Jubilate Agno - The Manuscript

The Manuscript

Jubilate Agno is divided into four fragments labeled "A", "B", "C", and "D". The whole work consists of over 1,200 lines: all the lines in some sections begin with the word Let; those in other sections begin with For. Those in the series beginning with the word "Let," associated names of human beings, mainly biblical, with various natural objects; and those beginning with the word "For" are a series of aphoristic verses.

Editing the work in 1950, W.H. Bond found that, "The poem was intended as a responsive reading; and that is why the Let and For sections are physically distinct while corresponding verse for verse. Smart's plan was to arrange the Let and For passages opposite one another antiphonally, following a practice of biblical Hebrew poetry, and that the present MS. represents less than half of Smart's original plan for the poem."

Although the original manuscript divided the "Let" and "For" verses onto opposing sides of the manuscript, Karina Williams claims that "Dr W. H. Bond then discovered that some of the LET and FOR folios were numbered and dated concurrently, and that these chronologically parallel texts were further connected by verbal links." Reinforcing this view of a parallel between the two sides is the fact that Christopher Smart's influence, Robert Lowth and his Lectures on the Sacred Poetry of the Hebrews, spends a large portion of his work exploring the "parallelism" found in "Hebrew verse." In Karina Williamson's 1980 edition, she made an editorial decision and combined the "Let" and the "For" and then justified this combining the two sides to follow each other based on Bond's claims.

Using Williamson's combining of the two halves as a model, Guest claims that the "For" verses explore religion with a "personal tone" and the "Let" are "unambiguous" and deal with public matters. Jeanne Walker goes further than Guest and reinforced Bond's claims that the "Let " and "For" sections are reminiscent of the Hebrew tradition when she states that the purpose of the poems, as with the Hebrew poems, is to "iterate both present and future simultaneously, that is, they redeem time."

In Jubilate Agno, Smart describes his writing as creating "impressions". To accomplish this task, he incorporated puns and onomatopoeia in order to emphasize the theological significance of his poetic language. Jubilate Agno reflects an abandonment of traditional poetic structures in order to explore complex religious thought. His "Let" verses join creation together as he seemingly writes his own version of Biblical poetry. Smart, in Jubilate Agno, plays on words and the meaning behind words in order to participate with the divine that exists within language. This is most exemplified when the poet says, "For I pray the Lord Jesus to translate my MAGNIFICAT into verse and represent it" (B43), where the image of the Magnificat connects Christopher Smart to Mary and her praise of God before giving birth to Jesus, the future savior.

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