George Herbert’s ‘The Collar’: Called to Freedom

The Anglican priest and poet makes clever use of his signature pun to emphasize the true meaning of freedom.

Portrait of Francis Blackburne (1705–1787), English Anglican priest, archdeacon of Cleveland. The priest is wearing white preaching bands tied around his neck so that they hang from the collar. Public Domain

There is one thing that even the most generous heart has difficulty in giving up, and that is the will. Yet throughout history, holy men and women have agreed that surrendering our will to God is the most fundamental step toward spiritual growth.

In the Old Testament, we see that even those who were close to God, like Jacob, still wrestled with him; even some of those he called to serve as prophets, like Jonah, ran away from him. As it happens, by the time English poet George Herbert (1593–1633) was writing thousands of years later, mankind was still struggling with the same problem of surrendering to God’s will.