i.a Richards figurative language 

When God at first made man,

Having a glass of blessings standing by,

“Let us,” said he, “pour on him all we can.

Let the world’s riches, which dispersed lie,

Contract into a span.”

So strength first made a way;

Then beauty flowed, then wisdom, honour, pleasure.

When almost all was out, God made a stay,

Perceiving that, alone of all his treasure,

Rest in the bottom lay.

“For if I should,” said he,

“Bestow this jewel also on my creature,

He would adore my gifts instead of me,

And rest in Nature, not the God of Nature;

So both should losers be.

“Yet let him keep the rest,

But keep them with repining restlessness;

Let him be rich and weary, that at least,

If goodness lead him not, yet weariness

May toss him to my breast.”

-          GEORGE HERBERT

# Paraphrase:

            Here we can find some of the metaphysical word. Herbert’s also can use paraphrase in this poem. Only Hope, the one good thing the box had contained, remained to comfort humanity in its misfortunes. In this poem, the fusion of the classical and the Christian add richness. The poem metaphysical conceit, which is a pulley that draws man slowly toward God.

            Pulleys and hoists are mechanical devices aimed at assisting us with moving heavy loads through a system of ropes and wheels to gain advantage. Here, we should not be surprised at the use of a pulley as a central conceit since the domain of physics and imagery Herbert can use in his poem.

# Summary / Appreciation:

            In the poem, the central idea posited by Herbert is that when God made man, he poured all his blessings on him, including strength, beauty, wisdom, honour and pleasure. We are told that God “made a stay,” that is, He kept “Rest in the bottom.” God is aware that if He were to bestow this “jewel” on Man as well then Man would adore God’s gifts instead of God himself. God has withheld the gift of rest from man knowing fully well that His other treasures would one day result in a spiritual restlessness in man who, having tired of His material gifts would necessarily turn to God in his exhaustion. God, being prescient, knows that there is the possibility that even the wicked might not turn to Him, but He knows that eventually mortal man is prone to lethargy; his lassitude, then, would be the leverage He needed to toss man to His breast.

            Applied to man in this poem, we can say that the withholding of Rest by God is the leverage that draws mankind towards God when other means would make that task difficult. However, we can find that in the first line of the last stanza, Herbert puns on the word “rest” suggesting that perhaps God will, after all, let man “keep the rest,” but such a reading would the force behind the poem’s conceit. The importance of rest and, by association, sleep- is an idea that was certainly uppermost in the minds of writers.

            Herbert’s The pulley, then, dose not presents a new concept. We can say that the metaphysical poem is that a religious notion is conveyed through a secular, scientific image that requires the reader’s understanding of, some basic low of physics. Thus, “with repining restlessness,” man may wearily seek out God: the apparent absence or lack of one good result in the formation of greater goodness. Misery, therefore, possesses a pulley that helps man’s connection with God by drawing the two together.