A Song to David
Encyclopedia
A Song to David, a poem by Christopher Smart
, was most likely written during his stay in a mental asylum while he wrote Jubilate Agno
. Although it received mixed reviews, it was his most famous work until the discovery of Jubilate Agno.
The poem focuses on King David and various aspects of his life, but quickly turns to an emphasis on Christ
and Christianity
.
One of Christopher Smart's biographers, Arthur Sherbo, claims that the A Song to David, the translation of the Psalms, and Hymns and Spiritual Songs
were "largely composed between March, 1759, and August 26, 1760."
The first publication was advertised on April 6, 1763. Smart later republished the work in his 1765 A Translation of the Psalms of David, Attempted in the Spirit of Christianity, and Adapted to the Divine Service, which included a translation of the Psalms and Christopher Smart's Hymns and Spiritual Songs. Later, A Song to David was not included in a collection of Christopher Smart's works by either Christopher Hunter, his nephew, or Elizabeth LeNoir, his daughter. Neither of Christopher Smart's anthologies, Anderson and Chalmers, could find a complete edition of the work. The text was then lost until the 1819 and 1827 editions of the poem.
Biblical poetry. The Biblical David
plays an important role in this poem just like he played an important role in Jubilate Agno However, David in Jubilate Agno is an image of the creative power of poetry whereas he becomes a fully realized model of the religious poet. By focusing on David, Christopher is able to tap into the "heavenly language."
However, the true life of the poem comes later when Christ is introduced as the major subject. After Christ is introduced, Christopher attempts to "reach to heaven" and the final passages, to Neil Curry, represent a "final rush for glory."
and his possible role with the Freemasons. Rose claims in 2005 that it is not known for sure if Smart was a Freemason or not; there is no public record explicitly connecting Smart with Freemasonry there is conjecture that he was either a Freemason or had a strong knowledge of its symbols from an expose of the time. Sherbo claimed in his 1967 biography of Smart (as well as in several articles on Smart) that based on personal admittance to writing A Defence of Freemasonry, contemporary verification of his participation in the volume and with Masonic meetings, confirms "his participation in Masonic affairs."
It was this important detail that encouraged many critics to try and decode the "seven pillar" section of A Song of David along the lines of Freemason imagery. The poem follows two traditional sets of motions common to Freemason writing that mimics the image of Jacob's Ladder
: movement from earth to heaven and movement from heaven to earth. This image further connects Freemason belief surrounding the relationship of David to Solomon's Temple. While these images, and further images in A Song to David are related also to depictions of the Temple in Isaac Newton's Chronology of Ancient Kingdoms Amended (1728), John Bunyan
's Solomon's Temple Spiritualiz'd (1688), and to the Geneva Bible
, as "there was considerable interest...in King Solomon's Temple and its construction, not just in the realm of Freemasonry."
Based on this theory, the first pillar, the Greek alpha, represents the mason's compass and "God as the Architect of the Universe." The second, the Greek gamma, represents the mason's square. In addition, the square represents the "vault of heaven." The third, the Greek eta, represents Jacob's ladder itself and is connected to the complete idea of seven pillars. The fourth, the Greek theta, is either "the all-seeing eye or the point within a circle." The fifth letter, the Greek iota, represents a pillar and the temple. The sixth letter, the Greek sigma, is an incomplete hexagram, otherwise known as "the blazing star or hexalpha" to the Freemasons. The last, the Greek omega, represents a lyre and David as a poet.
While Solomon's Temple does figure prominently in Freemasonry, David himself is barely mentioned in Masonic ritual.
would. The Monthly Review felt that the poem was "irregularly great" although a few stanzas showed "a grandeur, a majesty of thought, not without a happiness of expression." Professional critics were not the only ones to demonstrate a less than accepting view of A Song to David; William Mason
wrote to Thomas Gray
, "I have seen his Song to David & from thence conclude him as mad as ever."
Not every response was negative, and Christopher received much support within the London poet community. William Kenrick
, Christopher’s former rival, praised the poem in a poem of his own printed May 25, 1763. Also, John Lockman followed on June 21, 1763, with his own poem in praise of Christopher’s and Samuel Boyce followed this on July 15, 1763 with his. Regardless of what these poets felt, Christopher Smart's daughter, Elizabeth, claimed that "all a daughter's partiality could not lead the writer of this to admire it, nor all her pains, after many perusals, discover the beauties with which, when supposed lost, it was so liberally endowed." Later, when the text was recovered and reprinted in 1819, John Scott viewed the poem as proof that Christopher was both insane and a poet: the poem was had the benefit of "originality" and "beautiful and well selected imagery" but there were "symptoms of the author's state of mind, in a frequent vagueness of meaning, in an abruptness of transition, and sometimes in the near neighbourhood of the most incongruous ideas."
