There is a clear graphological deviation
in the title of the poem. How can you explain its effect?
Herbert is playing on two arbitrary facts about the spelling of the
name 'Mary', namely that it is an anagram of 'army' and also shares
three of its letters with the spelling of the last syllable of the word
'anagram' itself. This allows him to produce the playfully deviant title
which includes anagrams within the word 'anagram'. The fact that 'Mary'
is an anagram of 'army' can then be used to consider possible comparisons
between the two concepts (this sort of unusual comparison was popular
in the seventeenth century 'metaphysical poetry' associated with poets
like John Donne and Andrew Marvell, and is often referred to by critics
as the poetry of conceit).
How can Mary's name be seen to be like an army? Well, her name could,
for example, raise a host (which was a common synonym for 'army' when
the poem was written) of thoughts in someone who loved or admired her;
metaphorically 'assailing' her could be seen as a virtually impossible
task, rather like an individual assailing an army, and so on. It is
interesting in this respect that, in the two lines of the poem itself,
'Army' and 'Lord of Hosts' also deviate graphologically from the rest
of the lines, and in a parallel way, because of the use of italics.
The 'Lord of Hosts' is God, of course. So if the Lord of Hosts metaphorically
has pitched his tent in Mary, this suggests that she must be very privileged
(beautiful, accomplished, rich, high-born, all of these?), making her
more and more attractive, but at the same time more and more unassailable.
It will be clear from this page that deviations can occur at all linguistic
levels, and in many different ways. What is more, the foregrounding
effects produced by the deviations can, if considered carefully and
in detail, help us to infer (a) new meanings and effects which can help
us to interpret the text we are examining and (b) a more detailed appreciation
of the writing.
For more work on deviation in literary texts working at different linguistic
levels, read:
Mick Short, Exploring the Language of Poems, Plays and Prose,
chapters 1 and 2
Geoffrey Leech, A Linguistic Guide to English Poetry, chapter
3
