
To bless and bear the rest.
'A Song to David' (stanza 11)
Where in this exactly is 'The roll, the rise, the carol, the creation' Hopkins has instilled in us as a kind of yardstick for poetry? (In his sonnet 'To R.B.')
Pleasant - and various as the year;
Man, soul, and angel, without peer,
Priest, champion, sage, and boy;
In armour, or in ephod clad,
His pomp, his piety was glad;
Majestic was his joy.
'A Song to David' (stanza 15)
This reads more like poetry by rote than evidence of a poet transparent to God. Do we see Smart stamping out stanzas, like a man turning out tin trays from a press, rather than as Shakespeare's poet? 'The poet's eye, in a fine frenzy rolling, / Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven; / And, as imagination bodies forth / The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen / Turns them to shapes, and gives to airy nothing / A local habitation and a name.' A Midsummer Night's Dream, Act 5, scene 1.
He sung of God - the mighty source
Of all things - the stupendous force
On which all strength depends;
From whose right arm, beneath whose eyes,
All period, pow'r, and enterprise
Commences, reigns, and ends.
'A Song to David' (stanza 18)
This is a bit better, but it doesn't really tell us very much. One might even think God is a little undersold by it.
The world - the clust'ring spheres he made,
The glorious light, the soothing shade,
Dale, champaign, grove, and hill;
The multitudinous abyss,
Where secrecy remains in bliss,
And wisdom hides her skill.
Trees, plants, and flow'rs - of virtuous root;
Gem yielding blossom, yielding fruit,
Choice gums and precious balm;
Bless ye the nosegay in the vale,
And with the sweet'ners of the gale
Enrich the thankful psalm.
'A Song to David' (stanzas 21 & 22)
*
At this point in its forward momentum the poem begins to pick up on Smart's strengths. We leave behind, to some extent, Smart looking somewhat like a man in a billboard wandering a London street advertising God's and David's best-selling features. We are moving closer to the man who, in 'Jubilate Agno', lifts animals and stones, bishops and ordinary folk, to the realm of the wondrous. What is so pronounced and so indicative in this shift of orientation is the way his basic attitude changes. We see less and less of the beautifully turned prosody of, say
Blest was the tenderness he felt
When to his graceful harp he knelt,
And did for audience call;
When Satan with his hand he quell'd,
And in serene suspense he held
The frantic throes of Saul.
'A Song to David' (stanza 27)
... as we enter an unparalleled metamorphosis. Smart turns his art more and more to 'PRAISE' and 'ADORATION' (his capitals). In the strict metrical dress of 'A Song to David', Smart's natural desire to expand in his worship of God is curtailed to the degree that we see it almost bursting at the seams. The metamorphosis in question concerns his instinctive grasp of the legitimacy of his swelling in praise and adoration of God as the 'WORD' and 'CHRIST'. This expansion and swelling will take the shape of a new idea of poetic form, as we find this in 'Jubilate Agno'. The rhythms running through its long lines and chanting repetitions allow a naked beauty and a cohesive sense of meaning and profundity to reveal themselves.
In this 'new idea' of poetic form there is little that feels contrived, in the sense that a lot of 18thcentury versification can seem tired and contrived. In its place we find the 'new idea' is almost certainly derived from Lectures on the Sacred Poetry of the Hebrews (De Sacra Poesi Hebraeorum) by Robert Lowth (1753). Lowth devotes a great deal of his book to parallelism, as this occurs in Hebrew poetry. It seems fairly evident that Smart wrote 'A Song to David' according to the 18th century poetic ethics of the common understanding of poetry, but 'Jubilate Agno' according to the ancient Hebraic methods, as these may be seen in the old testament. Parallelism suited Smart perfectly, for in his use of it he could expand and swell to the full extent of his genius, as I trust we shall see. But it must be said, before we move on, that there is more to his genius than parallelism.