Although it took a century later before a positive twist was put on Christopher Smart's time in a mental asylum, Robert Browning
later remarked in his Parleyings (1887) that A Song to David was great because Smart was mad, and that the poem allowed Smart to rank alongside of Milton and Keats. Christopher Smart, as Browning's poem claims,
It was Browning's remarks that brought about a later "appreciation: of A Song to David. More specifically, on a review of Browning Parleying claimed that Christopher Smart was:
In addition to this review, Dante Gabriel Rossetti
claimed that A Song to David was "the only great accomplished poem of the last century." Two years later, Francis Palgrave wrote that the Song exhibited "noble wildness and transitions from grandeur to tenderness, from Earth to Heaven" and it was "unique in our Poetry." Seven years after Palgrave, John Churton Collins
agreed with Rosetti and Palgrave, but not to the same degree, when he claims, "This poem stands alone, the most extraordinary phenomenon, perhaps, in our literature, the one rapt strain in the poetry of the eighteenth century, the work of a poet who, though he produced much, has not produced elsewhere a single line which indicates the power here displayed."
Christopher Smart
Christopher Smart , also known as "Kit Smart", "Kitty Smart", and "Jack Smart", was an English poet. He was a major contributor to two popular magazines and a friend to influential cultural icons like Samuel Johnson and Henry Fielding. Smart, a high church Anglican, was widely known throughout...
, was most likely written during his stay in a mental asylum while he wrote Jubilate Agno
Jubilate Agno
Jubilate Agno is a religious poem by Christopher Smart, and was written between 1759 and 1763, during Smart's confinement for insanity in St. Luke's Hospital, Bethnal Green, London. The poem was first published in 1939, under the title Rejoice in the Lamb: A Song from Bedlam, edited by W. F...
. Although it received mixed reviews, it was his most famous work until the discovery of Jubilate Agno.
The poem focuses on King David and various aspects of his life, but quickly turns to an emphasis on Christ
Christ
Christ is the English term for the Greek meaning "the anointed one". It is a translation of the Hebrew , usually transliterated into English as Messiah or Mashiach...
and Christianity
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
.
Background
There is no evidence proving that Christopher Smart wrote A Song to David while locked away in a mental asylum for seven years. However, John Langhorne claimed, in the 1763 Monthly Review, "that it was written when the Author was denied the use of pen, ink, and paper, and was obliged to indent his lines, with the end of a key upon the wainscot." It is unlikely that Christopher had to go to such extremes to actually write the poem, but many scholars believe that it was written during his confinement. However, Christopher Hunter, Christopher Smart's nephew, claims:- "our Author wrote a Poem called a Song to David, and a new Version of the Psalms: he also translated the Works of Horace, and the Fables of Phaedrus into English Metre; and versified our Saviour's Parables. These, with two small pamphlets of Poems, were written after his confinement, and bear for the most part melancholy proofs of the recent estrangement of his mind."
One of Christopher Smart's biographers, Arthur Sherbo, claims that the A Song to David, the translation of the Psalms, and Hymns and Spiritual Songs
Hymns and Spiritual Songs (book)
Hymns and Spiritual Songs for the Fasts and Festivals of the Church of England, by Christopher Smart, was published in 1765 along with a translation of the Psalms of David and a new version of A Song to David...
were "largely composed between March, 1759, and August 26, 1760."
The first publication was advertised on April 6, 1763. Smart later republished the work in his 1765 A Translation of the Psalms of David, Attempted in the Spirit of Christianity, and Adapted to the Divine Service, which included a translation of the Psalms and Christopher Smart's Hymns and Spiritual Songs. Later, A Song to David was not included in a collection of Christopher Smart's works by either Christopher Hunter, his nephew, or Elizabeth LeNoir, his daughter. Neither of Christopher Smart's anthologies, Anderson and Chalmers, could find a complete edition of the work. The text was then lost until the 1819 and 1827 editions of the poem.
