42 “Mighty Nimrod (Emblem 1)” (1640-1660)
with an Introduction by Leah Knight and Wendy Wall (from The Pulter Project)
Hester Pulter
Introduction
Pulter’s first emblem canvasses the vain ambition of the builder of the biblical Tower of Babel, who famously sought by “terrestrial towers” to attain the heights of “super-celestial bowers”; she then associates this biblical parable with the Greek myth of the giants who similarly overreached in seeking heaven. But how different, really, was Pulter’s ambitious poetic project? Even as she lambasted Nimrod, might she have seen herself as “foolishly dreaming” that her own “mortal sight / Could view invisible, inaccessible light”? It seems so, since this poem eventually takes a sharp turn away from cursing the presumption of Nimrod and other pre-Christian usurpers—in what might well have been a glance at rebels against the English throne—to a self-abasing prayer for preservation against being found in their company. What she hopes might save her from that fate is her adherence to Christ’s alternative spiritual architecture: not a monolithic tower, but more modest “steps.”
“Mighty Nimrod (Emblem 1)”
When mighty Nimrod, hunting after fame,
Built this huge fabric to get him a name
(Fearing another deluge might o’erflow,
And all man’s petty projects overthrow),
With slime and brick, instead of lime and stone,
He meant to reach unto God’s glorious throne.
O, vain! To think by those terrestrial towers
They could ascend super-celestialbowers,
Foolishly dreaming their dim mortal sight
Could view invisible, inaccessible light!
From this the fiction of the giants rose,
When they th’Olympic deities oppose;
Then fierce Egeous scorned Jove’s thunderstocks,
When at his head he threw a hundred rocks;
Like molehills, mountain upon mountains hailed.
Thus, most presumptuously, they Heaven scaled,
Till thunder routed this rebellious crew.
So let usurping Nimrods have their due:
Let their accurséd plots prove their delusion;
For fancied glory, let them find confusion.
But from presumption, Lord preserve my soul,
That in thy mercy I may safely roll,
Resting in Christ, that blesséd cornerstone;
Then by his steps I’ll mount his glorious throne.
Source:
“Mighty Nimrod (Emblem 1)” edited by Leah Knight and Wendy Wall from The Pulter Project licensed by CC BY-NC-SA