In the next stage of the poem, 'A Song to David' surges in the direction of a notion of Christ as Alpha to Omega:
Alpha, the cause of causes, first
In station, fountain, whence the burst
Of light, and blaze of day;
Whence bold attempt, and brave advance,
Have motion, life, and ordinance,
And heav'n itself its stay.
OMEGA! GREATEST and the BEST,
Stands sacred to the day of rest,
For gratitude and thought;
Which bless'd the world upon his pole,
And gave the universe his goal,
And clos'd th'infernal draught.
'A Song to David' (stanzas 31 & 37)
Smart is fond of making lists in his poetry. The effect, as here, can be mechanical rather than organic. Paradoxically, he seems instinctively aware of this. So immediately we get:
O DAVID, scholar of the Lord!
'A Song to David' (stanza 38)
The scholarship is all Smart's, of course, and although this is usually extremely impressive, it can sometimes make for what seems an antiquated or even dotty theology:
'Tell them I am,' JEHOVA said
To MOSES; while earth heard in dread,
And smitten to the heart,
At once above, beneath, around,
All nature, without voice or sound,
Replied, 'O Lord, THOU ART.'
'A Song to David' (stanza 40)
Nevertheless, this poem has not won over so many discerning people for no reason. It is habitually anthologised as the exemplary offering of 18th century English religious poetry.
Open, and naked of offence,
Man's made of mercy, soul, and sense;
God arm'd the snail and wilk;
Be good to him that pulls thy plough;
Due food and care, due rest, allow
For her that yields thee milk.
'A Song to David' (stanza 42)
There may be a fair amount of simple-minded sentimentality going on here. But there is also a charm and a gentleness that no righteous soul would want banished from Christianity.
PRAISE above all - for praise prevails.
'A Song to David' (stanza 50)
This is the moment when his poem and his handling of poetic form begin to accelerate. Praise, for Smart, is the essence of his 'High Church leanings'. (Karina Williamson and Marcus Walsh, Christopher Smart: Selected Poems, Penguin Classics, 1990, p. 346). For praise we could say bless or rejoice or adore, as in 'ADORATION', which appears in capital letters twenty-one times in consecutive stanzas, 51-71.
The confident use of repetition in 'A Song to David' begins at this point to suggest some of the power of its use in 'Jubilate Agno'. We begin to feel him flying. It may be that in composition he did fly from the conventional to the unconventional, but this was not without a few hiccups along the way:
Beauteous the fleet before the gale;
Beauteous the multitudes in mail,
Rank'd arms and crested heads.
'A Song to David' (stanza 78)
This hero-worship of the military reveals a naïve nationalistic politics. He sinks in our admiration, whether here or in 'Jubilate Agno', when he resembles a boy who does not actually consider what happens in wars. Doubtless Smart would bring to his defence, 'Thou art beautiful, O my love, as Tirzah, comely as Jerusalem, terrible as an army with banners.' The Song of Songs, 6:4.
But let that aside. His face is focussed on the light of heaven. He doesn't really want to look too far into the sordid world. And who can blame him for that?
Precious the bounteous widow's mite;
And precious, for extreme delight,
The largess from the churl:
Precious the ruby's blushing blaze,
And alba's blest imperial rays,
And pure cerulean pearl.
'A Song to David' (stanza 81)
Line 3 in this stanza echoes 1 Samuel 25:18. Line 5 echoes Revelation 2:17. Such references populate his poetry with a density that no one but a true scholar-poet could attempt successfully. His work is saturated with biblical consciousness. (This is a trait which becomes important in understanding 'Jubilate Agno', because without taking it into account the poem is not comprehensible.) 'Pure cerulean pearl' is poetry to be reckoned with. So is 'Glorious the northern lights astream' from stanza 85. But the last line in this stanza is: 'Glorious the martyr's gore', which is hardly the stuff of picnics.
