A moment of preparation Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Cemeteries (and other burial sites) are earthly sanctuaries for the fragile remains of one's mortal existence. Wandering these grounds can be a peaceful and sacred experience. Some individuals speak to the graves and if you listen carefully, you may hear them whispering back. In Herbert's poem, Church Monuments, which could serve as prayer lines, the speaker feels at peace in such an environment as he contemplates his own death while walking in his sacred future burial place. In various religions and in the Bible we can find parallels with this poem. This poem has 24 lines, which could be parallel to the 24 hours that make up a day. This is significant to the poem because of the importance of time passing and the temporal state of the body in mortality. In Ecclesiastes 12:7 it says that the body is a temporary vessel for the spirit before it returns to God again. As time passes, the body becomes thinner, but remains firmly attached to the soul within it. The first three lines of the first stanza present the two main themes of the poem: religious devotion and the symbiosis between body and soul. We are then introduced to the speaker. He appears to be an old man preparing for his soul's journey to the afterlife. In almost all religions, there is a spiritual journey involved in preparing to face the afterlife. For the ancient Egyptians, death was the catalyst for rebirth. It was their road to the afterlife. They physically prepared for this through the special preservation of their body (the fascinating process of mummification) and through keeping their worldly possessions with them in an elaborate tomb. Some of their ideas were no different from those of Christian beliefs; there are some broad parallels. The Egyptians, like the author of this poem, did not fear death. They knew that if they were properly prepared, they could face it with comfort and confidence. The speaker stops at a grave and admits that one day, soon, he too will be buried there. In a way, he's getting acquainted with his grave, so he knows what to expect when death comes to claim him. He can sense that death is approaching his door; the time is near. Death goes on because it is “[f]ed with the exhalation of our crimes” (line 5). This phrase says that without sin, death would have no purpose. The more we sin, the stronger the hold death has on our souls. Over the course of life, these sins take their toll, inviting death to claim its toll. For the speaker, "his bones are full of the sins of his youth, and they will lie with him in the dust" (Job 20:11). This verse tries to convey that if we do not seek absolution for our sins before we die, we will take them to the grave. They will be tied behind us when we face God on judgment day. This is a common belief in most Christian faiths. The second stanza discusses the importance of a grave and what will happen there. Although they serve as a dignified symbol of remembrance and a link between the living and the dead, monuments are not eternal. They too are dust and are a mere materialistic barrier between earth and body. They too will crumble to dust sooner or later, but the speaker entrusts his body to the grave and knows that it will be safe there. He will be able to find comfort under the “heraldry and dusty lines” engraved on the tombstone because he knows that death is part of the course of nature and God's plan (line 9). Ecclesiastes 12:7 confirms this when it says, "Then the dust will return to the earth as it was before, and the spirit will return to God who made it.". 2015.