Question- Write a note on summary of the poem "Virtue" by George Herbert.

Answer -

"Virtue" is one of the poems in a collection of verse called "The Temple (1633)" which George Herbert wrote during the last three years of his life. In "Virtue" he presents a vision of an eternal world beyond the one available to sense perception. The poem deals with the theme of the ever-beginning nature of this world. All things that seem lovely and good in nature do not stay so forever; they die very soon. The day is very cool, sweet, bright and symbol of the Earth's marriage with the sky; but it is destined to die as soon as the night approaches. Dew drops expresses sorrow and grief on day's death. Just like the fate of the day, the fates of rose is also in its ultimate death. Rose is a beautiful flower with bold and attractive colour even a passer by is forced to wipe his eyes and have a careful glance of it and admire its beauty. But it is also short lived and soon its roots would become its grave when its sheds its petal to the ground. A days lasts for only eight ten hours only and a rose may last for two-three days but the spring season seems to last for longer period. In this season the days are very sweet; beautiful flowers bloom everywhere. But even this pleasant season also is not long lasting and soon it would give way to the cold, harsh and unruly winter. It is bitter truth that this pleasant spring too would come to its and like all other things.

The poet it quite annoyed with the morality of all natural things and thinks over it-then what lives in the world forever. He concludes in the last stanza that all things in the world are destined to die but only sweet and virtuous soul would never die. Though the whole world may come to an end yet the virtue would survives forever and would never decay.

Virtue is a famous poem by George Herbert. It belongs to the metaphysical school of poetry. As in all metaphysical poems, the poet uses a dialectic argument to express his idea. There is an aura of logic behind the ingenuity of the poet with which the poet tries to persuade the realers to his lives of argument. A sequence of descriptions is given. It begins with a picture of sweet day. Then comes the picture of sweet rose, of the spring and finally of the virtuous soul.

There is a reasoned contrast between the first three pictures and the last one. The sweet day and the sweet rose are alike.

The spring is also alike. The spring contains both. So the sweet day and the sweet rose equally the spring, but the spring is much more. It contains much more but the common point about them all is that "all must die".

The premise in the fourth stanza's argument is that virtue must be added to make a sweet soul. Once it is done that soul becomes of a different class. It ceases to be affected by the ravages of changing times, it becomes like a seasoned timber immune from death and destruction. One is the comparison with a box over bringing with sweets. The other is the comparison with the virtuous soul with the "seasoned timber"; Both grander says, more striking in ingenuity than justness. The poem has a charming pictorial quality. The picture of the day rose and the spring is very interesting. Still more poetic is the picture of the bridal tie between the earth and sky. The picture of the rose as angry and brave forcing the gazers to wipe out their eyes is equally charming.

Through the language used is that of common speech. Virtue has the sonority and sweetness of good lyrics. The poem is made up of four stanzas. Each stanza has four lines. The stanza has alternative rhyming. The length of the times is varied in accordance with the flow of the argument of the poem. Herbert's poems have been characterized by a deep religious devotion, linguistic precision, metrical agility and igenious use of conceit. Memoriae Matris Saicrum the only collection of poems be published during his lifetime. Samuel Taylor Coleridge wrote of Herbert's diction that "Nothing can be more pure, manly, or unaffected".

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