Ash Wednesday

The speaker presents himself as penitent, that is, someone who is repentant and sorrowful regarding what he views as his sins and asks God for forgiveness. He hopes that God will hear his prayers and not condemn him always to remain separate or cut off from the divine realm.

The penitential note is perhaps most apparent in Part I. The second half of Part I touches on a number of elements in the Christian faith, including prayer, sin, judgment, and mercy. The final two lines, for example, not only invoke prayer but also echo the Christian liturgy (i.e., services and rituals that take place in church) in their solemn plea for mercy: “Pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death / Pray for us now and at the hour of our death” (Lines 40-41). These lines are a direct allusion to the “Hail Mary” prayer of Catholic and Anglo-Catholic tradition. In the poem, they are addressed to an as-yet unidentified figure who is asked to act as an intercessor between humanity and God both in the present moment and at the time of death, when the judgment of God will become apparent.

The speaker represents himself as being in a state of self-abnegation, a turning away from the self toward God.