Softness, and peace, and joy, and love, and bliss,Ĭhurch-bells beyond the stars heard, the soul's blood, The six-days world transposing in an hour,Ī kind of tune, which all things hear and fear

Reversed thunder, Christ-side-piercing spear, The Christian plummet sounding heav'n and earthĮngine against th' Almighty, sinner's tow'r, The soul in paraphrase, heart in pilgrimage, God's breath in man returning to his birth, Prayer the church's banquet, angel's age, Or try 'Prayer,' with its enraptured cavalcade of golden metaphors mimicking the medieval world picture: Sweet spring, full of sweet days and roses, For a taste of his formal mastery, sample the small jewel 'Virtue,' whose stunning crystalline purity makes it perhaps the most perfect lyric ever written in English (only a supremely gifted poet could repeat one word so much in such a short poem and make it work): If the truest task of the Christian artist is to cloak the verities of Scripture and the experience of the church in the beauty and delight of a sanctified imagination, then indeed Herbert is up there with Bach. But if he were merely a great devotional poet, he would not have survived: his musical ear and command of the language is capable of impressing even the most hardhearted skeptic. No poet makes me more grateful for the blessing of faith than him. Herbert's poetry is the equivalent of Bach's cantatas: an endlessly exploratory yet infinitely orthodox wellspring of sacred feeling that richly illuminates the wonders of the church year. Here's a beautiful performance by baritone Carl Frank.

Most or all of the poetry in this volume is religious (Christian) and some of his works have been made into hymns, including this, one of my favorites, a love-ballad, later set to a haunting melody by British composer Vaughan Williams (1872-1958). His life overlapped with Shakespeare's but their work could not be more different. Formally, Herbert was very creative inventing not only new forms and rhyme schemes but sometimes 'shaped poems' such as 'Easter Wings,' in which the text is printed vertically rather than left-to-right and forms the shape of a butterfly. George Herbert (1593-1633) wrote unique poetry, often short and seemingly simple but hiding layers of complexity and symbolism. 'Renaissance Literature and the Arts,' where I encountered this poet, was one of my favorite and most memorable college courses.

George herbert poetry book