If in 'A Song to David' we can feel too often and too acutely the mechanical turning of the lathes and an over-worked-out and somewhat supine theology, the poem is nonetheless an accessible and reliable door into the powers and wonders of 'Jubilate Agno'. The orderly one gives rise to the apparently chaotic one. It is of course obvious that orderly poems are likely to have met the approval of the literary consensus of the times, whereas disorderly and chaotic ones stand little or no chance at all. This is perhaps why 'Jubilate Agno' remained unknown until 1939, when it was discovered by chance. In it, we meet not chaos and disorder, but a poetic intelligence of the finest kind making a new order and a new poetic form out of a well-researched understanding of ancient conceptions of poetry.
Let us take a few final samples of what is beautiful and worthwhile in 'A Song to David', before addressing the amazing chapter in English poetry which is 'Jubilate Agno'.
The wealthy crops of whit'ning rice,
'Mongst thyine woods and groves of spice,
For ADORATION grow;
And, marshall'd in the fenced land,
The peaches and pomegranates stand,
Where wild carnations blow.
'A Song to David' (stanza 60)
This is worthy of Andrew Marvell, who came before him.
Sweet is the dew that falls betimes,
And drops upon the leafy limes;
'A Song to David' (stanza 72)
Beauteous the moon full on the lawn;
And beauteous, when the veil's withdrawn,
The virgin to her spouse:
Beauteous the temple deck'd and fill'd,
When to the heav'n of heav'ns they build
Their heart-directed vows.
'A Song to David' (stanza 79)
Precious the penitential tear;
And precious is the sigh sincere.
'A Song to David (stanza 82)
These are worthy of William Blake, who comes after him.
*
Any attempt to approach 'Jubilate Agno', as a poem worthy of our attention in this kind of company, must display an accurate account of its provenance, both as a poem and as a literary manuscript. We must be alert in both respects, because there is no other English poem even remotely like 'Jubilate Agno'. Wikipedia tells us: 'Jubilate Agno reflects an abandonment of traditional poetic structures in order to explore complex religious thought.' This is unquestionably the case. It is precisely his 'abandonment of traditional poetic structures' which gives him 'scope for a complex interplay of meaning', (Williamson & Walsh, op. cit., p. 338), unthinkable in the verse of any other 18th century poet.
In this 'complex interplay of meaning' the whole turns out to be far more than the sum of its parts. The parts interact with each other to create a mood, an atmosphere, in which the words come alight to illuminate fresh areas of the spirit. True, there are passages which don't seem to work, or seem over the top, or voice un-thought-out prejudices. But in the main, sacred references cross over from one passage to another to draw in implications resonating throughout the poem, so that what the poem is doing in its best sense is showing us how to praise God transparently. This kind of transparency is demonstrably won by spiritual orientation rather than prosodic virtuosity. Smart's spiritual orientation is so intense, so all-embracing, so sincere, and so majestically crafted, he seems to be able to say anything he chooses to say as he unveils his love of God. Nor does he lack a sense of humour.
The deeper one's acquaintance becomes with this poet in this poem, the more lovable, original, and technically accomplished he seems. He knows exactly what he is doing. His artistry stuns, because through it he creates his own unique spirituality. After him, too many 'religious' poets seem insipid, derivative, dull.
So let us now explore 'Jubilate Agno'.
Part Three
'Jubilate Agno' was written, as far as we know, over a period of 5 years, from June 1758 to January 1763. In the words of Karina Williamson and Marcus Walsh, 'The manuscript remained unknown to the public until 1939, when it was published by W.F. Stead under the title Rejoice in the Lamb: A Song from Bedlam. [Stead had discovered the manuscript in a private library.] A radically revised edition was published in 1954 by W.H. Bond, who was the first to discover the arrangement of the text evidently intended by Smart.' (Williamson & Walsh, op. cit., p. 337). They go on: 'The manuscript consists of a quantity of loose sheets, covered on both sides with a series of closely written, unnumbered verses, each beginning with the word Let or For.' (W & W, p. 338). These 'loose sheets' do not offer us an ordered, coherent, and definitive poem. The truth is a long way from this. W.H. Bond commented, 'the present MS. represents less than half of Smart's original plan for the poem.' (G. Tillotson and P. Fussel, Eighteenth Century English Literature, Harcourt Brace & World, 1969). So there are real grounds for wondering what exactly we are talking about when we are addressing the poem 'Jubilate Agno'. In order to confront this difficulty, and to treat the advice of brilliant scholars like Williamson and Walsh with the respect they deserve, it is necessary to give ourselves a simple and easy-to-follow idea of the current image of the poem.
