Summary
An altar is a ceremonial table upon which sanctifications, sacrifices, and other religious rituals traditionally take place. The altar that gives this poem its name represents at least three things: the poem itself shaped as an altar, the literal altar found inside churches, and—most importantly—the poet’s heart as a metaphorical altar. The speaker offers his poem/altar/heart as a sacrifice to God. The poem begins with a reflection on human weakness and frailty. It then praises God’s power and ends by requesting God’s blessing for this sacrifice.
Analysis
The four words spelled out in capital letters in the poem (”ALTAR,” “HEART,” “SACRIFICE,” and “ALTAR” once more) tell the reader what its most important themes are. In the poem’s first couplet, the speaker declares his intention. He addresses God directly to say that he is raising an altar. However, this is not just any old church altar. It is “[m]ade of a heart, and cemented with teares” (line 2). The speaker has turned his own heart into an altar. In the poem he asks for God to bless and sanctify this sacrifice. Significantly, this heart-altar is also described as “broken” (1). In one sense, this is an expression of the speaker’s humility. Though he and his heart are unworthy, he asks for God’s approval anyway. This tone of humbling himself before God is confirmed by the speaker describing himself as “thy servant."
These opening lines, so packed with meaning, are written in a perfectly rhymed couplet of iambic pentameter. The only thing “broken” about them is the beginning of line 2, which starts not with a normal iamb (an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed one) but a trochee (stressed-unstressed): MADE of. This breaking of the meter appears less like a mistake on the poet’s part than a deliberate way of making the reader understand that imperfect forms of ‘making’ and ‘being made’ will be central themes in this poem. Some critics of Herbert’s poetry see a contrast between the speaker’s expression of humility and the careful technical mastery with which the poem was written. This suspicion that the form (shape and style) of “The Altar” subtly contradicts the content (what is being said) is confirmed by the fact that this pattern poem not only looks like an altar—it is also shaped like a capital “I,” the first-person pronoun. Is the deeply religious speaker of Herbert’s poem humble or proud? This is a difficult question to answer, but this ambiguity is present in many of his poems.
Lines 3 and 4 are written not in iambic pentameter (five feet of iambs) but iambic tetrameter (four feet of iambs). At this point, the lines will keep getting shorter in “The Altar” until they move back out to pentameter. This creates a pleasing visual symmetry when you look at the poem on the page. Here the second couplet continues with the theme of brokenness. Whereas earlier the altar was described as “broken” as a declaration of humility, now we get some details that make this brokenness seem intentional. If the speaker’s heart is broken, that is because God made it that way. Neither the poet nor any craftsman has altered it. Several important Biblical allusions are packed into these lines. In Deuteronomy in the Hebrew Bible (the Old Testament), God declares that sacrifices should be made on an “altar of stones” but specifies that no “iron tool” should be used to make it. Even more specifically, God wants the altar to be built of “whole stones.” In the original Hebrew the word used for a workman is “harash,” which can mean someone who makes forbidden idols. Uncut and un-carved, Herbert’s heart-altar follows Biblical precedent. The speaker uses nothing but what God gave him to raise his altar.
The next eight lines are in iambic dimeter (two feet of iambs). With rhyme words finishing off every two lines and the grammar of the sentences spilling across the lines (enjambment), this section reads very quickly. The speaker now declares that a “HEART” (written in capitalized letters right in the center of the line) is the perfect kind of “stone” for an altar (5-6). A human heart is exactly in the shape God intended, and no workman’s iron tools has polluted it. It is only cut by God’s “power” (8). Interestingly, this middle part of the poem appears as if it was itself cut—as if the rest of the lines were shaved off to make just this skinny column. In this way, the form of the poem again matches its content. Line 9 sets off a long sentence, beginning with “Wherefore,” that continues until line 14. Here the speaker declares that his heart is “hard.” Like calling his heart a “stone,” this is an expression of humility. Despite its roughness, however, the poet’s heart-altar has a righteous purpose: to praise God. All the broken parts come together in “this frame.” The word “this” here can refer to all three forms of the altar used in the poem: the literal church altar, the shape of the poem as an altar, and the speaker’s heart.
After the short lines of the middle section, line 13 returns to iambic tetrameter, as if moving towards wholeness after brokenness. Here the speaker makes a conditional sentence (’if...then’). If he happens to fall silent (which can also refer to death) then “[t]hese stones” will continue praising God for all time. Again, this can be a reference to the stone altar, the words of the poem, or the poet’s heart. None will cease praising God.
The poem then ends as it began, in iambic pentameter with the speaker addressing God directly. In the final couplet, he makes a request. He asks for God to make “thy blessed SACRIFICE be mine” (13). The sacrifice can refer to the kind of ritual that would be performed on an altar, but more specifically it is an allusion to the sacrifice of Christ’s death to redeem humanity. In making such a request the speaker might again be seen as lacking the proper humility. However, the desire expressed in the final line is for God to “sanctifie this ALTAR to be thine.” The speaker hopes that if his sacrifice is accepted and made holy by God, then the difference between “mine” and “thine” can be overcome. He wants his heart to become an offering to God, which could be understood as the ultimate expression of self-sacrifice. Though the speaker and his heart are broken and flawed, he asks God to accept them anyway.
By the time the poem ends, a number of opposing forces appear. There is the speaker and his heart, both versions of “I.” Then there is the altar as a heart and the altar as a poem. Similarly, the external altar found in churches is opposed to the internal altar set up in the heart. These also represent the difference between the physical and the spiritual, the world we all live in and the world of God. Outside is contrasted with inside, just as a contrast is set up between man and God, or “mine” and “thine.” The speaker asks God to help him unify these broken pieces into a single whole. Though he is unworthy, he asks God to bless and sanctify the stones, the altar, his heart—and even the poem itself, which he offers as a sacrifice.
