Speakers and Hearers in The Temple

George Herbert built his Temple out of three general categories of sacred poetry. The hortatory didacticism of "The Church-porch" expands through seventy-seven stanzas outlining a strenuous moral code of self-discipline. The quasiepic narrative of "The Church Militant," written in heroic couplets, traces the providentially plotted course of Religion from the beginning to the end of time. Between these poems are the more than 1 50 lyrics of "The Church." Their subjective focus stands out in sharp relief, framed between the Churchporch Verser's impersonal catalogue of rules for conduct and the omniscient detachment of the Church Militant's chronicler, writing from the secure vantage point of "Almightie Lord, who from thy glorious throne / Seest and rulest all things ev'n as one" (II. 1-2).'