‘You must sit down,’ says Love, ‘and taste my meat.’Īdapted from The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church ‘And know you not,’ says Love, ‘Who bore the blame?’ ‘Truth, Lord but I have marr’d them: let my shame ‘A guest,’ I answer’d, ‘worthy to be here:’ LOVE bade me welcome yet my soul drew back,īut quick-eyed Love, observing me grow slack No poem better captures that meaning than this one, rich with eucharistic meaning and entitled, “Love”: Herbert himself described his poems as “a picture of the many spiritual conflicts that have passed betwixt God and my soul, before I could submit mine to the will of Jesus my Master in whose service I have found perfect freedom.” The grace, power, and metaphysical imagery of his poetry would influence the poetry of Henry Vaughn, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and Gerard Manley Hopkins, as well as the hymns of Charles Wesley. Herbert was a man of deep Christian conviction and remarkable poetic gifts, with a mastery of both meter and metaphor. Two of his poems are well known hymns: “Teach me, my God and King” and “Let all the world in every corner sing”. The poems received their publication in 1633, after Herbert’s death. On his deathbed, Herbert entrusted his collection of poems entitled The Temple to Nicholas Ferrar.
Herbert portrays the parson as a well-read divine, temperate in all things, a man of duty and prayer, and devoted to his flock, providing a model for future generations of clergy.
Unselfish in his devotion and service to others, Walton writes that many of Herbert’s parishioners “let their plow rest when Mr Herbert’s saints-bell rung to prayers, that they might also offer their devotion to God with him.” His most famous prose work, A Priest in the Temple or The Country Parson describes a well-balanced ideal of the English parish priest. Herbert is portrayed by his biographer Izaak Walton as a model of the saintly parish priest. In 1630 he was ordained to the presbyterate and was persuaded by (then Bishop) William Laud to accept the rectory of Fugglestone with Bemerton, near Salisbury, where in humble devotion to duty he spent the rest of his life. Marked by his success for the career of the courtier, the death of King James and the influence of his friend, Nicholas Ferrar, led him to study divinity, and in 1626 he took holy orders. He became Public Orator of the University in 1620, bringing him into contact with the Court of King James the First. The younger Herbert received his education at Westminster School and Trinity College, Cambridge, where his classical scholarship secured him a Fellowship in 1614. George Herbert was born in 1593, a member of an ancient family, younger brother of Edward, Lord Herbert of Cherbury, a philosopher and poet.
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