Dooms-day
The Summons to Rise
The poet calls for the resurrection of the dead, summoning dust to rise and respond to the trumpet's music.
Come away— don't delay.✦ Summon all the dust to rise, till it stirs and rubs its eyes; while one limb jogs the other, each one whispering, 'Are you alive, brother?'✦12 Come away—make this the day. Dust, alas, feels no music but your trumpet; then it kneels, as special notes and strains cure a tarantula’s raging pains.✦3
The Graves and the Scattered
The poet pleads for the graves to confess and for the scattered flock to be gathered, acknowledging the decay and dispersion of bodies.
Come away—O don't delay! Let the graves make their confession, so they don't finally claim possession: the stubbornness of flesh may have taught the grave that lesson.4 Come away—your flock is straying.✦ Some lend their bodies to the winds, and in those winds a friend may drown. Some grow in foul vapors into a plague and public woe.5
The Broken Consort Restored
The poet concludes with a plea for help in decay and a request for God to raise the broken consort, so that music of praise may result.
Come and help us in our decline. Humanity has been thrown into disorder, scattered across the whole world. Lord, restore your broken ensemble, and our music will be praise.6
Read the original English
Come away, Make no delay. Summon all the dust to rise, Till it stirre, and rubbe the eyes; While this member jogs the other, Each one whispring, Live you brother?
Come away, Make this the day. Dust, alas, no musick feels, But thy trumpet: then it kneels, As peculiar notes and strains Cure Tarantulaes raging pains.
Come away, O make no stay! Let the graves make their confession, Lest at length they plead possession: Fleshes stubbornnesse may have Read that lesson to the grave.
Come away, Thy flock doth stray. Some to windes their bodie lend, And in them may drown a friend: Some in noisome vapours grow To a plague and publick wo.
Come away, Help our decay. Man is out of order hurl'd, Parcel'd out to all the world. Lord, thy broken consort raise, And the musick shall be praise.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Song.2.10 — My beloved answered and said to me, 'Arise, my darling, my beautiful one, and come away.'
- ↩Eph.5.14 — Therefore he says, 'Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.'
- ↩1Cor.15.52;1Thess.4.16 — in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet—for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. 1Thess.4.16 — For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.
- ↩Isa.53.6;Ps.119.176;1Pet.2.25 — All of us, like sheep, have gone astray; each of us has turned to our own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. Ps.119.176 — I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek your servant, for I have not forgotten your commandments. 1Pet.2.25 — For you were like sheep going astray, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.
Notes
- 1 ↩Early modern 'Live you brother?' is inverted interrogation: 'Do you live / Are you alive, brother?' Modernized as direct speech for clarity.
- 2 ↩'Member' means a body part/limb of the reconstituted body, not a person in a group; 'jogs' keeps the light shake/nudge sense (as in jogging an elbow).
- 3 ↩“Peculiar” here means particular or distinctive, not odd; the simile draws on the early-modern belief that music cured tarantism (frenzy from a tarantula bite).
- 4 ↩Herbert plays legal language against devotion: confession is both admission and yielding; plead possession means claim title to the dead as if they belong to the grave.
- 5 ↩noisome: rendered as foul (noxious, harmful, foul-smelling); publick wo modernized as public woe. The couplets describe corpses dispersed into wind and pestilent air until the last gathering.
- 6 ↩consort: here the musical sense—an ensemble of voices or instruments playing together—not a spouse; 'broken consort' also names a mixed instrumental group, and Herbert plays on both shattered harmony and that technical term.
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