In seventeenth-century England the poet George Herbert became known as `Divine Herbert', his poetry a model for those aspiring to the status of inspired Christian poet. This book explores the relationship between the poetry of George Herbert and the concept of divine inspiration rooted in devotional texts of the time.
Dr. Elizabeth Clarke is Reader in English at the University of Warwick. She is author of Theory and Theology in George Herbert's Poetry (Oxford University Press, 1997) and has just finished a study in versions of the Song of Songs in seventeenth-century England. She was director of the Perdita Project for early modern women's manuscripts and is currently directing a British Academy-funded project on the life-writing of Elizabeth Isham (1608-1654).