The Collar

by George Herbert (1593-1633)

I struck the board and cried, "No more; //

I will abroad! //
What? shall I ever sigh and pine? //
My lines and life are free, free as the road, //
Loose as the wind, as large as store. (5) //
Shall I be still in suit? //
Have I no harvest but a thorn //
To let me blood, and not restore //
What I have lost with cordial fruit? //
Sure there was wine (10) //
Before my sighs did dry it; there was corn //
Before my tears did drown it. //
Is the year only lost to me? //
Have I no bays to crown it, //
No flowers, no garlands gay? All blasted? (15) //
All wasted? //
Not so, my heart; but there is fruit, //
And thou hast hands. //
Recover all thy sigh-blown age //
On double pleasures: leave thy cold dispute (20) //
Of what is fit and not. Forsake thy cage, //
Thy rope of sands, //
Which petty thoughts have made, and made to thee //
Good cable, to enforce and draw, //
And be thy law, (25) //
While thou didst wink and wouldst not see. //
Away! take heed; //
I will abroad. //
Call in thy death's-head there; tie up thy fears. //
He that forbears (30) //
To suit and serve his need, //
Deserves his load." //
But as I raved and grew more fierce and wild //
At every word, //
Methought I heard one calling, Child! (35) //
And I replied, My Lord. //

1. Lines 1-31. In lines 1-32 (in the long segment that is enclosed in quotation marks) the speaker
reports statements that he made. To whom was he talking when he made those statements?
a. to himself only
b. to himself and Satan
c. to Satan only
d. to himself and God
e. to God only
f. to himself, God, and Satan

2. All Lines. What does the speaker finally view as the proper rule for life on earth?
a. seize the day
b. subordinate this world to the next world
c. hate thyself
d. love thyself
e. find God within thyself

3. Lines 1-36. In the poem as a whole, the speaker suggests that God is:
a. a cruel sadist
b. a careful and strict parent
c. an enslaver
d. an uncompromising enforcer of rules

4. All Lines. What sort of collar does the poem describe?

a. one that protects
b. one that strangles
c. one that burdens down

5. Line 1. When the speaker says, "I struck the board ...," what does he mean by "board"?
a. board on an imprisoning wall
b. table
c. board used to administer beatings

6. Line 2. The speaker said, "I will abroad!" What did he mean?
a. I will leave the country
b. I will travel freely here and there
c. I will violate my apprenticeship

7. Line 4. When the speaker said, "My lines and life are free ...," what did he mean by "lines"?
a. directions
b. speeches
c. stages of development

8. Lines 4-5. When the speaker said, "My lines and life are free ..., as large as store," what did he
mean by "store"?
a. a shop
b. a burying-place
c. abundance

9. Line 6. The speaker asked, "Shall I be still in suit?" Which of the following provides the best
classification for "still"?
a. familiar word with a familiar meaning
b. familiar word with an unfamiliar meaning
c. pun
d. word used metaphorically

10. Line 6. The speaker asked, "Shall I be still in suit?" What did he mean by "in suit"?
a. in religious dress
b. in prison uniform
c. in livery
d. in attendance as a suitor

11. Lines 7-8. The speaker asked, "Have I no harvest but a thorn / To let me blood ... ?" Which of
the following gives the sense of the speaker's question?
a. Have I no harvest but rather a thorn to let me blood?
b. Have I no harvest to let me blood except a thorn?
c. Have I no harvest except the harvest of a thorn to let me blood?

12. Line 7. Of what was the speaker thinking when he mentioned a "thorn"?
a. his life as a shepherd
b. the sufferings of Jesus
c. his being fed with thorn-like, unnourishing food

13. Lines 7-9. The speaker asked:

Have I no harvest but a thorn
To let me blood, and not restore
What I have lost with cordial fruit?
The second clause, "and not restore / What I have lost with cordial fruit," is very difficult. Why is it
difficult? Choose the best answer from the following.
a. the speaker omitted words
b. the speaker omitted words and arranged words in a unusual way
c. the speaker omitted words and used archaic words
d. the speaker used "What" without providing an appropriate antecedent for it

14. Line 9. When the speaker referred to "cordial fruit," what did he mean?
a. sweet fruit
b. soft fruit
c. restoring fruit
d. alcoholic fruit
e. warm fruit juice

15. Lines 10-12. The speaker said:

Sure there was wine
Before my sighs did dry it; there was corn
Before my tears did drown it.
Which is the most appropriate comment on these lines?
a. the lines include hyperbole
b. the lines include hyperbole and metaphor
c. the lines include hyperbole, metaphor, and repetition
d. the lines include hyperbole, metaphor, and antithesis

