George Herbert Group

Question:

tahitienne
tahitienne
Student

"But though the whole world turn to coal" is a metaphor in the poem "Virtue", but what does it mean?

Rate question:

Posted by tahitienne on Monday March 16, 2009 at 11:41 PM and tagged with decay, george herbert, metaphor, virtue.

Answers:

  1. sampiper22
    sampiper22 Teacher
    High School - 12th Grade

    eNotes Editor

    The poem Virtue by George Herbert is set out in four four-line stanzas in the first three of which he selects an typical image of beauty and life (the day, a rose, the spring) before reminding us that the image "must die".

    The final stanza from which this metaphor comes focuses on the "sweet and virtuous soul". Herbert procedes to state that the soul alone will "never give" and will continue to "live" immortally whilst the world around it rots and decays.

    The specific image "turn to coal" is a reference to the decay of the physical and material world: coal is the byproduct of the rotting of vegetable stuff. Coal is also particularly apt as a contrast to the "seasoned timber" to which the soul is compared in the preceding line: timber is useful and living; coal is dead and rotted.

    Sources:
    http://www.englishverse.com/poems/virtue

    Rate answer:

    Posted by sampiper22 on Tuesday March 17, 2009 at 4:42 AM