Read the following seventeenth-century poem, "The Windows" by George Herbert, carefully:
Lord, how can man preach thy eternal word?
He is a brittle crazy glass;
Yet in thy temple thou dost him afford
This glorious and transcendent place,
To be a window, through thy grace.
But when thou dost anneal in glass thy story,
Making thy life to shine within
The holy preachers; then the light and glory
More rev'rend grows, and more doth win;
Which else shows waterish, bleak, and thin.
Doctrine and life colors and light in one
When they combine and mingle, bring
A strong regard and awe: but speech alone
Doth vanish like a flaring thing,
An in the ear, not conscience ring.
In the poem, how does the extended metaphor of the stained-glass window develop to convey the speaker’s perspective on preaching?
- AIt contrasts the physical beauty of temple architecture with the spiritual decay of the congregation, suggesting that only external structures can withstand the passage of time.
- BIt characterizes the preacher's voice as a brilliant flame that initially illuminates the temple but is ultimately extinguished by the brittle nature of the glass.
- It progresses from identifying the preacher as inherently fragile, clear glass to illustrating how God’s grace embeds divine narrative within their character, culminating in a synthesis of doctrine and actions that makes spiritual truth impactful.Answer
- DIt focuses on the speaker's personal anxiety about their own mortality, comparing their physical decline to a window that is becoming increasingly bleak and thin.
- EIt defines the 'brittle crazy glass' as a rhetorical device used by preachers to entertain audiences, arguing that such metaphors are ultimately waterish and thin.