A Song to David
Christopher's A Song to David is an attempt to bridge poetry written by humans and divinely inspiriedRevelation
In religion and theology, revelation is the revealing or disclosing, through active or passive communication with a supernatural or a divine entity...
Biblical poetry. The Biblical David
David
David was the second king of the united Kingdom of Israel according to the Hebrew Bible and, according to the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, an ancestor of Jesus Christ through both Saint Joseph and Mary...
plays an important role in this poem just like he played an important role in Jubilate Agno However, David in Jubilate Agno is an image of the creative power of poetry whereas he becomes a fully realized model of the religious poet. By focusing on David, Christopher is able to tap into the "heavenly language."
However, the true life of the poem comes later when Christ is introduced as the major subject. After Christ is introduced, Christopher attempts to "reach to heaven" and the final passages, to Neil Curry, represent a "final rush for glory."
Freemasonry
Many critics have focused on the role of David as planner of Solomon's TempleSolomon's Temple
Solomon's Temple, also known as the First Temple, was the main temple in ancient Jerusalem, on the Temple Mount , before its destruction by Nebuchadnezzar II after the Siege of Jerusalem of 587 BCE....
and his possible role with the Freemasons. Rose claims in 2005 that it is not known for sure if Smart was a Freemason or not; there is no public record explicitly connecting Smart with Freemasonry there is conjecture that he was either a Freemason or had a strong knowledge of its symbols from an expose of the time. Sherbo claimed in his 1967 biography of Smart (as well as in several articles on Smart) that based on personal admittance to writing A Defence of Freemasonry, contemporary verification of his participation in the volume and with Masonic meetings, confirms "his participation in Masonic affairs."
It was this important detail that encouraged many critics to try and decode the "seven pillar" section of A Song of David along the lines of Freemason imagery. The poem follows two traditional sets of motions common to Freemason writing that mimics the image of Jacob's Ladder
Jacob's Ladder
Jacob's Ladder is a "ladder to heaven", described by biblical Jacob in the Book of GenesisJacob's Ladder may also refer to:* Ladder of Jacob, a pseudepigraphic text of the Old Testament...
: movement from earth to heaven and movement from heaven to earth. This image further connects Freemason belief surrounding the relationship of David to Solomon's Temple. While these images, and further images in A Song to David are related also to depictions of the Temple in Isaac Newton's Chronology of Ancient Kingdoms Amended (1728), John Bunyan
John Bunyan
John Bunyan was an English Christian writer and preacher, famous for writing The Pilgrim's Progress. Though he was a Reformed Baptist, in the Church of England he is remembered with a Lesser Festival on 30 August, and on the liturgical calendar of the Episcopal Church on 29 August.-Life:In 1628,...
's Solomon's Temple Spiritualiz'd (1688), and to the Geneva Bible
Geneva Bible
The Geneva Bible is one of the most historically significant translations of the Bible into the English language, preceding the King James translation by 51 years. It was the primary Bible of the 16th century Protestant movement and was the Bible used by William Shakespeare, Oliver Cromwell, John...
, as "there was considerable interest...in King Solomon's Temple and its construction, not just in the realm of Freemasonry."
Based on this theory, the first pillar, the Greek alpha, represents the mason's compass and "God as the Architect of the Universe." The second, the Greek gamma, represents the mason's square. In addition, the square represents the "vault of heaven." The third, the Greek eta, represents Jacob's ladder itself and is connected to the complete idea of seven pillars. The fourth, the Greek theta, is either "the all-seeing eye or the point within a circle." The fifth letter, the Greek iota, represents a pillar and the temple. The sixth letter, the Greek sigma, is an incomplete hexagram, otherwise known as "the blazing star or hexalpha" to the Freemasons. The last, the Greek omega, represents a lyre and David as a poet.
While Solomon's Temple does figure prominently in Freemasonry, David himself is barely mentioned in Masonic ritual.
Critical response
Many contemporary critics of Christopher Smart attacked various aspects of A Song to David upon its publication. The Critical Review praised the poem with "great rapture and devotion is discernible in this extatic song. It is a fine piece of ruins, and must at once please and affect a sensible mind" but brought up the "[im]propriety of a Protestant's offering up either hymns or prayers to the dead" like a CatholicRoman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
would. The Monthly Review felt that the poem was "irregularly great" although a few stanzas showed "a grandeur, a majesty of thought, not without a happiness of expression." Professional critics were not the only ones to demonstrate a less than accepting view of A Song to David; William Mason
William Mason (poet)
William Mason was an English poet, editor and gardener.He was born in Hull and educated at Hull Grammar School and St John's College, Cambridge. He was ordained in 1754 and held a number of posts in the church....
wrote to Thomas Gray
Thomas Gray
Thomas Gray was a poet, letter-writer, classical scholar and professor at Cambridge University.-Early life and education:...