16. Line 15. The narrator asked of the bays, flowers, and garlands, "All blasted?" What did he
mean by "blasted"?
a. unearthed
b. mown down
c. withered
d. burned

17. Lines 17-20. The speaker said:

but there is fruit,
And thou hast hands.
Recover all thy sigh-blown age
On double pleasures ….
Which of the following best gives the sense of these lines?
a. you can make up for time lost
b. you can get revenge on those who cheated you
c. you can get some food finally

18. Lines 20-21. The speaker said, "leave thy cold dispute / Of what is fit and not." What did he
mean by "cold dispute / Of"?
a. logical reasoning on
b. angry attack concerning
c. icy chastisements about

19. Lines 21-22. The speaker said, "Forsake thy cage, / Thy rope of sands ...." What, according to
the speaker, has created the "cage" and "rope"?
a. the mind of God
b. Holy Scripture
c. the Church
d. the speaker's own mind

20. Line 27. The speaker said, "Away! take heed; / I will abroad." To whom was he talking when he
said "Away!"?
a. to himself
b. to God
c. to the "cage" and "rope"

21. Line 29. The speaker said, "Call in thy death's-head there; tie up thy fears." To what was he
referring with the word "death's-head"?
a. a threat of execution
b. his own unhealthy looking face
c. a reminder of death
22. Line 29. The speaker said, "Call in thy death's-head there; tie up thy fears." What did he mean
by "fears"?
a. feelings of fear
b. means of provoking fear
c. fear-filled persons

23. Line 31. The speaker declared,

He that forbears
To suit and serve his need,
Deserves his load.
What did the speaker mean by "To suit and serve his need"?
a. to suit his need and to serve his need
b. to dress himself well and to serve his need
c. to arm himself and to serve his need

24. Line 33. The speaker says:

But as I raved and grew more fierce and wild
At every word,
Methought I heard one calling, Child!
What does he mean by "raved."
a. talked loudly
b. cried out in rage
c. grew proud of my own powers
d. talked like a mad person

25. Line 35. The speaker says,

But as I raved and grew more fierce and wild
At every word,
Methought I heard one calling, Child!
Why does the speaker use "Methought" rather than "I thought"?
a. "Methought" has a meaning different from that of "I thought"
b. "Methought" is a word associated with Scripture
c. "Methought" is an archaic word and suggests that the speaker is moving backward in time

COMMENTARIES

1. Lines 1-31. The best answer is answer "d." The speaker was usually talking to himself but was at
times addressing God. For example, he was talking to himself when he said, "Forsake thy cage"
and when he said, "Not so, my heart; but there is fruit, / And thou has hands." He was addressing
God when he said, "Call in they death's head there; tie up thy fears" and probably in such lines as
"No more; / I will abroad."

2. All Lines. The best answer is answer "b": "subordinate this world to the next world." None of
the other four answers is at all fitting. In the final line, when he addresses God as "My Lord," the
speaker is accepting the restrictions he had been threatening to reject. The restrictions, by
implication, are the traditional restrictions of Christianity: they require the Christian to die to this
world. Consider the words of Jesus in the sermon on the mount (Matthew 7: 19-21):

Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where
thieves break through and steal:

But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and
where thieves do not break through nor steal:

For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

3. All Lines. The best answer is answer "b": "a careful and strict parent." None of the other three
answers is at all fitting. In the last four lines the speaker expresses a conviction that God has been
attending to him and that God thinks of him as his child. He also expresses severe disapproval of
his outburst against God's restrictions. He says he "raved and grew more fierce and wild / At every
word." See question and commentary 24.

4. All Lines. The best answer is answer "a": "one that protects." Neither of the other two answers is
fitting. The collar the speaker has in mind is the kind of iron collar prisoners wore. Such a collar
was a common symbol of the rules of God. The collar, if accepted by the Christian as a willing
prisoner, protects the person from going astray and losing his or her immortal soul.

5. Line 1. Answer "b" is correct. The speaker's "board" means "table."

6. Line 2. The best answer is "b": "I will travel freely here and there." In Early Modern English the
word "abroad" basically means "at large," "here and there," or "round about in the wide world." The
speaker was saying, in effect, "I'll go anywhere and wherever I please."

7. Line 4. Answer "a" ("directions") is best. In saying "My lines and life are free ...," the speaker
meant, the directions in which he could travel, and take his life, were unlimited, unrestricted.

8. Lines 4-5. Answer "c" is best. The word "store" means "large accumulation," "abundance." The
speaker was suggesting, the possibilities for his life are as great as abundance itself, perfect
abundance.

