George Herbert was born into a wealthy family in Wales. His father died when he was young, so his mother raised him and his siblings. She was a devout woman and was determined to raise them in the Church of England. Herbert's mother was so respected by the famous poet John Donne that he dedicated poems to her. Herbert received the best possible education, attending Trinity College, Cambridge in 1609. He was then hired as a high-profile representative of Cambridge. During this time he caught the attention of King James I and worked in the Parliament of England for a short period. After King James died, Herbert gave up on this public career. He took holy orders and was ordained as an Anglican priest, becoming the rector of a small church near Salisbury, Bemerton. He spent the last years of his life writing poetry and serving this small church community before dying of consumption at the age of 39.
Herbert is known as a poet of devotional verse. His poems focus on religious experience. Some of his most well-known poems are "The Altar" and "Easter Wings"—both pattern poems that are laid out on the page to resemble what they describe. He is best known for the short lyric poems from his single book of poetry The Temple. Because of the strange and unexpected images he used, he is sometimes known as a "metaphysical poet" alongside Donne and Andrew Marvell. In addition to writing in English, Herbert also wrote poems in Latin.
While Herbert's poems received praise during his lifetime and in subsequent centuries, he reached new critical acclaim in the 20th century, in part because of T. S. Eliot's praise of him and others in his essay "The Metaphysical Poets" and his book George Herbert. Herbert's strange imagery and poems shaped like objects were seen as uniquely inventive. He is still admired today for both the complexity of his perspective on Christianity, as well as the complexity of his poetry.
“Affliction I” is one of 17th-century English poet George Herbert’s most memorable and loved poems. Herbert was a Welsh poet and priest. His single collection of poems, known as The Temple, was published in 1633 after his early death at the age of...
“The Altar” is a pattern poem, also known as a “hieroglyphic” poem. These are poems shaped like the thing they describe: in this case, an altar. The first known pattern poems were written in Ancient Greek between 325 BCE and 200 CE. While other...
“The Collar” appears in George Herbert’s collection of poetry The Temple, published in 1633. The poem likely draws on Biblical sources including the parable of the prodigal son (Luke xv 11-32). It is unique among the poems in The Temple for its...
“Easter Wings” is perhaps 17th-century English poet George Herbert’s most beloved poem. It is famous for its shape: the words on the page are arranged like a pair of wings. Besides “Easter Wings,” Herbert is also well-known for a second...
George Herbert, born in 1593, was a busy man: he served two terms as a member of Parliament, held the post of public orator at Trinity College, was ordained as a deacon, and as canon of the Lincoln Cathedral, he worked to become a pious servant of...
“Love (III)” is the final poem in George Herbert’s 1633 volume The Temple, Sacred Poems and Private Ejaculations. In this volume, "Love (I)" discusses the difference between divine and mortal love, while "Love (II)" prays to God for the speaker to...
"Prayer (I)" is a sonnet from Hebert’s The Temple. “Prayer (I)” is a sonnet that can be viewed as a series of phrases describing and elaborating on the concept of Christian prayer. As a sonnet, it places itself in the tradition of love poetry. The...
