Iconoclast

ICONOCLAST

Iconoclast is the destruction of religious images: churches, temples, statues, paintings. Through Christianisty and Islam iconoclasm has been based on the exemption og images associated with idolatry. The making of portraits of Christ and the saints was opposed in the early Christian church, but icons had become popular in Christian worship by the end of the 6th century, and defenders of icon worship emphasized the symbolic nature of the images. Opposition to icons by the Byzantine emperor Leo III in 726 led to the Iconoclastic Controversy, which continued in the Eastern church for more than a century before icons were again accepted. Statues and portraits of saints and religious figures were also common in the Western church, though some Protestant sects eventually rejected them. Islam still bans all icons, and iconoclasm has played a role in the conflicts between Muslims and Hindus in India.

The odd pair of beliefs shared by enthusiasts including Cromwell and the Taliban, that while ‘false idols’ have no supernatural powers they are nevertheless so dangerous that they must be destroyed rather than ignored.

In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the Protestant reformers encouraged removing religious images. Statues and images were damaged in individual attacks and iconoclastic riots. In most situations the images were removed in an orderly fashion by the authorities in new reformed cities and Eurpoes territories. John Calvin, Andreas Karlstadt and Huldrych were key players in this reform.

Puritans were commissioned and salaried by the government to tour the towns and villages and destroy images in churches.

The picture above is from the Cathedral of Saint Martin, Utrecht. The faces were chipped on in the sixteenth century during the Iconoclast Reformation.

To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time

GATHER ye rosebuds while ye may,
Old time is still a-flying :
And this same flower that smiles to-day
To-morrow will be dying.

In the first stanza Herrick is talking to the young virgin and telling them to look for love and don't let it slip away. We cannot stop time from coming and we need to embrace our youthfulness and find a lover.

The glorious lamp of heaven, the sun,
The higher he’s a-getting,
The sooner will his race be run,
And nearer he’s to setting.

Here Herrick is talking about the sun rising to the heavens and relating the setting sun to our aging cycle. Once the sun has set and the night falls and the warmth of the day has gone, much like the youthfulness in our bodies.

That age is best which is the first,
When youth and blood are warmer ;
But being spent, the worse, and worst
Times still succeed the former.

He is saying that we are best at a young age. We are pure at heart and innocent. We are most lively in our youth and as time goes by it only gets worse.

Then be not coy, but use your time,
And while ye may go marry ;
For having lost but once your prime
You may for ever tarry.

He finally concludes and says that we cannot be shy in our young age--we must use our time wisely and look for love while we still have the energy and youthfulness to express great amounts of love. For if we wait until we grow older we may look for love until our death.


In this poem Herrick is urging young women to marry while they are youthful and energetic. Herrick feels that we should marry young and live and grow with your partner instead of living in solitude.

To Daffodils, by Robert Herrick

Fair Daffodils, we weep to see
You haste away so soon;
As yet the early-rising sun
Has not attained his noon.
Stay, stay,
Until the hasting day
Has run
But to the evensong;
And, having prayed together, we
Will go with you along.

We have short time to stay, as

you,
We have as short a spring;
As quick a growth to meet decay,
As you, or anything.
We die
As your hours do, and dry
Away,
Like to the summer's rain;
Or as the pearls of morning's dew,
Ne'er to be found again.

This poem is simply life and death. Regeneration. The daffodil, one of Spring's earliest blooms, is also a flower that will bloom year after year without any replanting. First life, then death, and then rebirth.

The average daffodil life can be seen to be longer than a human life. The average flowering span of a daffodil can range from 6 weeks to 6 months. After blooming the daffodil plant rebuilds its bulb. From this i think the death of the daffodil does not represent a true loss in adolescent life. I feel that the poem is trying to show pure sorrow of death. I feel that it is trying to challenge the real roots of human life. Exploring the extent to which we take our lives with as much importance as others. The daffodil is a plant that sprouts its seeds in order to create bulbs for a new life. If we look at how we help to produce new life we can see that our own ways of producing life only seeks to benefit us

How Roses Came Red

How Roses Came Red, by Herrick

Roses at first were white

Till they could not agree,

Whether my Sappho's breast

Or they more white should be.

--

But, being vanquish'd quite,

A blush their cheeks bespread;

Since which, believe the rest,

The roses first came red.