A Song to David - Classic Text | Alexandria
A Song to David (1763) stands as Christopher Smart's masterpiece of religious poetry, composed during his confinement in St. Luke's Hospital for mental illness. This remarkable work, consisting of 86 stanzas of intricate praise, represents both a pinnacle of 18th-century devotional verse and a fascinating intersection of genius and alleged madness.
Written during Smart's seven-year institutionalization (1757-1763), the poem emerged from a period when the poet was reportedly compelled to pray constantly and would fall to his knees in public spaces—behavior that led to his commitment by his family and friends, including Samuel Johnson. The work's composition coincided with Smart's other significant piece, "Jubilate Agno," though "A Song to David" achieved publication first and received immediate, if mixed, contemporary attention.
The poem's structure reflects both careful craftsmanship and ecstatic vision, organizing praise for King David through multiples of seven—a number of biblical significance. Its verses move through an encyclopedic range of natural phenomena, human knowledge, and divine attributes, building to a crescendo of devotional fervor. Smart's unique fusion of scientific observation with religious rapture particularly emerges in stanzas describing the natural world, presenting what William Empson later termed "mystical rationalism."
The work's influence extends well beyond its century, with modernist poets like W.H. Auden celebrating its innovative technique and visionary quality. Contemporary scholars continue to debate whether Smart's supposed madness enhanced rather than impeded his creative powers, making "A Song to David" a crucial text in discussions of genius, mental illness, and artistic creation. The poem's intricate patterns, botanical precision, and moments of startling clarity challenge simple assumptions about the relationship between rationality and religious experience.
Smart's masterwork remains a testament to the complex intersections of faith, reason, and artistic expression, inviting modern readers to question conventional boundaries between sanity and inspiration. Its enduring influence on religious and secular poetry alike suggests that its mysteries have yet to be fully plumbed.