While his fellows were haunting the house of mirth, he communed with the mighty dead, or perchance relaxed severer studies by practising on the lute.

In the riot of the university life George Herbert had no share. In 1615 he became a Master of Arts, and in 1619 Orator for the University. Knowing the snare a university so often proves to the susceptible heart of youth, his mother recommended him to the special charge of the Master of the College, Dr Nevil, then Dean of Canterbury. His classical attainments, especially in Greek, secured his election, at the early age of 15, to Trinity College, Cambridge. At the age of 12, Herbert entered Westminster School, where, under the tuition of the masters of that institution, he shone no less in wit than wisdom.

Their language remains fresh and inspiring today.The father of George Herbert dying when the poet was but 4 years old, the discipline and education of the children (7 sons, the eldest being Lord Cherbury) devolved upon his mother, a woman celebrated at once for her beauty and her worth, who devoted herself with the most zealous care to the godly upbringing of her family.

They combine a profound spirituality with a restless experimentation. The poems of his final years, written while as a clergyman at Bemerton near Salisbury, are like nothing else in literature. Remarkably, none of his work was published in his lifetime. Despite living for only 40 years, his stock as a poet has risen and risen. 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.George Herbert was born on the 3d April 1593, at the ancient seat of the family, Montgomery Castle, (Trefaldwyn), Powys, Wales. 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. Herbert experimented brilliantly with a remarkable variety of forms, from hymns and sonnets to pattern poems, the shapes of which reveal their subjects. Though he is a profoundly religious poet, even secular readers respond to his quiet intensity and exuberant inventiveness, which are amply showcased in this selection.

George Herbert (1593-1633) has come to be one of the most admired of the metaphysical poets.

George herbert poetry book