Jubilate Agno is divided into four fragments labelled 'A', 'B', 'C', 'D'. The whole extant work consists of over 1200 lines. The poem was intended as a responsive reading. That is why the Letand For sections of the manuscript are physically distinct while corresponding verse for verse. W.H. Bond tells us: 'Smart's plan was to arrange the Let and For passages opposite one another antiphonally, following a practice of biblical Hebrew poetry.' (Representative Poetry Online - Christopher Smart : Jubilate Agno, rpo.library.utoronto.ca/poem/1945). In her book The Poetical Works of Christopher Smart, I: Jubilate Agno, Oxford, 1980, Karina Williamson makes the case for the alternation of the Let and For verses, so that they do indeed read antiphonally. She puts the Let verses in Roman font and the For verses in italics.
These points are all important, because in what follows it is imperative that I identify exactly what lines I am quoting, so it can be seen how they fit into the overall image of the poem in its fragmentary form. So B19-21, for example, refers to Fragment B lines 19 to 21. As we have the poem, Fragment A has 113 Let verses and no For verses. Fragment B has 295 Let verses coupled to 295 For verses, followed by 473 For verses, the last 78 of which constitute the famous extract 'For I will consider my Cat Jeoffry.' Fragment C has 163 Let verses coupled to 163 For verses. Fragment D has 237 Let verses and no For verses. It does not seem unreasonable to think that where there are no Let or For verses in a Fragment, these verses may be lost. Since 'My Cat Jeoffry' (as we have it) has no Let verses, this consideration could review our idea of it as a poetic extract.
The Fragments are uneven in quality as well as quantity, Fragment B yielding most in terms of quality, including an 18 verse extract, B492-510, which might be called 'For flowers are peculiarly the poetry of Christ' (B506), to sit well beside 'My Cat Jeoffry'. Fragment C becomes immersed in alphabetical and numerological passages, which deviate into the occult. He touches on hidden languages, C40-48, for instance the secret language of the cabbalists, C45. This Fragment cobbles together numerous words from Ezra and Nehemiah, 18th century botany books, herbals, and medical handbooks. As a consequence, it has an oddly mechanical flavour, which Smart nevertheless transcends. Fragment D reads like a raid on textbooks. 'The Latin names of precious stones, herbs and creatures come from Pliny... the descriptions are mostly taken (often verbatim) from the standard Latin dictionary of the time, Ainsworth's Thesaurus linguae latinae (1736)... The birds in D187-208 are all so described in Albin's Natural History of Birds (1731-8).' (W & W, p. 349). There is therefore a considerable amount of deconstruction to be done to realise exactly what Smart is up to.
He allows himself an absolute poetic licence, which is, I think, greatly to his credit. He is most certainly not writing in an accepted poetic mode to please the 18th century literary press, with which he was familiar. He is concerned to set stones, birds, people, trees, countries, flowers, animals, and numerous other concrete entities, in that relation with each other, and with his underlying praise of God and Christ, which causes them all to spark off each other and enter into a kind of divine conflagration. His attitude to his entities is conspicuously reverential. Words which appear humdrum in a textbook take on a consecrated aura in his poem.
