22 pages • 44-minute read
The Flesh and the Spirit
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Themes
The Dangerous Allure of the World
In traditional Christian theology, flesh is a power that is set against the spirit; since the fall of Adam from Eden, flesh has represented the sinful condition of humankind. St. Paul attributed to flesh a long list of undesirable behaviors, such as lust, immorality, fornication, debauchery, and drunkenness. In her speech in the poem, however, Flesh does not advocate any of those vices. (It would have been unimaginable for a female poet in Puritan New England to do so, even in the guise of a character in a poem, and even if she had wanted to.) Rather, Flesh argues for something seemingly pure: The desire for wealth and fame. If a person wants to attain “honor” (Line 25), in the eyes of their fellow citizens, Flesh says, they should work toward that goal; “immortal fame" (Line 26) will await them, and monuments will be put up in their name. If a person is rich, the same would apply, so Flesh recommends the acquisition of wealth. After all, the world offers so much of it; there is “more silver, pearls, and gold / Than eyes can see, or hands can hold” (Lines 31-32). Who would not want to accumulate such precious things? Everyone wants to be rich, successful, honored, famous. Even Spirit admits (Lines 51-52) that she has in the past fallen into Flesh’s way of thinking, although she is quick to add that it always ended badly for her.
Following Flesh’s blandishments ended in bitter regret because Flesh does not warn about the consequent vanity and pride (although the speaker, right at the beginning, does warn about the “vanity” [Line 6] of Flesh). The danger for those who acquire wealth and fame is that their glory will be transformed into conceited self-regard: They will think of themselves as special and worthy of admiration. From the Puritan point of view, this is a sin because all the credit should be given to God. Worldly success is a gift from God; likewise, a person’s life also belongs to God, who must always be honored first. Flesh does not state this, of course, because Flesh denies the existence of a higher spiritual power, declaring it to be is just a “notion” without any “reality” (Line 14).
Favoring the Higher Reality
The major part of the poem is given over to the voice of Spirit, who makes a forceful case for favoring spiritual knowledge and experience over the pleasures that the world offers. Spirit is acutely aware of the eternal battle between her and Flesh and she is determined to emerge victorious:
For I have vowed (and so will do)
Thee as a foe still to pursue.
And combat with thee will and must,
Until I see thee laid i’the dust (Lines 39-42).
In this image of perpetual warfare, Spirit closely follows St. Paul, whose letter to the Galatians declares: “For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would” (Gal 5:17, KJV). A few verses later, Paul states: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith" (Gal 5:22, KJV).
There is, therefore a radical and irreconcilable difference between Flesh and Spirit; the latter, despite the lapses that she describes, is firmly focused on her mission to lift the human experience into the realm of eternity. This is what true wealth means to her: “Eternal substance I do see, / With which enrichéd I would be” (Lines 75-76). This is the brightness, beauty, and glory of the holy city, which she always holds in mind as her destined future. As long as she can focus on this, and ignore the blandishments of Flesh, she will be able to retain her “settled heart” (Line 38).
Close to Tears: The Inner Struggle
The poem begins by indicating the mental and emotional condition of the first-person speaker, who appears only in the first eight lines of the poem. She is in a “secret place,” by “the banks of Lacrim flood” (Line 2). This indicates that she is on the verge of tears, since the imagined location Lacrim is named for the Latin word lacrima, which means tear. The image is of a woman who is experiencing a destabilizing conflict within herself because she feels the attraction of both Flesh and Spirit—both make demands on her, and yet those demands appear to be incompatible. Can she love both the world and the “higher sphere” (Line 8) that is beyond all worldly things? This is the focus of her distress and her dilemma; to whom is she to give her attention? The two opposing elements of life are locked in a fierce struggle within her. Flesh and Spirit are so intimately connected that the narrator describes them as “two sisters” (Line 3). Moreover, they are twin sisters, according to Spirit, which suggests that they are able to assert themselves with equal power within a person. However, although they may be two aspects of one human being, they have different fathers. According to Spirit, Flesh’s father is the fallen human Adam, who was expelled for his sin from the Garden of Eden; in contrast, Spirit’s father is “from above” (Line 47); he is the loving “Father” (Line 48), or God, of Christian tradition. This explains their radically different nature.
The fact that the speaker allows Spirit a much longer monologue than that of her rival and also gives Spirit the last word, strongly suggests that the speaker thinks—indeed knows—that she should favor Spirit, as the higher choice. But that does not mean that the voice of Flesh is silenced; the speaker hears it still—hence her distress. Thus, the tearful figure of the speaker symbolizes the precarious position of the New England Puritans, who theologically trod a fine line: It was acceptable for them to enjoy the things of the world as long as they used them not for selfish or unnecessary pleasure but in the service of God.
Both Flesh and Spirit have their say, symbolizing that in earthly life, their conflict will always remain. It will be resolved only in death, when Flesh ceases to exist, while Spirit becomes an inhabitant of the heavenly city she describes in such loving detail. In the meantime, the speaker must somehow live with her tears, acknowledge the presence of the warring sisters in her fragile mortal frame, and seek a way to live authentically while also honoring at all moments the transcendental source of human life.
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