The Pilgrimage
The Pilgrimage
I traveled on, seeing the hill where my expectation lay. It was a long and weary way. I left the gloomy cave of Desperation on one side, and on the other the rock of Pride.1 And so I came to Fancy's meadow, strewn with many flowers. I would have gladly settled there, but I was driven onward by my hour.2 So I came to Care's small wood, and only made it through with great difficulty.3 That led me to the wild of passion, which some call the wold: a wasted place, but sometimes rich.4 Here I was robbed of all my gold, except for one good Angel, which a friend had tied close to my side.5 At last I reached the joyful hill where my hope lay, where my heart lay; and still climbing, when I had reached the top, all I found was a lake of brackish water on the ground.✦ Then I was ashamed, stung by a swarm of fears; I fell and cried, 'Alas, my King!' Can the way and the end both be tears? Yet, taking heart, I got up, and then I saw I'd been deceived. My hill was farther on, so I lunged forward. But just as I was leaving, I heard a cry: 'No one goes that way and lives.' 'If that's all,' I said, 'after such a foul journey, death is fair—and only a chair.'6
Read the original English
I Travell'd on, seeing the hill, where lay My expectation. A long it was and weary way. The gloomy cave of Desperation I left on th' one, and on the other side The rock of Pride.
And so I came to phansies medow strow'd With many a flower: Fain would I here have made abode, But I was quicken'd by my houre. So to cares cops I came, and there got through With much ado.
That led me to the wilde of passion, which Some call the wold; A wasted place, but sometimes rich. Here I was robb'd of all my gold, Save one good Angel, which a friend had ti'd Close to my side.
At length I got unto the gladsome hill, Where lay my hope, Where lay my heart; and climbing still, When I had gain'd the brow and top, A lake of brackish waters on the ground Was all I found.
With that abash'd and struck with many a sting Of swarming fears, I fell, and cry'd, Alas my King! Can both the way and end be tears? Yet taking heart, I rose, and then perceiv'd I was deceiv'd.
My hill was further: so I flung away, Yet heard a crie Just as I went, None goes that way And lives: If that be all, said I, After so foul a journey death is fair, And but a chair.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Exod.15.23 — When they came to Marah, they could not drink the water there, for it was bitter; therefore they named the place Marah.
Notes
- 1 ↩Desperation and Pride are personified place-names in Herbert's allegory; capitals are kept to mark them as stations on the spiritual journey rather than abstract moods alone.
- 2 ↩Source 'phansies medow' is Fancy's meadow (idle imagination/fantasy as an allegorical place). 'Quicken'd by my houre' means driven forward by the appointed hour, not made spiritually alive.
- 3 ↩Source 'cares cops' is Care's copse (a thicket of cares/worries). 'Ado' retained in sense as trouble/difficulty, not fuss for its own sake.
- 4 ↩Herbert pairs wilde (wild/wilderness) with wold (open upland or waste country). Both name a barren stretch of ground; the sound-play is deliberate and is kept in the modern rendering.
- 5 ↩Angel is an English gold coin of Herbert's day; the capital letter also keeps the spiritual double sense of a guardian angel secured by a friend. Both readings are intended.
- 6 ↩Herbert's 'chair' means a seat of rest: after the rough pilgrimage, death is imagined as nothing worse than sitting down.
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