The Springs of Baptism
For years I have been begging English teachers in Christian schools to turn first and most energetically to poetry, the form of literature that is closest to music, that does not require heavy outlays of time, and that stands the best chance, if we practice even a modest bit of recitation and memory, of setting down roots in the soul. I admire The Brothers Karamazov immensely; I rate it as the greatest novel ever written; but it is as long as a Russian winter. That is not an artistic failing. Given what it is, it ought to have that vast and epic sweep. But a song that you can learn in a day, or hear for the first time in a minute or two, can remain in your heart forever, and if it is a good song, if it tells the truth, if it is beautiful, and if it witnesses to a beauty beyond itself, it can be like a fresh spring in your garden, always bubbling up and giving good clean water. The ocean is vast and awful, but for the wild violets and forget-me-nots, the secret spring is better.
I’ve chosen my metaphor advisedly, because I have in mind a small poem that will take hardly a minute to read; only fifteen lines, and six of them very short at that, with only four syllables each. Yet for me its effect has been indelible. It ought to be so, since it is a poem about the permanence of baptism and the goodness of being small, as small as an infant child. It is George Herbert’s poem “Holy Baptism,” the second by that title in his work The Temple. Let me present it here in full:
Since, Lord, to thee
A narrow way and little gate
Is all the passage, on my infancy
Thou didst lay hold, and antedate
My faith in me.
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Anthony Esolen is Distinguished Professor of Humanities at Thales College and the author of over 30 books, including Real Music: A Guide to the Timeless Hymns of the Church (Tan, with a CD), Out of the Ashes: Rebuilding American Culture (Regnery), and The Hundredfold: Songs for the Lord (Ignatius). He has also translated Dante’s Divine Comedy (Random House) and, with his wife Debra, publishes the web magazine Word and Song (anthonyesolen.substack.com). He is a senior editor of Touchstone.
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