Artillerie
The Temptation and the Resolve
The speaker, after a star falls into his lap and he hears a voice urging disobedience, turns to God and resolves to do or endure what he ought.
One evening, as I sat outside my cell, I thought a star fell into my lap. I stood up and shook out my clothes, knowing well that small fires often lead to big trouble—when suddenly I heard someone say: Do what you always do; disobey. Drive those good motions from your breast, the ones that look like fire but end in rest.1 I, who'd heard of music in the spheres but not of speech in stars, began to wonder. But turning to my God, whose ministers the stars and all things are: "If I so often refuse my own good, Lord," I said, "then I won't refuse even blood to wash away my stubborn thought. For I'll do—or endure—what I ought."✦✦
The Artillery of Prayer
The speaker reflects on his own prayers as spiritual artillery, acknowledges God's refusal, but insists on the binding nature of God's promise.
But I have my own stars and shooters, too, born where your servants use both kinds of artillery. Night and day my tears and prayers woo you and work their way up to you; yet you refuse. Still, I am—I have to keep saying it—much more bound to do your will than you are to grant mine. But I press the point because your promise has now even set laws upon you.2
Parley and Surrender
The speaker acknowledges both God and himself as shooters, then offers a parley, surrenders his own arrows, and declares his total belonging to God.
So we are both archers, and you deign to enter the fight with us and contend with your own clay. But I would gladly talk: don't dodge my arrows, and look at my breast.3 Yet if you do dodge them, I am yours: I must be yours, if I am my own.4 There is no bargaining with you: I am only finite, yet infinitely yours.5
Read the original English
AS I one ev'ning sat before my cell, Me thoughts a starre did shoot into my lap. I rose, and shook my clothes, as knowing well, That from small fires comes oft no small mishap: When suddenly I heard one say, Do as thou usest, disobey, Expell good motions from thy breast, Which have the face of fire, but end in rest.
I, who had heard of musick in the spheres, But not of speech in starres, began to muse: But turning to my God, whose ministers The starres and all things are; If I refuse, Dread Lord, said I, so oft my good; Then I refuse not ev’n with bloud To wash away my stubborn thought: For I will do, or suffer what I ought.
But I have also starres and shooters too, Born where thy servants both artilleries use. My tears and prayers night and day do wooe, And work up to thee; yet thou dost refuse. Not, but I am (I must say still) Much more oblig’d to do thy will, Then thou to grant mine: but because Thy promise now hath ev’n set thee thy laws.
Then we are shooters both, and thou dost deigne To enter combate with us, and contest With thine own clay. But I would parley fain: Shunne not my arrows, and behold my breast. Yet if thou shunnest, I am thine: I must be so, if I am mine. There is no articling with thee: I am but finite, yet thine infinitely.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Ps.103.20-Ps.103.21;Ps.104.4 — Bless the LORD, you his angels, mighty in strength, who do his word, listening for the voice of his word. Ps.103.21 — Bless the LORD, all you his hosts, you his servants who do his will. Ps.104.4 — He makes his messengers winds, his ministers a blazing fire.
- ↩1John.1.7;Rev.7.14 — But if we walk in the light, as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. Rev.7.14 — And I said to him, 'My lord, you know.' And he said to me, 'These are the ones who are coming out of the great tribulation, and they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.'
Notes
- 1 ↩"good motions" keeps the early modern spiritual sense of interior stirrings (here, grace-ward impulses). The taunting voice urges the speaker to reject them as if they were dangerous sparks.
- 2 ↩Source 'Then' is Early Modern for 'than' (comparison, not temporal sequence). 'Not, but I am' is rendered as concessive 'Still, I am' (speaker admits the heavier obligation on himself). 'set thee thy laws' is taken as God's promise binding God by God's own pledged word.
- 3 ↩'Parley' kept for the poem's military register (negotiate under truce); 'breast' is the open chest offered as target and as self-disclosure.
- 4 ↩Herbert's possession play: even if God turns from the speaker's 'arrows,' belonging remains mutual/asymmetric—true self-possession ('if I am mine') still means being God's.
- 5 ↩'Articling' = drawing up articles/terms of a treaty; rendered as 'bargaining' to keep the legal-military sense without archaism.
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