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George Herbert’s “The Pulley” · The Daily Poem

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  [music]
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  SPEAKER_00: Welcome back to The Daily Poem, a podcast from Goldberry Studios.
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  SPEAKER_00: I'm Sean Johnson, and today is Monday, September 21st, 2026.
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  SPEAKER_00: Today's poem is by George Herbert, and it's called The Pulley.
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  SPEAKER_00: I'll read it once, offer a few comments, and read it one more time.
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  SPEAKER_00: The Pulley When God at first made man,
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  SPEAKER_00: having a glass of blessing standing by, Let us,
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  SPEAKER_00: said he,
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  SPEAKER_00: pour on him all we can,
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  SPEAKER_00: Let the world's riches which dispersed lie contract into a span.
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  SPEAKER_00: So strength first made a way, then beauty flowed, then wisdom, honor, pleasure.
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  SPEAKER_00: When almost all was out,
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  SPEAKER_00: God made a stay, perceiving that alone of all his treasure, rest in the bottom lay.
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  SPEAKER_00: For if I should,
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  SPEAKER_00: said he,
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  SPEAKER_00: bestow this jewel also on my creature,
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  SPEAKER_00: he would adore my gifts instead of me,
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  SPEAKER_00: and rest in nature, Not the God of nature, so both should losers be.
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  SPEAKER_00: Yet let him keep the rest, and keep them with repining restlessness.
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  SPEAKER_00: Let him be rich and weary,
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  SPEAKER_00: that at least, if goodness lead him not, yet weariness may toss him to my breast.
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  SPEAKER_00: Now I have plenty of qualms about the odd theological position
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  SPEAKER_00: that Herbert is writing from that would lead him
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  SPEAKER_00: to imagine God Intentionally designing flaws into his creation.
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  SPEAKER_00: But there's plenty that I like about this striking poem anyway.
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  SPEAKER_00: For one,
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  SPEAKER_00: it both incorporates and inverts both the Prometheus story,
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  SPEAKER_00: where all of the greatest gifts are given to other creatures and man is left with
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  SPEAKER_00: the remainder.
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  SPEAKER_00: And also the Pandora story, where the box opens and all of these things fly out.
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  SPEAKER_00: And there's just one left in the bottom.
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  SPEAKER_00: So those are interesting classical appropriations,
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  SPEAKER_00: mythological appropriations that Herbert makes use of here.
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  SPEAKER_00: And then this is a poem not of the ideal, but of the real.
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  SPEAKER_00: He is attempting,
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  SPEAKER_00: much like John Milton maybe, a theodicy, a justification of the ways of God to man.
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  SPEAKER_00: And he looks around at his experience and And if the rest
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  SPEAKER_00: of Herbert's writings are any indication,
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  SPEAKER_00: he certainly felt the restlessness he speaks of here and attempts to understand it
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  SPEAKER_00: in terms of the divine plan, the providence that does nothing by accident.
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  SPEAKER_00: And if nothing else, making sense of our experience is one of the great things that poetry does.
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  SPEAKER_00: Here's the poem one more time.
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  SPEAKER_00: When God at first made man,
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: Having a glass of blessing standing by, let us, said he, pour on him all we can.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: Let the world's riches which dispersed lie contract into a span.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: So strength first made a way, then beauty flowed, then wisdom, honor, pleasure.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: When almost all was out,
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: God made a stay, perceiving that alone of all his treasure, rest in the bottom lay.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: For if I should,
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  SPEAKER_00: said he,
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  SPEAKER_00: bestow this jewel also on my creature,
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  SPEAKER_00: he would adore my gifts instead of me, and rest in nature, not the god of nature.
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  SPEAKER_00: So both should losers be.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: Yet let him keep the rest, but keep them with repining restlessness.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: Let him be rich and weary,
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: that at least if goodness lead him not, yet weariness may toss him to my breast.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: This has been The Daily Poem.
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  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for listening.
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  SPEAKER_00: We'll be back tomorrow with more poetry for you.
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  SPEAKER_00: Till then, find us at dailypoempod.substack.com.
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  SPEAKER_00: And for all of us at Goldberry Studios, I'm Sean Johnson wishing you happy reading.