A Song to David

Quiz: A Song to David by Christopher Smart

1. Recall – Form & Structure: How does Smart organize the stanzas of A Song to David, and what biblical concept does this structural choice echo?

1. Recall – Speaker & Subject: Who is the primary subject of A Song to David, and in what dual role is this figure celebrated throughout the poem?

1. Recall – Context: Under what personal circumstances did Christopher Smart write A Song to David, and when was it published?

1. Recall – Key Symbol: What instrument is used as a central symbol in the poem, and what does it represent in Smart's view of the relationship between art and worship?

1. Comprehension – The "Adoration" Section: What philosophical argument does the extended "Adoration" sequence make about the natural world — animals, plants, minerals, and seasons?

1. Comprehension – Tone: How would you describe the overall tone of A Song to David, and what personal emotional undercurrent lies beneath its grandeur, given the biographical context of its composition?

1. Comprehension – Reception: Why did Smart's contemporaries find A Song to David puzzling, and which later poet helped revive its reputation?

1. Analysis – The Closing Anaphora: In the poem's final sequence, Smart repeats a single word at the start of successive lines. What rhetorical effect does this repetition create, and how does it relate to the poem's overall structure of accumulation?

1. Analysis – The Final Three Words: The poem's closing phrase consists of three monosyllabic words beginning with the same letter. Explain the symbolic significance of this ending and what it represents about David's life, Smart's poem, and the act of faith.

1. Analysis – Art as Sacred Conduit: Smart portrays poetic inspiration as coming from an angelic and divine source rather than purely from human talent. How does this view of art connect to the poem's broader themes of faith and the catalogue of creation?

Answer Key

1. Smart groups the poem's stanzas into sets of seven, echoing the seven days of creation and the sacred numerology of the Bible, giving the poem a deliberate architectural order.

1. The primary subject is the biblical King David, celebrated both as the supreme poet/musician and as the ultimate worshipper — the singular human voice most worthy of divine praise.

1. Smart wrote the poem while confined in a madhouse (St Luke's Hospital for Lunatics and later a private asylum), and it was published in 1763, shortly after his release.

1. David's harp is the central instrument/symbol; it represents the belief that true human creativity is itself a form of prayer and a conduit for sacred energy — art and worship are inseparable.

1. The "Adoration" sequence argues that every element of creation — by simply existing and fulfilling its nature — participates in a cosmic act of praise directed at God, making the entire universe an expression of worship.

1. The tone is ecstatic and ceremonial, with no irony or distance. Beneath this grandeur lies a tender, even desperate undercurrent: a man confined in an asylum asserting, through elaborate praise, that the world is structured, beautiful, and good.

1. Smart's style — accumulative, fervent, and lacking Augustan wit, balance, and restraint — clashed with prevailing eighteenth-century literary taste. The poet Robert Browning was among the key figures who later championed the poem's reputation.

1. The anaphoric repetition of "Glorious" creates a rhythmic, almost chant-like crescendo, mirroring the poem's broader technique of building meaning through accumulation and reinforcing the ceremonial, hymn-like quality of the work.

1. The three alliterative monosyllables symbolize completion and courage. They compress David's entire life of bold action, the achievement of Smart's own poem, and the nature of faith itself into one decisive, irreversible phrase — the alliteration sealing the meaning with finality.

1. By locating inspiration in a divine and angelic source, Smart argues that great art is not self-expression but an act of spiritual receptivity. This connects faith (trusting in an unseen divine order) to the catalogue of creation (every creature and phenomenon reflecting God's design), presenting the poet — like David — as a vessel through whom sacred truth flows into the world.