There is no getting into the poem without knowing what he is referring to with each word he uses. 'Names of persons in Fragments A-C are all taken from the Bible (including the Apocrypha), with the one unexplained exception of Campanus (B166), a mad apocalyptic prophet.' (W & W, p. 339). This is a key statement, because names like Anah, Naphthali, Eleazar, Gershom, Merari, Kohath, Jehoida, Ahitub, to take only a few from Fragment A, are scarcely household names today. But such names are absolutely essential to Smart's purposes, because they are there to keep his spiritual eyes sharply in focus. They also help to open our own eyes in regard to our knowledge of the bible or our lack of it. Furthermore, 'Smart was acquainted not only with the standard works of classical learning, philosophy, theology, science, literature, and ancient and modern history, but also with hermetic and cabbalist lore.' (W & W, p. 340). We could say his biblical consciousness mingles more or less seamlessly with other serious subject matter. In the event, this is not too difficult to take in. However, when we come to the names of individuals who are clearly known to him, but not to us, his method can at first seem baffling, if not opaque. Fortunately, the first-class scholars who have looked into this conundrum have decoded such names to a nicety. 'The names of individuals mentioned in the text provide a roll-call of Smart's family; his friends from childhood up to the time of his confinement...; his patrons and publishers; his literary, political and military heroes; his 'fellow-prisoners'; and subscribers to the Translation of the Psalms.' (W & W, p. 341). It is in his attitude to these people that a significant factor in the poem emerges. This is his sense of hallowing such people, as they pass over from ordinary life into the life of his poem. This sense of hallowing is never far from his jubilation in the presence of the lamb of God, that is to say, his fervent belief in what Christianity is. Such an attitude is seen in recent times in the paintings of Stanley Spencer (1891-1959).
In relation to the biblical references, 'most of the verses can be elucidated, where necessary, with the help of a biblical concordance.' (W & W, p. 344). 'He also knew Chambers's Cyclopaedia(1728), which alone would be sufficient to account for most of the knowledge displayed in Jubilate Agno.' (W & W, p. 347). In general, therefore, the at first mystifying and off-putting jungle of proper names and erudite knowledge resolve quite gently into the understanding of a man writing an uncensored poem about his own understanding of God.
We can see from the care we know he put into the poem that we would do well to come back to him, time and time again, each time with renewed regard, until the eureka moment comes when the unprecedented nature of the poetry lays itself bare before us. 'Dates in Fragment B indicate that Let sheet 3 and For sheet 3 (B1-295) were written at the rate of three verses a day from 27 July to 29 October 1759; sheet 4 (B296-512) at one a day from 30 October 1759 to 1 June 1760; sheet 5 (B513-768) again at three a day from 2 June to 26 August 1760.' (W & W, p. 345). This kind of detail does not speak of carelessness hurry or slapdash rambling. It tells us that Smart worked on his verses slowly, deliberately, and systematically for years. This was not a poem for a fashionable magazine or a play in the bullring of a theatre, but a work to touch on the grandeur of God seen through the love of God and Christ.
The probability that we do not possess the poem in its entirety, and our apparent lack of certainty about how to interpret what we do possess, should not deter us from approaching the poem as a poetic mine. Many efforts have been made to extrapolate from the Fragments concerning the poet's intentions. We have seen how the poem may be read as a sequence of antiphonal Let and For verses, in the manner of biblical Hebrew chanting, and how these verses may have amounted to as many as three thousand. I can see how the Fragments form a marvellous opportunity to speculate right across the board, simply because there is enough material to hand to construct almost any theory we like concerning the poet's intentions. So I will limit and end my journey into ancient metaphors and numinous energies by citing what I consider to be examples of good poetry.
*
Fragment A
Composed June 1758-April 1759
Let Chalcol praise with the Beetle, whose life is precious in the sight of God, tho' his appearance is against him. (A38).
Let Solomon praise with the Ant, and give the glory to the Fountain of all Wisdom. (A42).
Let Anna bless God with the Cat, who is worthy to be presented before the throne of grace, when he has trampled upon the idol in his prank. (A57).
Let Ucal bless with the Cameleon, which feedeth on the Flowers and washeth himself in the dew. (A75).
Let Azarias bless with the Reindeer, who runneth upon the waters, and wadeth thro' the land in snow. (A78).
Let Anaiah bless with the Dragon-fly, who sails over the pond by the wood-side and feedeth on the cresses. (A100).
Let Mattithiah bless with the Bat, who inhabiteth the desolations of pride and flieth amongst the tombs. (A103).