9. Line 6. Answer "b" is best. The speaker's "still" is a familiar world with an unfamiliar meaning.
Here "still" has a meaning it frequently has in Early Modern English: "always" or "forever."

10. Line 6. Answer "d" is correct: "in suit" means "in attendance as a suitor." In using the phrase
"in suit," the speaker was probably thinking of himself as one always praying to God for salvation
in the next world.

11. Lines 7-8. Answer "c" is correct. The speaker meant: Have I no harvest except the harvest of a
thorn to let me blood? The speaker was protesting against the absence of pleasurable worldly
reward for his sacrifices. He wanted a harvest full of joy, perhaps of self-indulgence, not a harvest
of additional sacrifices. See also question 12.
12. Line 7. Answer "b," "the sufferings of Jesus," is best. The mention of a thorn is an allusion to
the crown of thorns put on the head of Jesus prior to his crucifixion. To be saved, the Christian
must emulate Christ and must accept a crown of thorns, a life of suffering, in this world.

13. Lines 8-9. Answer "b" is best. The speaker omitted words. The speaker also arranged words in
a way that might be confusing. Here, with moved and added words in boldface, is a version with
additional words and words rearranged: Have I no harvest but a thorn to let me blood and not a
harvest to restore with cordial fruit what blood I have lost? (The original reads: Have I no harvest
but a thorn / To let me blood, and not restore / What I have lost with cordial fruit?") Additional
note: the phrase "let me blood" means "make blood run from me."

14. Line 9. Answer "c" is correct. Something "cordial" is something restorative.

15. Lines 10-12. Answer "c" is best. The lines include hyperbole, metaphor, and repetition. The
speaker was using hyperbole in indicating that he, by his sighs, dried all wine and, by his tears,
flooded all "corn" (that is, wheat). He used metaphor in saying that his "sighs did dry" wine and
that his "tears did drown" corn. Had he spoken literally, he would have said, his pursuit of God's
grace (from which his sighs and tears flowed) caused wine and bread (the product of "corn") to
cease to exist for him; the pursuit of grace did so by causing him to fast, thus to separate himself
from wine and bread. As for repetition, the speaker employed repetition of words and of a
syntactical pattern. In "there was corn / before my tears did drown it," he repeated words from, and
the verbal organization of, "there was wine / Before my sighs did dry it." Also, in the initial
consonant of "drown" he repeated the initial consonant of "dry." The speaker was using the
rhetorical techniques of a public orator in order to persuade himself and stir himself to action.

16. Line 15. Answer "c" is correct. The speaker's "blasted" means "withered."

17. Lines 17-20. The best answer is "a": "you can make up for lost time." The speaker was saying:
There's still plenty of fruit to be had and you have hands to pluck it; so you can make up for all the
time you've lost to sacrifices ("recover all thy sigh-blown age") by giving yourself double shares of
pleasure in the here and now.

18. Lines 20-21. The best answer is "a": "logical reasoning on." The speaker was rejecting his
habit of reasoning logically or coldly about propriety in behavior. He wanted to act impulsively,
spontaneously, self-indulgently, with no inner debate.

19. Lines 21-22. Answer "d"--"the speaker's own mind"--is correct. This "cage" and "rope," the
speaker said, "petty thoughts had made." The "petty thoughts" must have been thoughts of his own
mind, not of the mind of God.

20. Line 27. Answer "a" is best. In saying "Away!" the speaker was exhorting himself to take flight.
"Away!" is similar to modern English "Let's go!" (The speaker probably intended his "take heed"
for God, however.)

21. Line 29. Answer "c" is correct. A "death's-head" is a momento mori, a reminder of death.
22. Line 29. Answer "b," "means of provoking fear," is correct. When he said, presumably to God,
"tie up thy fears," the speaker meant, "You might as well stop your efforts to scare me because
they're not going to work with me anymore."

23. Line 30. Answer "a" is best. By "To suit and serve his need," the speaker probably meant: to
suit--to act in accord with--his need and to serve his need. The speaker's desire "to suit" his own
needs opposes his knowledge that he ought to be "in suit" to God.

24. Line 33. Answer "d" is correct. By "raved" the speaker means, "talked like a mad person." To
rave is to talk wildly, like one delirious or insane.

25. Line 35. Answer "a" is best. "Methought" has a meaning different from that of "I thought."
"Methought" means, "it seemed to me." The "Methought" suggests that the speaker's mind was in a
dreamlike or trancelike state. Perhaps the speaker believes his Christian self presented to his
irreverent, raving self the image of God as a caring parent. If so, the speaker is remembering his
own resources as a Christian, his better self, which could move him back to the will of God, the
way and the light.