- Born:
- April 3, 1593, Montgomery Castle, Wales
- Died:
- March 1, 1633, Bemerton, Wiltshire, Eng. (aged 39)
- Notable Works:
- “Easter Wings”
- Movement / Style:
- Metaphysical poets
- Notable Family Members:
- brother Edward Herbert, 1st Baron Herbert of Cherbury
George Herbert
-
Who was George Herbert?
George Herbert (1593–1633) was a significant English religious and metaphysical poet known for his purity of language. The younger brother of Edward Herbert, he foreshadowed his devotion to sacred verse by dedicating sonnets to his mother on the theme that divine love is more fitting for poetry than romantic love.
Educated at Westminster School and Trinity College, Cambridge, he became the university orator in 1620, engaging with the court. By 1625, he turned to the church, becoming a deacon and, later, rector at Bemerton in 1630. Throughout his life, Herbert wrote poems and sent them in manuscript form to Nicholas Ferrar, who published them in 1633 under the title The Temple: Sacred Poems and Private Ejaculations.
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What is George Herbert best known for?
George Herbert (1593–1633) is best known as a major English religious poet and a significant figure among the metaphysical poets. His poetry stands out for its purity, the effectiveness of his word choice, and the use of common language in the rhythms of speech.
Herbert's poems, including those in The Temple: Sacred Poems and Private Ejaculations, explore his spiritual conflicts and doctrinal themes. Some of his poems, like "The Altar" and "Easter Wings," are "pattern" poems, where the lines are arranged to form the shape of the subject.
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What kind of poetry did George Herbert write?
George Herbert was a major metaphysical poet, known for his purity and effective word choice. His poems often explored the spiritual conflicts between himself and God. Herbert's work, exemplified in The Temple: Sacred Poems and Private Ejaculations, includes personal and doctrinal themes, as well as those related to church ritual.
Herbert's poetry shares common language and speech rhythms with that of John Donne. Some of Herbert's poems, such as "The Altar" and "Easter Wings," are pattern poems, where the lines are arranged to form the shape of the subject. He was a master of metrical form and verse. Metaphysical poetry is highly intellectualized and marked by complexity, incongruous imagery, subtlety of thought, paradox, and deliberate harshness or rigidity of expression.
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How did George Herbert's religious beliefs influence his poems?
George Herbert's profound religious beliefs deeply shaped his poetry. His poems are known for their purity, effectiveness, and exploration of his spiritual conflicts. Herbert described his poems as a "picture of the many spiritual conflicts that have passed between God and my soul, before I could subject mine to the will of Jesus, my Master, in whose service I have now found perfect freedom".
His collection The Temple includes personal and doctrinal poems reflecting church rituals. Herbert's use of common language and speech rhythms, along with his mastery of metrical form, allowed him to convey his faith with sincerity. Despite facing critical disapproval alongside other metaphysical poets until the 20th century, his work remained popular among readers.
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What are some of George Herbert’s most famous poems?
George Herbert, a prominent metaphysical poet, is celebrated for his religious poems and skillful use of language. His collection, The Temple: Sacred Poems and Private Ejaculations, published in 1633, contains many of his notable works.
Some of Herbert's famous poems include "The Altar" and "Easter Wings," which are pattern poems where the lines are arranged to visually represent the subject. The Temple also features doctrinal poems such as "The Church Porch" and "The Church Militant". Herbert's poetry is known for its purity, effectiveness, and use of common language.
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How has George Herbert’s poetry influenced other writers or literature?
George Herbert, a major metaphysical poet, is known for his pure and effective word choice. His poems, including those in The Temple: Sacred Poems and Private Ejaculations, explore spiritual conflicts and doctrinal and church ritual themes.
Herbert's influence is seen in his use of common language and speech rhythms, similar to John Donne. Though he faced critical disapproval until the 20th century, his work remained popular. Samuel Taylor Coleridge praised Herbert's diction as "pure, manly, and unaffected". Herbert's versatility in metrical form also stands out. His work, along with A Priest to the Temple, showcases his impact on religious and literary thought.
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George Herbert (born April 3, 1593, Montgomery Castle, Wales—died March 1, 1633, Bemerton, Wiltshire, Eng.) was an English religious poet, a major metaphysical poet, notable for the purity and effectiveness of his choice of words.
A younger brother of Edward Herbert, 1st Baron Herbert of Cherbury, a notable secular metaphysical poet, George in 1610 sent his mother for New Year’s two sonnets on the theme that the love of God is a fitter subject for verse than the love of woman, a foreshadowing of his poetic and vocational bent.
Educated at home, at Westminster School, and at Trinity College, Cambridge, he was in 1620 elected orator of the university, a position that he described as “the finest place in the university.” His two immediate predecessors in the office had risen to high positions in the state, and Herbert was much involved with the court. During Herbert’s academic career, his only published verse was that written for special occasions in Greek and Latin. By 1625 Herbert’s sponsors at court were dead or out of favour, and he turned to the church, being ordained deacon. He resigned as orator in 1627 and in 1630 was ordained priest and became rector at Bemerton. He became friends with Nicholas Ferrar, who had founded a religious community at nearby Little Gidding, and devoted himself to his rural parish and the reconstruction of his church. Throughout his life he wrote poems, and from his deathbed he sent a manuscript volume to Ferrar, asking him to decide whether to publish or destroy them. Ferrar published them with the title The Temple: Sacred Poems and Private Ejaculations in 1633.
Herbert described his poems as “a picture of the many spiritual conflicts that have passed between God and my soul, before I could subject mine to the will of Jesus, my Master, in whose service I have now found perfect freedom.” Herbert shares his conflicts with John Donne, the archetypal metaphysical poet and a family friend. As well as personal poems, The Temple includes doctrinal poems, notably “The Church Porch,” the first in the volume, and the last, “The Church Militant.” Other poems are concerned with church ritual.
The main resemblance of Herbert’s poems to Donne’s is in the use of common language in the rhythms of speech. Some of his poems, such as “The Altar” and “Easter Wings,” are “pattern” poems, the lines forming the shape of the subject, a practice Joseph Addison in the 18th century called “false wit.” Samuel Taylor Coleridge in the 19th century wrote of Herbert’s diction, “Nothing can be more pure, manly, and unaffected.” Herbert was a versatile master of metrical form and all aspects of the craft of verse. Though he shared the critical disapproval given the metaphysical poets until the 20th century, he was still popular with readers. Herbert also wrote at Bemerton A Priest to the Temple: Or The Country Parson, his Character and Rule of Life (1652). Herbert’s Works (1941; corrected, 1945), edited by F. Hutchinson, is the standard text.