For each of these images is in its own way a little poem, or the seed of a poem, ready to grow and unfold in the readers mind. He introduces the poem by describing it asĪ kind of rainbow refraction of many insights, a scattering of many seeds broadcast. Malcolm Guite has an insightful reflection on this poem over on his blog. ~extract from The English Poems of George Herbert (). Softnesse, and peace, and joy, and love, and blisse,Ĭhurch-bels beyond the starres heard, the souls bloud,

The six-daies world transposing in an houre,Ī kinde of tune, which all things heare and fear Reversed thunder, Christ-side-piercing spear, The Christian plummet sounding heav’n and earth Įngine against th’ Almightie, sinners towre, The soul in paraphrase, heart in pilgrimage, Gods breath in man returning to his birth, Some of his hymns are still sung in churches today (e.g., ‘The God of love my Shepherd is’, ‘Let all the world in every corner sing’, and ‘Teach me, my God and King’). Throughout The Temple there are dense allusions both to scripture and to other poems within the collection. It is a brilliant masterpiece whose poems can be read individually (that is, as a collection of self-contained poems) or as a larger, longer work complete with thematic development as one progresses through the poems. His collection of poetry, which he gave to his friend Nicholas Ferrar on his deathbed, is titled The Temple. His insights in this book find richly suggestive connections in some of his poems on the same topic. The prose work is titled A Priest to the Temple or The Country Parson and it lays out his thoughts on the ministerial vocation. He is best known today from two significant works, one prose and one poetry. Lewis are just a few names (more could be added) of people who have acknowledged their literary debt to Herbert and that’s not to mention contemporary poets such as Luci Shaw or Malcom Guite. Henry Vaughan, Charles Wesley, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Gerard Manley Hopkins and C. Herbert’s prose and poetry has left a lasting influence on others.

A Lesser Feast is dedicated to George Herbert in the Anglican Communion church calendar, celebrated on 27 February (hence, this blog post :)).

This fact is a remarkable demonstration of his characteristic refusal to seek self-aggrandizement in life.

All of George Herbert’s poetry was composed privately, not being published until after his death.

1633–Herbert struggled with Tuberculosis and eventually dies after a just a few years of pastoral ministry in the church.

1630–Herbert ordained as priest in the Church of England.

1625–King James I dies, consequently Herbert decides return to his original intentions for ministry in the church.

1624–Served in politics as MP in Parliament.

Held several academic posts in Cambridge, including a Fellowship at Trinity, appointed as Reader in Rhetoric, and then Public Orator.

A priest to the temple george herbert