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The Essential Herbert
Poems deal with serenity, gratitude, frustration, anger, rebellion, grief, deprivation, hope, and joy
170 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 1987
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About the author
George Herbert
502 books140 followersGeorge Herbert (1593-1633) was a Welsh-born English poet and orator. Herbert's poetry is associated with the writings of the metaphysical poets, and he is recognized as "a pivotal figure: enormously popular, deeply and broadly influential, and arguably the most skillful and important British devotional lyricist."
Born into an artistic and wealthy family, Herbert received a good education that led to his admission in 1609 as a student at Trinity College, Cambridge, Herbert excelled in languages, rhetoric and music. He went to university with the intention of becoming a priest, but when eventually he became the University's Public Orator he attracted the attention of King James I and may well have seen himself as a future Secretary of State. In 1624 and briefly in 1625 he served in Parliament. Never a healthy man, he died of consumption at the early age of 39.
Born into an artistic and wealthy family, Herbert received a good education that led to his admission in 1609 as a student at Trinity College, Cambridge, Herbert excelled in languages, rhetoric and music. He went to university with the intention of becoming a priest, but when eventually he became the University's Public Orator he attracted the attention of King James I and may well have seen himself as a future Secretary of State. In 1624 and briefly in 1625 he served in Parliament. Never a healthy man, he died of consumption at the early age of 39.
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August 6, 2020
'Sblood! God's bodykins!
Herbert should be at least three times as well known as he is, a balm for the religious and a beacon for the heathens among us (*wink, wink.*)
His poetry's psychological hurricane of faith and doubt, devotion and pain, related to God is so powerful that it can shake, momentarily, even the secular into giving the question of the existence of God a second look.
These works are the definition of "personal." No artifice. Or, rather, Herbert channels all the poetic artifice into having a proper conversation with Him. Indeed, his addresses to God are so intimate, that in reading about his spiritual torture you begin to feel that you've opened a diary you shouldn't have or that you've intruded on someone naked in their bed or howling in the dark. Now tiptoe away, and close the door slowly behind you...
Herbert should be at least three times as well known as he is, a balm for the religious and a beacon for the heathens among us (*wink, wink.*)
"O what a cunning guest
Is this same grief! within my heart I made
Closets; and in them many a chest;
And, like a master in my trade,
In those chests, boxes; in each box, a till:
Yet grief knows all, and enters when he will."
-from Confession
His poetry's psychological hurricane of faith and doubt, devotion and pain, related to God is so powerful that it can shake, momentarily, even the secular into giving the question of the existence of God a second look.
These works are the definition of "personal." No artifice. Or, rather, Herbert channels all the poetic artifice into having a proper conversation with Him. Indeed, his addresses to God are so intimate, that in reading about his spiritual torture you begin to feel that you've opened a diary you shouldn't have or that you've intruded on someone naked in their bed or howling in the dark. Now tiptoe away, and close the door slowly behind you...
Displaying 1 of 1 review