Category Archives: Poetry and Novels

The Second “Affliction” of George Herbert

I have not written about the poems of George Herbert in over a year, so I will have a go during this Advent, perhaps Herbert wrote once or twice, perhaps more. We shall see. Herbert wrote no fewer than five … Continue reading

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Resurrection: Another Advent with Herbert

Today’s poem, like yesterday’s, is a two-parter, and there is a well-documented evolution of it in the two manuscripts known to scholars as “W” and “B”. The changes are well described well by Drury (pp. 142-143) who likes this poem … Continue reading

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Start with his Death: Another Advent with Herbert

George Herbert (1593-1633) was a Welsh-born English poet, the younger son of a wealthy family that owned much land. As a younger son he had minimal expectation of inheriting any of it so long as his elder brother Richard lived … Continue reading

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Another Advent with Herbert: The Poems So Far

In Lent 2019 and Advent 2021 I blogged on poems from the Rev’d George Herbert (1593-1633). I did this primarily as my own seasonal discipline, a devotion which might be of interest to others. As it turns out, some of … Continue reading

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Of Christ’s Inn and Shepherds

An Advent Retreat with George Herbert, Day Twenty: Christmas Eve George Herbert wrote a poem named Christmas and so we will close our Advent retreat with it, anticipating the late evening Christ Mass and the celebration on Christmas Day. Christmas … Continue reading

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Anthropoangelic Praise

An Advent Retreat with George Herbert, Day Nineteen: Thursday after the Fourth Sunday of Advent As we approach Christmas we should turn to praise. Here is another poem named Antiphon, by which Herbert means a chorus sung by two choirs … Continue reading

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Form and Content: “Trinity Sunday”

An Advent Retreat with George Herbert, Day Eighteen: Wednesday after the Fourth Sunday of Advent To demonstrate that Herbert was not a true Puritan, one need only look at his poems on feast days. He wrote about Good Friday, Easter, … Continue reading

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Mr Herbert’s Sunday Service

An Advent Retreat with George Herbert, Day Seventeen: Tuesday after the Fourth Sunday of Advent Struck by yesterday’s poem The Agony I raised the question about what kind of churchmanship Herbert belonged to. Following the Restoration his The Country Parson … Continue reading

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The Cost of Sweating Blood

An Advent Retreat with George Herbert, Day Sixteen: Monday after the Fourth Sunday of Advent Enough with difficult Greek poems, today we return to the sequence near the beginning of The Temple. As with the previous four poems, it deals … Continue reading

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“When I Mourn My Mother, I Do So In Ancient Greek”

An Advent Retreat with George HerbertDay Fifteen: Saturday after the Third Sunday of Advent And now for something completely different: a poem, not from The Temple but from one of the other published works by George Herbert – in Greek! … Continue reading

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