Let Dan rejoice with the Blackbird, who praises God with all his heart, and biddeth to be of good cheer. (A113).
Fragment B
Composed July 1759-August 1760
Let Helon rejoice with the Woodpecker - the Lord encourage the propagation of trees!
For the merciful man is merciful to his beast, and to the trees that give them shelter. (B13).
Let Amos rejoice with the Coote - prepare to meet thy God, O Israel.
For he hath turned the shadow of death into the morning, the Lord is his name. (B14).
Let Achsah rejoice with the Pigeon, who is an antidote to malignity and will carry a letter.
For I bless God for the Postmaster general and all conveyancers of letters under his care especially Allen and Shelvock. (B22).
Let Hushim rejoice with the King's Fisher, who is of royal beauty, tho' plebeian size.
For in my nature I quested for beauty, but God, God hath sent me to sea for pearls. (B30).
Let Arodi rejoice with the Royston Crow, there is a society of them at Trumpington and Cambridge.
For I bless the Lord Jesus from the bottom of Royston Cave to the top of King's Chapel. (B44).
Let Joram rejoice with the Water-Rail, who takes his delight in the river.
For I pray God praise the CAM - Mr HIGGS and Mr and Mrs WASHBOURNE as the drops of the dew. (B66).
Let Ithream rejoice with the great Owl, who understandeth that which he professes.
For I pray God for the professors of the University of Cambridge to attend and amend. (B69).
Let Toi rejoice with Percnopteros which haunteth the sugar-fens.
For I bless God in the honey of the sugar-cane and the milk of the cocoa. (B78).
Let Eliada rejoice with the Gier-eagle, who is swift and of great penetration.
For I bless the Lord Jesus for the memory of GAY, POPE, and SWIFT. (B84).
Let Ahimaaz rejoice with the Silver-Worm, who is a living mineral.
For there is silver in my mines and I bless God that it is rather there than in my coffers. (B88).
Let Jether, the son of Gideon, rejoice with Ecchetae, which are musical grasshoppers.
For my seed shall worship the Lord JESUS as numerous and musical as the grasshoppers of Paradise. (B100).
*
LET PETER rejoice with the MOON FISH, who keeps up the life in the waters by night.
FOR I pray the Lord JESUS that cured the LUNATIC to be merciful to all my brothers and sisters in these houses. (B123).
Let Andrew rejoice with the Whale, who is array'd in beauteous blue and is a combination of bulk and activity.
For they work me with their harping-irons, which is a barbarous instrument, because I am more unguarded than others. (B124).
Let James rejoice with the Skuttle-Fish, who foils his foe by the effusion of his ink.
For the blessing of God hath been on my epistles, which I have written for the benefit of others. (B125).
Let Paul rejoice with the Seale, who is pleasant and faithful, like God's good ENGLISHMAN.
For I paid for my seat in St PAUL's, when I was six years old, and took possession against the evil day. (B136).
Let Cleopas rejoice with the Mackerel, who cometh in a shoal after a leader.
For I bless the Lord JESUS upon RAMSGATE PIER - the Lord forward the building of harbours. (B143).
For Charity is cold in the multitude of possessions, and the rich are covetous of their crumbs.(B154).
Let Alpheus rejoice with the Whiting, whom God hath bless'd in multitudes, and his days are as the days of PURIM.
For the tides are the life of God in the ocean, and he sends his angel to trouble the great DEEP.(B157).
Let Aristarchus rejoice with the Cynoglossus - The Lord was at Glastonbury in the body and blessed the thorn.
For 'I will hiss saith the Lord' is God's denunciation of death. (B232).
For every man beareth death about him ever since the transgression of Adam, but in perfect light there is no shadow. (B309).
For Justice is infinitely beneath Mercy in nature and office. (B320).
For by the grace of God I am the Reviver of ADORATION amongst ENGLISH-MEN. (B332).
*
'For Flowers are Peculiarly the Poetry of Christ'
For the doubling of flowers is the improvement of the gard'ner's talent.
