Herbert Poems

Description

George Herbert (1593-1633) has come to be one of the most admired of the metaphysical poets. Though a profoundly religious poet, even secular readers respond to his quiet intensity and exuberant inventiveness, which are amply showcased in this selection. Herbert experimented brilliantly with a remarkable variety of forms, from hymns and sonnets to "pattern poems," the shape of which reveal their subjects. Such technical agility never seems ostentatious, however, for precision of language and expression of genuine feeling were the primary concerns of this poet who admonished his readers to "dare to be true." An Anglican priest who took his calling with deep seriousness, he brought to his work a religious reverence richly allied with a playful wit and with literary and musical gifts of the highest order. His best-loved poems, from "The Collar" and "Jordan" to "The Altar" and "Easter Wings," achieve a perfection of form and feeling, a rare luminosity, and a timeless metaphysical grandeur.

I593 Herbert born (3 April) in Montgomery in Wales, the fifth son of Richard and Magdalen Herbert. Izaak Walton born. Death of Marlowe. Hooker's Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Polity (Books I-IV) published. I595 Sidney's Apologie for Poetrie and Spenser's Amoretti and Epithalamion published. Midsummer Night's Dream first (?) acted; also Richard II. I596 Herbert's father dies; survived by his wife Magdalen, seven sons, and three daughters. The eldest son Edward matriculates at University College, Oxford. Spenser's Faerie Queene (Books IV-VI) published; also his Four Hymns. The Merchant of Venice first (?) acted. I597 Bacon's first ten Essays published. I599 Edward Herbert marries a cousin, Mary Herbert. Oliver Cromwell born. Death of Spenser. Julius Caesar and Henry V first acted. I600 Death of Hooker. Fairfax's translation of Tasso published. Hamlet first (?) acted. I60I Execution of Essex. Lancelot Andrewes appointed Dean of Westminster. Donne marries Anne More. Twelfth Night first (?) acted. I603 Death of Elizabeth I; accession of James I. The Millenary Petition. I604 Richard Bancroft appointed Archbishop. The Hampton Court Conference. Othello first acted. I605 Herbert attends Westminster School. Bacon's Advancement of Learning published. The Gunpowder Plot. Sir Thomas Browne born. I606 Macbeth, Jonson's Volpone and Tourneur's Revenger's Tragedy first (?) acted. I608 Milton born. Robert Cecil created Earl of Salisbury, appointed Lord Treasurer. Sylvester's translation of Du Bartas: Ist complete edition. Herbert's mother marries Sir John Danvers. I609 Herbert matriculates at Trinity College, Cambridge Spenser's Faerie Queene: Ist folio edition. Shakespeare's Sonnets published. I6I0 Jonson's Alchemist first acted; also Shakespeare's Winter's Tale (I6II). Galileo reports on his telescopic view of the heavens. I6II George Abbot appointed Archbishop. The King James ('Authorized') Version of the Bible published. The Tempest first (?) acted. Chapman's Iliad completed. I6I2 Death of the heir apparent Prince Henry; Herbert contributes two memorial poems in Latin, his first verses to be published. Death of Salisbury. Robert Carr, later Earl of Somerset, in favour. I6I3 Princess Elizabeth marries Frederick Elector Palatine. Sir Thomas Overbury murdered. Crashaw born. Nicholas Ferrar visits the Continent (to I6I8). I6I4 Ralegh's History of the World published. Webster's Duchess of Malfi first (?) acted. I6I5 Donne ordained. George Villiers, later Duke of Buckingham, in favour. I6I6 Death of Shakespeare. Herbert elected major fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. Jonson's Works published. I6I7 Death of Donne's wife. I6I8 Herbert appointed Reader in Rhetoric at Cambridge. Ralegh executed. Bacon appointed Lord Chancellor. Cowley born. I6I9 Edward Herbert appointed ambassador in Paris. Lancelot Andrewes appointed Bishop of Winchester. I620 Herbert elected Public Orator at Cambridge (to I628). Settlement of first New England colony by the Pilgrim Fathers. Bacon's Novum Organum published. I62I Bacon impeached. Donne appointed Dean of St. Paul's. Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy published. Marvell born. I622 Henry Vaughan born. I623 The Ist Shakespeare Folio published. I624 Herbert elected to represent Montgomery in Parliament (also in I625). Edward Herbert's De veritate published in Paris. I625 Death of James I; accession of Charles I who marries Henrietta Maria of France. Outbreak of Plague. Nicholas Ferrar settles at Little Gidding in Huntingdonshire. Bacon dedicates his Translation of Certaine Psalmes to Herbert. Death of Webster. I626 Herbert presented to a prebend in Huntingdonshire; four miles from Little Gidding. Death of Bacon; Herbert contributes a memorial poem in Latin. Death of Lancelot Andrewes. John Aubrey born. I627 Death of Herbert's mother; the funeral sermon, delivered by Donne, was accompanied when published by commemorative poems including Herbert's Memoriae Matris sacrum. I628 Buckingham assasinated. William Harvey's discovery of the circulation of the blood published. Bunyan born. I629 Marriage of Herbert to his stepfather's cousin Jane Danvers. Edward Herbert elevated to the peerage as Lord Herbert of Cherbury. Lancelot Andrewes' XCVI Sermons published. I630 Herbert instituted to the rectory at Bemerton near Salisbury in April; ordained priest in September. Prince Charles (later Charles II) born. Emigrations to New England (I630 ff.). I63I Death of Donne. Dryden born. I632 Crashaw visits Little Gidding (I632 ff.). I633 Charles I visits Little Gidding. William Laud appointed Archbishop. Donne's Poems published. I March: Herbert's death, of consumption, just before his fortieth birthday