The Flesh and the Spirit

The conflict between flesh and spirit that the poem dramatizes has a long history in Christian thought. It goes back, just to give one example, to St. Paul’s Letter to the Galatians, which contains the following, one of a number of verses that essentially say the same thing:  “Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life (Gal 6:8, New International Version). 

Lines 1-8

The poem is divided into three unequal sections. The first eight lines provide the setup for what follows. The first-person speaker looks back to some moments when she was in a “secret place” (Line 1). This likely refers to being wrapped up in her own thoughts and feelings.  She also says she was close to “Lacrim flood” (Line 2); Lacrim is from the Latin word lacrima, meaning “tear.” The phrase suggests that she was in emotional distress and was close to tears. The reason for her unhappiness is conveyed in the following lines. She was listening to two “sisters” who were carrying on a debate. The sisters are metaphorical and here anthropomorphized expressions of two aspects of the speaker’s being: flesh and spirit. Flesh focused on “worldly wealth and vanity” (Line 6). Vanity here means pride, a love of oneself rather than God. The other sister, Spirit, “did rear / Her thoughts unto a higher sphere” (Lines 7-8), that is, she focused her attention on God. The difficulty for the narrator (the speaker) is that she is torn between these two aspects of herself; she feels the hold that both of them have on her. 

Lines 9-36

The main body of the poem, which comprises an acrimonious debate between Flesh and Spirit, now begins. The first to speak is Flesh, who directly addresses Spirit. Flesh’s speech makes up the second section of the poem, which can be broken down into two parts. In the first part (Lines 9-20), Flesh attacks Spirit’s contemplation and meditation on higher things. She does this by a series of rhetorical questions. Does Spirit’s contemplation nourish her sufficiently so she can just forget about earthly things? Can her speculations satisfy her since they have no basis in reality? Then Flesh demeans Spirit by suggesting that Spirit is merely dreaming “about things beyond the Moon” (Line 15). Does Spirit intend to live there? Has she laid up such treasure in this place she dreams of that the earth seems poor by comparison? Is she hallucinating (“fancy-sick” [Line 19]) or has she become a fool (“sot” [Line 19]), grasping at nonexistent things (“shadows which are not” [Line 20])?

After this onslaught, which is dripping with contempt, Flesh advances her own case in the second part of her speech (Lines 21-36). Whatever Spirit desires, she would find it in the things that the world offers, if she cared to look. Another rhetorical question follows: Does Spirit like “honor”? (Line 24). She should acquire it, then, as others have done, by which they have attained everlasting fame; then she could create monuments (“trophies” [Line 27]) to her name, and those too would last forever. As for riches, Flesh poses yet another rhetorical question: “Dost thou long full sore” (Line 29) for them? The earth, says Flesh, has more “silver, pearls, and gold” (Line 31), than anyone can see or hold. Flesh concludes that the earth has enough of whatever Spirit might desire, including “pleasure” (Line 33), and she should take it, rather than spend her time contemplating a reality that exists only in her mind.

Lines 37-108

Now it is Spirit’s turn. The speaker gives her section 72 lines to make her case, in contrast to Flesh’s allocation, which is a mere 28 lines. It is clear which sister the speaker wants to favor. Spirit’s reply to Flesh falls into three sections. In the first part of this section (Lines 37-64), Spirit describes the intensity and bitterness of the struggle between her and Flesh, which will continue until Flesh becomes her captive. In the second part (Lines 65-80), she answers Flesh’s arguments, point by point. Finally, in the third part (Lines 81-108), she offers her own biblically based vision of faith. 

In the deadly struggle with Flesh that Spirit describes in the first section, she vows to continue fighting until she sees Flesh “laid in th’dust” (Line 43), an appropriate metaphor since in the Book of Genesis, the Lord tells the fallen Adam “For dust thou are, and to dust thou shalt return” (Gen 3:19, KJV). Spirit continues by arguing that she and Flesh have different fathers; Flesh was produced by “old Adam” (Line 46), that is, Adam in his fallen condition, whereas she, Spirit, was begotten by the heavenly “Father” (Line 48), whom she loves. Spirit then reveals how powerful Flesh can be and why she fears and loathes her: In the past Spirit listened to Flesh, believed in what Flesh was saying, and did what Flesh wanted. This path led only to misery, however. Now, Spirit will no longer pay attention to Flesh, who has ceased to have any hold on her. Spirit is turned only toward heavenly things, and she looks forward to the utter defeat of Flesh, upon which Spirit will be crowned with “laurel head” (Line 63). (The allusion is to the ancient Roman practice of awarding a laurel wreath to triumphant heroes and athletes.) 

In the next part of her speech, Spirit refutes Flesh’s earlier arguments. Flesh asked what Spirit actually lived on, other than meditation and lofty ideas. Spirit replies that she lives on “manna” (Line 67). Manna, according to Exodus 16:15, is the food that God sent to the Israelites when they were in the wilderness. Spirit defines manna as the “word of life” (Line 68). She says that her thoughts give her more contentment than the pursuit of pleasure; she is not chasing shadows but reaching for the higher reality that Flesh cannot see or know. She sees the eternal level of life and seeks to become a part of it. 

Spirit then envisions, in the last part, the heavenly reality and how it will transform her. She will not wear earthly clothes, which are as nothing compared to the “royal robes” (Line 82), which will be more glorious than the sun. Spirit then describes the heavenly city that she hopes to live in. Her imagery is drawn entirely from Chapters 21 and 22 of the Book of Revelation, which describe the New Jerusalem, the holy city that will come down from heaven, its walls and streets made of precious stones. A river runs through the city, which flows from the “Lamb’s throne” (Line 94), the Lamb being Jesus Christ, the son of God. 

In the final four lines, Spirit takes a parting shot at her opponent, Flesh. She says—with the full authority of the text in Revelation—that since the city is pure, Flesh cannot enter it, and while she, Spirit, will be able to participate in everything that heaven provides, Flesh cannot, so she might as well take what the world offers, since that is where her desire lies.