For the flowers are great blessings.
For the Lord made a Nosegay in the meadow with his disciples and preached upon
the lily.
For the angels of God took it out of his hand and carried it to the Height.
For a man cannot have public spirit, who is void of private benevolence.
For there is no Height in which there are not flowers.
For flowers have great virtues for all the sense.
For the flower glorifies God and the root parries the adversary.
For the flowers have their angels even the words of God's Creation.
For the warp and woof of flowers are worked by perpetual moving spirits.
For flowers are good both for the living and the dead.
For there is a language of flowers.
For there is a sound reasoning upon all flowers.
For elegant phrases are nothing but flowers.
For flowers are peculiarly the poetry of Christ.
For flowers are medicinal.
For flowers are musical in ocular harmony.
For the right names of flowers are yet in heaven. God make gard'ners better
nomenclators.
For the Poorman's nosegay is an introduction to a Prince.
(B492-510).
[I consider this extract as one which may be set beside the best of Smart's poetry, notably 'For I will consider my Cat Jeoffry.]
*
For they that study the works of God are peculiarly assisted by his Spirit. (B619).
For all the creatures mention'd by Pliny are somewhere or other extant to the glory of God.(B620).
For Newton's notion of colours is αλογος unphilosophical. (B648).
For the colours are spiritual. (B649).
For the blessing of God upon the grass is in shades of Green visible to a nice observer as they light upon the surface of the earth. (B668).
For the blessing of God unto perfection in all bloom and fruit is by colouring. (B669).
Fragment C
Composed February - May 1761
Let Sharai rejoice with Honey-flower.
For I prophesy that the name of king in England will be given to Christ alone. (C87).
Let Shashai rejoice with Smyrnium.
For I prophesy that men will live to a much greater age. This ripens apace God be praised. (C88).
Let Meah rejoice with Variae, a kind of streaked panther. April 8th praise the name of the Lord.
For I prophesy in the favour of dancing which in mutual benevolence is for the glory of God. (C94).
Let Azaniah rejoice with the Water Lily.
For Christ Jesus has exalted my voice to his own glory. (C151).
Let Hizkijah rejoice with the Dwarf American Sun-Flower.
For the art of Agriculture is improving. (C157).
Fragment D
Composed June 1762-January 1763
['Many of the people named in Fragment D were subscribers to his volume Hymns and Spiritual Songs for the Fasts and Festivals of the Church of England (1765)'. (W & W, p. 350).
Let Ross, House of Ross rejoice with the Great Flabber Dabber Flat Clapping Fish with hands. Vide Anson's Voyage and Psalm 98th ix. (D11).
[This verse gives a good close-up look of Smart at work. It certainly caught the attention of his editors Karina Williamson and Marcus Walsh. 'The fish surreally named in D11 is probably a recollection of the "large kind of flat fish" described in George Anson's Voyage Round the World(1748), which Anson thought was "the fish that is said frequently to destroy pearl-divers, by clasping them in its fins'" Smart associates it with the injunction, "Let the floods clap their hands", in Psalm 98:8 (Book of Common Prayer version). The idea of applause had a special place in his theology.' (W & W, p. 350, my italics). It is especially his editors picking up on the notion of the surreal which is so un-ignorable. 'Jubilate Agno', we could say, is profoundly surreal, long before the surrealists came to the fore in the early 20th century. The inclusion of 'Vide Anson's Voyage and Psalm 98th ix', for example, is a kind of surreal trope he has made all his own. Bits such as this can be added on at the end of a verse, because the way he sets the rhythm rolling allows for it and introduces a nice and unexpected sense of variation.]
Let Manly, house of Manly rejoice with the Booby a tropical bird. (D19).
Let Singleton, house of Singleton rejoice with the Hog-Plumb. Lord have mercy on the soul of Lord Vane. (D22).
Let Dongworth, house of Dongworth rejoice with Rhymay the Bread-fruit. God be gracious to the immortal soul of Richard Dongworth. (D28).
