(5) Tree Line
Cute little altar shape aside, "The Altar" is no walk in the park. If you read through it ten times and still have no clue just what in the world Herbert is talking about, you can be forgiven. Sure, Herbert doesn't use any crazy vocabulary words or write any huge, long sentences like, say, John Milton. On the contrary, the words and sentences in this poem are actually pretty simple. It's the poem's themes and ideas that will leave you scratching your head.
All this confusion starts at the very beginning, with the speaker telling us about an altar he has built that is made out of a heart and cemented with tears. Then he goes on about how the heart is also a stone, and no workmen have touched it, and everything he uses to build his altar was "cut" by God. We have to admit, we were stumped at first, too. However, once you start to check out the biblical passages Herbert had in mind while writing the poem, and once you work through the metaphors (the altar is both the poem itself but also the speaker's heart, which he offers to God), then things start to click. And you want them to click; Herbert's themes can be quite profound, if you just give him a chance.