, "I have seen his Song to David & from thence conclude him as mad as ever."
Not every response was negative, and Christopher received much support within the London poet community. William Kenrick
William Kenrick (writer)
William Kenrick was an English novelist, playwright, translator and satirist, who spent much of his career libelling and lampooning his fellow writers.- Life and career :Kenrick was born at Watford, Hertfordshire, son of a stay-maker...
, Christopher’s former rival, praised the poem in a poem of his own printed May 25, 1763. Also, John Lockman followed on June 21, 1763, with his own poem in praise of Christopher’s and Samuel Boyce followed this on July 15, 1763 with his. Regardless of what these poets felt, Christopher Smart's daughter, Elizabeth, claimed that "all a daughter's partiality could not lead the writer of this to admire it, nor all her pains, after many perusals, discover the beauties with which, when supposed lost, it was so liberally endowed." Later, when the text was recovered and reprinted in 1819, John Scott viewed the poem as proof that Christopher was both insane and a poet: the poem was had the benefit of "originality" and "beautiful and well selected imagery" but there were "symptoms of the author's state of mind, in a frequent vagueness of meaning, in an abruptness of transition, and sometimes in the near neighbourhood of the most incongruous ideas."
Although it took a century later before a positive twist was put on Christopher Smart's time in a mental asylum, Robert Browning
Robert Browning
Robert Browning was an English poet and playwright whose mastery of dramatic verse, especially dramatic monologues, made him one of the foremost Victorian poets.-Early years:...
later remarked in his Parleyings (1887) that A Song to David was great because Smart was mad, and that the poem allowed Smart to rank alongside of Milton and Keats. Christopher Smart, as Browning's poem claims,
- "pierced the screen
- Twixt thing and word, lit language straight from soul, -
- Left no fine film-flake on the naked coal
- Live from the censer"
It was Browning's remarks that brought about a later "appreciation: of A Song to David. More specifically, on a review of Browning Parleying claimed that Christopher Smart was:
- "possessed by his subject... and where there is true possession - where the fires of the poet's imagination are not choked by self-consciousness or by too much fuel from the intellect - idiosyncracy, mannerism, and even conventional formulae are for the time 'burnt and purged away'."
In addition to this review, Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Dante Gabriel Rossetti was an English poet, illustrator, painter and translator. He founded the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in 1848 with William Holman Hunt and John Everett Millais, and was later to be the main inspiration for a second generation of artists and writers influenced by the movement,...
claimed that A Song to David was "the only great accomplished poem of the last century." Two years later, Francis Palgrave wrote that the Song exhibited "noble wildness and transitions from grandeur to tenderness, from Earth to Heaven" and it was "unique in our Poetry." Seven years after Palgrave, John Churton Collins
John Churton Collins
John Churton Collins , English literary critic, was born at Bourton-on-the-Water, Gloucestershire.From King Edward's School, Birmingham, he went to Balliol College, Oxford, where he graduated in 1872, and at once devoted himself to a literary career, as journalist, essayist and lecturer...
agreed with Rosetti and Palgrave, but not to the same degree, when he claims, "This poem stands alone, the most extraordinary phenomenon, perhaps, in our literature, the one rapt strain in the poetry of the eighteenth century, the work of a poet who, though he produced much, has not produced elsewhere a single line which indicates the power here displayed."
See also
- Jubilate AgnoJubilate AgnoJubilate Agno is a religious poem by Christopher Smart, and was written between 1759 and 1763, during Smart's confinement for insanity in St. Luke's Hospital, Bethnal Green, London. The poem was first published in 1939, under the title Rejoice in the Lamb: A Song from Bedlam, edited by W. F...
- Hymns and Spiritual SongsHymns and Spiritual Songs (book)Hymns and Spiritual Songs for the Fasts and Festivals of the Church of England, by Christopher Smart, was published in 1765 along with a translation of the Psalms of David and a new version of A Song to David...