The English Poems Of George Herbert

George Herbert combined the intellectual and the spiritual, the humble and the divine, to create some of the most moving devotional poetry in the English language. His deceptively simple verse uses the ingenious arguments typical of seventeenth-century 'metaphysical' poets, and unusual imagery drawn from musical structures, the natural world and domestic activity to explore a mosaic of Biblical themes. From the wit and wordplay of 'The Pulley' and the formal experimentation of 'Easter Wings' and 'Paradise', to the intense, highly personal relationship between man and God portrayed in 'The Collar' and 'Redemption', the works collected here show the transcendental power of divine love.

The definitive scholarly edition of Herbert's complete English poems, accompanied by extensive explanatory and textual apparatus, a glossary of key words and an index of biblical quotations. The text is meticulously annotated with historical, literary and biblical information, as well as modern critical contexts.

This “powerfully absorbing” biography of 17th century Welsh poet George Herbert brings essential personal and social context to his immortal poetry (Financial Times). Though he never published any of his English poems during his lifetime, George Herbert has been celebrated for centuries as one of the greatest religious poets in the language. In this richly perceptive biography, author and theologian John Drury integrates Herbert’s poems fully into his life, enriching our understanding of both the poet’s mind and his work. As Drury writes in his preface, Herbert lived “a quiet life with a crisis in the middle of it.” Beginning with his early academic success, Drury chronicles the life of a man who abandons the path to a career at court and chooses to devote himself to the restoration of a church in Huntingdonshire and lives out his life as a country parson. Because Herbert’s work was only published posthumously, it has always been difficult to know when or in what context he wrote his poems. But Drury skillfully places readings of the poems into his narrative, allowing us to appreciate not only Herbert’s frame of mind while writing, but also the society that produced it. He reveals the occasions of sorrow, happiness, regret, and hope that Herbert captured in his poetry and that led T. S. Eliot to write, “What we can confidently believe is that every poem . . . is true to the poet’s experience.” “It is hard to imagine a better book for anyone, general reader or seventeenth-century aficionado or teacher or student, newly embarking on Herbert.”—The Guardian, UK

George Herbert (1593-1633) is widely regarded as the greatest devotional poet in the English language. His profound influence can be seen in the lasting popularity of his verse. This selection of one hundred lyric poems by Herbert is designed for readers to enjoy the beauty, spirituality, accessibility and humanity of his best verse. Each poem uses the authoritative text from the acclaimed Cambridge edition of Herbert's poems, presenting them in their original spelling in a clear and elegant format. The selection includes such well-loved lyric verses as 'Love bade me welcome', 'Let all the world in ev'ry corner sing', 'I struck the board and cry'd, No more' and 'Sweet day, so cool, so calm, so bright'. A preface by Helen Wilcox, editor of the Cambridge edition, celebrates the key features of Herbert's poetry for a new generation of readers.

A wonderful edition of Herbert's poetry, edited by his acclaimed biographer John Drury and including elegant new translations of his Latin verse by Victoria Moul. George Herbert wrote, but never published, some of the very greatest English poetry, recording in an astonishing variety of forms his inner experiences of grief, recovery, hope, despair, anger, fulfilment and - above all else - love. This volume, edited by John Drury, collects Herbert's complete poetry - including such classics of English devotional poetry as 'The Altar', Easter-Wings' and 'Love'. It also includes the verse Herbert wrote in Latin, newly translated into English by Victoria Moul. George Herbert was born in 1593 and died at the age of 39 in 1633, before the clouds of civil war gathered. He showed worldly ambition and seemed sure of high public office and a career at court, but then for a time 'lost himself in a humble way', devoting himself to the restoration of a church and then to his parish of Bemerton, three miles from Salisbury. When in the year of his death his friend Nicholas Ferrar published Herbert's poems under the title The Temple, his fame was quickly established. John Drury is Chaplain and Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford. His books include The Burning Bush (1990), Painting the Word (1999), and, most recently, Music at Midnight, the culmination of a lifetime's interest in Herbert. Victoria Moul is Lecturer in Latin Literature and Language at Kings College London. She is author of Jonson, Horace and the Classical Tradition (2010) and editor of Neo-Latin Literature (2014).

The English Poems of George Herbert, Together with His Collection of Proverbs Entitled Jacula by George Herbert. This book is a reproduction of the original book published in 1902 and may have some imperfections such as marks or hand-written notes.