this injustice is not entirely unexpected, as the oppres-
sors have consistently declined to follow truth and
right. Indeed, the accusers have serpent poison lodged
in them; both their words and thoughts, the poem sug-
gests, are tainted.
The psalm moves from directly addressing David’s
response to his accusers (and, more implicitly, the ene-
mies of the contemporary Protestant faith) to invoking
the Lord’s protection. The psalm asks the Lord to crush
the teeth—and thus the voice—of the speaker’s ene-
mies, to drown them and to break their weapons. The
psalm then asks that all of the oppressors’ actions,
(“Springing thorns,” l. 25) thoughts, and deeds die a
stillborn death, decaying into nonexistence before they
can fully mature.
Herbert concludes that when the just person wit-
nesses this divine treatment of injustice, he or she shall
rejoice and “bath his feet in bloud of wicked one” (l.
30). Finally, the psalm concludes with a clear defi nition
of equal and unbiased justice. God will mete out to
each his or her deserved good or ill: All shall observe
that “there is a god that carves to each his own” (l. 32).
See also SIDNEAN PSALMS (OVERVIEW).
Winter Elliott
Sidneian Psalms: Psalm 59 (“Deliver me from
my enemies”) MARY SIDNEY HERBERT, COUNTESS
OF PEMBROKE (1599) Like many of her other trans-
lations, MARY SIDNEY HERBERT’s treatment of Psalm 59
maintains the essence of her sources while also incor-
porating her own sense of style and imagery. Psalm 59
revolves around several contrasting images of the faith-
ful speaker and his enemies; his voice is juxtaposed
with their voiceless howling, and his faith contrasts
their enmity.
The central theme, repeated throughout the psalm, is
a fairly typical prayer for aid and strength in the face of
apparently invincible enemies. “Save mee from such as
me assaile” (l. 1) the psalm begins, and the preoccupied
speaker reiterates this phrase throughout the poem.
More interesting is the speaker’s depiction of the foes
from which he requests deliverance: They “make a trade
of cursed wrong / and bredd in bloud for bloud doe
long” (ll. 4–5). In other words, the speaker’s enemies are
professional murderers; worse still, they pass their vile
trade from generation to generation. The speaker effec-
tively dehumanizes these foes, emphasizing the appar-
ently inherited nature of their evil. The recurring dog
imagery throughout the poem underscores this distinc-
tion between the humanity of the speaker and the inhu-
manity of those who seek his overthrow.
By line 25, the speaker has begun to expand his
characterization of his enemies. When the sun sets,as houndes that howle their food to gett
they runn amaine
the cittie through from street to street
with hungry maw... (ll. 27–30)Herbert uses these images of dogs to further dehu-
manize the speaker’s enemies; consequently, she links
humanity to righteousness. In order to be human, the
poem implies, one must also be faithful to God. In
contrast to the loyal speaker, oppressed but still hope-
ful, his enemies descend upon the world, a perpetually
hungry plague determined to devour the weak and the
vulnerable. “Babling” (l. 32), these dogs jabber their
desire to consume the life of the speaker, who explains
that this inimitable food “extinguish may / their deadly
hate” (l. 33). Throughout the poem, the babbling jib-
berish of the dog-enemies contrasts with the speaker’s
clear voice and his promise to sing praise to God.
The speaker requests that his enemies’ ravenous
rage consume them entirely. Repeating almost exactly
the stanza in which she introduces the hound meta-
phor, Herbert shifts the emphasis from one of destruc-
tion to one of victory. With God’s help, the hounds
will not succeed in their hungry march from city to
city; instead, hunted themselves by famine, they bay,
refusing to return to their kennels (ll. 67–78). The
remainder of the psalm depicts the speaker’s song,
uniting his limited strength and will to God’s omnipo-
tent will. Through God’s “free grace” (l. 89), the speaker
receives his own “freedom” (l. 97). Thus, Herbert links
obedience and faith in God to freedom, while the
speaker’s enemies are relegated to a painful subservi-
ence to their own endless hate and hunger.
See also SIDNEAN PSALMS (OVERVIEW).
Winter ElliottSIDNEIAN PSALMS: PSALM 59 405