Let Cope, house of Cope rejoice with the Centipedes. God give me strength to cope with all my adversaries. (D37).
Let Holles, house of Holles rejoice with Pyriasis a black stone that burns by friction. The Lord kindle amongst Englishmen a sense of their name. (D40).
Let Ash, house of Ash rejoice with Callaica a green gem. God be gracious to Miss Leroche my fellow traveller from Calais. (D42).
Let Baily, house of Baily rejoice with Catopyrites of Cappadocia. God be gracious to the immortal soul of Lewis Baily author of the Practice of Piety. (D43).
Let Glover, house of Glover rejoice with Capnites a kind of Jasper - blessed be the memory of Glover the martyr. (D44).
Let Johnson, house of Johnson rejoice with Omphalocarpa a kind of bur. God be gracious to Samuel Johnson. (D74).
Let Hopgood, house of Hopgood rejoice with Nepenthes an herb which infused in wine drives away sadness - very likely. (D75).
Let Benson, house of Benson rejoice with Sea-Ragwort or Powder'd Bean. Lord have mercy on the soul of Dr Benson Bsp. of Gloucester. (D77).
Let Scroop, house of Scroop rejoice with Fig-Wine - Palmi primarium vinum. Not so - Palmi-primum is the word. (D82).
Let Moyle, house of Moyle rejoice with Phlox a flame-colour'd flower without smell. tentanda via est. Via, veritas, vita sunt Christus. (D84).
['The Latin quotations in D84 probably also refer to Smart's Psalms and Hymns: the first ("A way must be found..."), from Virgil's third Georgic, is about trying new ways of writing; the second ("The way, the truth, the life are Christ", adapted from John 14:6) could allude to Smart's Christianization of the Psalms.' (W & W, p. 350).
Let Cuthbert, house of Cuthbert rejoice with Phyllandrian a good herb growing in marshes - Lord have mercy on the soul of Cornelius Harrison. (D88).
Let Woodward, house of Woodward rejoice with Nerium the Rose-Laurel - God make the professorship of fossils in Cambridge a useful thing. (D93).
Let Bear, house of Bear rejoice with Gelotophyllis an herb which drank in wine and myrrh causes excess of laughter. (D99).
Let Clare, house of Clare rejoice with Galeotes a kind of Lizard at enmity with serpents. Lord receive the soul of Dr Wilcox Master of Clare Hall. (D102).
Let Somner, house of Somner rejoice with the Blue Daisie - God be gracious to my neighbour and his family this day, 7th Octr 1762. (D119).
Let Lenox, house of Lenox rejoice with Achnas the Wild Pear Tree. God be gracious to the Duke of Richmond. (D141).
Let Conduit, house of Conduit rejoice with Graecula a kind of Rose. God be gracious to the immortal soul of Sr Isaac Newton. (D170).
Let Busby, house of Busby rejoice with The Ganser a bird. God prosper Westminster-School. (D189).
Let Westbrooke, house of Westbrooke rejoice with the Quail of Bengal. God be gracious to the people of Maidstone. (D197).
Let Crockatt, house of Crockatt rejoice with Embolline an Asiatic Shrub with small leaves, an antidote. I pray for the soul of Crockatt the bookseller the first to put me upon a version of the Psalms. (D210).
Let Poor, house of Poor rejoice with Jasione a kind of Withwind - Lord have mercy on the poor this hard winter. Jan: 10th 1763. (D216).
Let Forward, house of Forward rejoice with Immussulus a kind of bird - the Lord forward my translation of the psalms this year. (D220).
Let Quarme, house of Quarme rejoice with Thyosiris yellow Succory - I pray God bless all my Subscribers. (D221).
*
In 'Jubilate Agno', with all its faults, overstatements, and plain absurdities, Smart nevertheless dislocates 'traditional bonds of grammar and of ordered space.' He weakens 'the classic continuities of reason and syntax, of conscious direction and verbal form.' He breaks open 'the public crust of language' to bring us to 'new life'.